I use(d) GPRS from AIS and DTAC, EDGE from DTAC, and CDMA from Hutch.

Very clearly the winner is Hutch with CDMA.

I can downlaod a > 4 GB DVD with Hutch in 4 days. Try that with Dialup or GPRS! You will not make it, even not in 2 weeks.

Check with Hutch if you get it where you are. The greater Bangkok and all Eastern Seabord is fine, down to Satahip. Craig, this is what you should try first. It gives you about 3 times the speed of dialup, and it works quite reliably, at least by Thai standards. Hutch did sell a PCMCIA wireless card for it, but now it is sold out, they offer a modem which gets connected by USB. Thus you can use it for a notebook and for a desktop PC. About 900 - 1000 baht / month.

Hutch also sells a 2 of its phones with data cables, they will work the same, but more inconvenient, and the batteries of the phones will be empty in about 1 hour of Internet connection.

Sorry, not yet available for Koh Samui or Koh Phangan. But check with Hutch.

Runner up is DTAC with GPRS / EDGE

DTAC will work using GPRS in all Thailand and automatically using EDGE where it is available. This is currently the greater Bangkok and parts of the Eastern Seabord, around Pattaya. The DTAC office in the former World trade center in Bangkok can tell you exactly if the next DTAC tower to your home can do EDGE already.

GPRS and EDGE suffer much more than Hutch's CDMA from a latency and dropped package problem. That's what makes it slower than it theoretically is. EDGE should be faster than Hutch's CDMA, but it is not, it rarely can keep pace with it at downloads, and never at regular browsing. But EDGE is much better than GPRS.

Therefore if you cannot get Hutch's CDMA, try DTAC's GPRS / EDGE. They sell in DTAC office in the former World trade center in Bangkok a Sony Ericson EDGE card for notebooks (around 13000 baht), and this will automatically use EDGE where available, and otherwise GPRS.

I tested it in the deepest Isaan, and on Koh Samui, it works, you can do Email, and slow browsing, but sometimes it cannot load some sites, or freezes at FTP uploads.

I assume it works also on Koh Phangan with GPRS. About 1000 baht per month.

Next is Orange
GPRS only, but you can use some wireless (WIFI) hotspots free in Bangkok and maybe elsewhere. I don't know if they will offer EDGE etc one day. About 1000 baht /month.

Last is AIS
GPRS works as good, or better said as bad as DTAC GPRS. But no option for EDGE, probably never. They f***cked up their network by mixing equipment from different vendors using different technologies. This made the purchasing department guys rich but the network incompatible with EDGE. About 1000 baht /month. They had offers using Sierra Wireless PCMCIA cards.

Plus the service is not as good as Hutch or DTAC.

Do not believe if anybody tells you that you can receive only AIS and not DTAC. In most, if not all cases, you can receive DTAC where ever you can receive AIS. In the deepest Isaan I have seen DTAC being better than AIS myself.

A few (minor) problems with the Hutch arrangement:

1. Have you tried getting sensible information out of a Hutch "sales assistant" lately? The last time I enquired about using Hutch for data over a phone, they spent ten very helpful minutes taking me through the possible arrangements, pricing etc., before telling me the phones I needed are no longer available.

2. As I mention above, Hutch apparently no longer offers the two former top of the Hutch range Sanyo phones that can be used as modems. Both models are a bit long in the tooth, have been discontinued and are no longer imported or stocked by Hutch. A replacement is due in perhaps one or two months. Used examples are available all over the place for about 2000 baht. The cable is about 270 baht new. The USB modem does appear to be a sensible option.

3. I have heard repeated claims about how (relatively) good the Hutch data service is.

4. Some of the PCT phones also allow you to use dial-up internet. If you're in BKK, this may be another, relatively cheap option. I dunno how reliable or fast they are, however.

I use a PCT phone for dial-up networking with my laptop while in Bangkok. Phone cost 1,000 Baht (used) at MBK and the usb modem cable another 600 baht. The phone uses a pre-paid service plan (321 baht). Dial-up charges are 9baht per hour for a 33.6 connection. I usually get about 7-8 hours of use off the phone (more than enough to go through a charge on the laptop).

Although it means carrying along another phone/cable and fighting another call rep when there are problems (of whic there are few) it's ultimately the cheapest solution I've found. GPRS may be nice, but consider I spend about 6 hours a day online for work, GPRS price (and speeds) would have me hanging myself within a matter of days. While EDGE may be an interest, why would I spend 12,000 baht to acheive similar speeds as I'm now getting?

Love the country, could spend hours complaining about the stupidity of the people laying the connectivity infrastructure.

I had GPRS data via Blackberry when I was in Thailand earlier this year.. was able to geek out completely and IRC from a tuktuk stuck in Krung Tep traffic, and email from Trat. After a few experiments I stuck with Orange (this via global roaming, not a local account).

Coverage was pretty good, but not fabulous in rural areas, but I was suprised it worked at all... Data worked nearly all the way to the Cambodian border (I took buses along the coast from Bangkok to Trat), and in parts of central Khorat but not outside.