There are three companies that provide ADSL services in Phuket: CAT, TOT and TT&T.

CAT is the Communications Authority of Thailand, the former government monopoly on international telecommunications. That’s the same company that offers EV-DO wireless broadband internet in Phuket. Their ADSL service is called HiNet. They offer faster lines that TOT and TT&T, but at a price. The trick is that the faster lines aren’t ADSL, but G.SHDSL. G.SHDSL requires a different modem, which you get free from CAT with your subscription.

CAT does not offer telephone lines. To get CAT’s ADSL or G.SHDSL, CAT will need to run a new line to your house. The line is just like a telephone line, except that it only serves ADSL or G.SHDSL. No dialtone. Compare it with running a dedicated line for a fax. Unfortunately, HiNet is only available in the more populated areas of Phuket. Our house is not in range, so I have no personal experience with HiNet. You can sign up for it at the CAT building on Phang Nga Road in Phuket Town, or at the CAT office in Patong.

TT&T and TOT do provide telephone service in Phuket. If you already have a telephone number, you can easily add ADSL to your monthly bill. The ADSL signal runs over the same wires as your voice. A little box called an ADSL splitter makes sure your phone and ADSL modem don’t get into a fight. Both TT&T and TOT give you a free splitter and ADSL modem with your ADSL subscription. Both have offices around Phuket. The easiest ones to find are on the second floor in the Central Festival department store, near Powerbuy. If one company can’t give you service, you can walk right over to the next one. Before you go, ask your neighbors for their telephone numbers, if you don’t have your own number yet. That makes it easy to check whether you can get a line.

Though TT&T and TOT both cover most of Phuket, they haven’t expanded their service in line with Phuket’s (online) population growth. When we moved into our house a few months ago, I found out that people down the street already had TT&T ADSL. When we contacted TT&T, they told us we were in range for ADSL, but they couldn’t even give us a telephone line. The exchange for our area is full.

When we called TOT, they told us we could get a phone line, but that there were no free ADSL ports. We got the phone line for the fax machine. I limped by with an EDGE connection for Internet access while we were on the waiting list for TT&T, TOT and CAT’s EV-DO.

When CAT called us the CCU-680 was in stock, we called TOT to ask if we would be able to get ADSL any time soon. I didn’t want to buy an expensive modem only to get ADSL (with free modem) the next day. After my wife made about half a dozen calls getting told “I dunno–call this guy instead”, I decided to pony up the money for the wireless connection, which has been working great.

Only a week or so after I bought the router to share the wireless connection on our network, we got a call from TOT saying they were coming to install our ADSL line. Typical. Since I depend on a reliable internet connection for my business, and consumer ADSL lines are really cheap now, I figured a backup connection wasn’t a bad idea.

Two days later two TOT technicians came by, plugged in the free ADSL router, and concluded that it didn’t work. Fortunately, they’d brought a spare, which worked fine.

I didn’t blog about this earlier because, aside from various other excuses, I wanted to put the ADSL connection through its paces before judging the quality of the connection. That’ll be my next article. For now, I’ll say that I’m still using both CAT’s EV-DO and TOT’s ADSL.