Possible to get 'guaranteed' 1Mb of intl bandwidth in BKK for under 4K/mth?

[Nutkin]

Hi there, I know this is a well-worn topic and there are heaps of forum posts about TOT, True, CSLox etc and their pitiful internet speeds but I was wondering whether anyone had any success with any BKK ISP's in providing consistently decent speeds of over 1 Meg to intl sites from home withut paying crazy prices?

I currently have TOT 1Mb package which gives fairly reliable speeds of about 800kbs on the Thai network but an avg of only 200kbs to UK/US sites making youtube/tv streaming etc hopeless. I'm about to upgrade to 2Mb to see if that makes a difference. I also subscribe to True visions cable (sadly) and stupidly pay 2K THB/mth to watch nothing but the occasional bit of sport, CNN/BBC so I'm about to cancel this with the theory that I'll put the savings into paying for a decent internet connection, set up a UK VPN account for a UK IP (done), download Zattoo and watch/save streaming TV from bbc iplayer and the like. As expected Zattoo/BBC iplayer grinds to a halt when you try to stream TV on it as they need approx 1Mb of bandwidth to play. My folks in the UK don't have Sky either so I can't set up a slingbox.

It seems the only way to do it is to pay for a decent hi-speed connection. True cable are offering me either 3MB or 5MB packages for 2.5K / 4.5K THB/mth respectively but even at the 5MB package I'm concerned the CAT bottleneck on the international gateways will result in max 500kbs making it a total waste of money. I know that you can get decent intl speeds from BKK as I consistently get about 3MB on intl from work but they probably pay a fortune for a corporate package / dedicated link.

VDSL (whatever that is) is being promoted by True at great speeds but at ridiculous prices. Does anyone know of any other solution to this (I will pay up to 4K/mth if it really works) or are we all stuck with what we've got until there's some healthy competion to CATs IIG monopoly?

Many thanks!!

[mediamanbkk]

VDSL can produce fantastic speeds but it uses standard copper wire telephone cable, if on route it encounters fiber optic cable it slows down dramatically unless a VDSL gateway is installed by the telephone company to convert the signal to light pulses. There are two types of VDSL but they are not compatible.

In theory you should be able to receive HDTV with VDSL

I don't know if True or TOT will support business packages to a private house or apartment but it may be worth asking. Hopefully things will improve soon.