lsemprini

Hello,

Thank you all for very useful responses.

Here is an update on what I've figured out in case anyone else is in the same boat as me.

----- THAILAND VS US

I personally do notice an enormous difference in HTTP download speeds of big files depending on whether the files are hosted in the US or cached inside Thailand (and yes I verified that the US servers in question are able to spew data at much higher speed to US clients).  Perhaps the difference in our results may be related to poor infrastructure behind my crappy upcountry connection: for those of you lucky enough to have somewhat less broken internet in BKK, there may be little or no difference.  That's a useful thing to consider for my clients who will be downloading the file.

Also, while Phil Conners's suggestion is possible, I really doubt that the transparent web caches (caching proxies) used by Thai ISPs would cache my 380MB file since it is so large and (in the larger scheme of things for an ISP) it is inconsequential in terms of how often the files get requested (only 20-40 times a day, only 7.5-15GB/day savings).  When I tested the bandwidth of various servers, I was always sure to rename the file each time to avoid accidentally measuring locally cached bandwidth, but occasionally I did try the same URL twice and I never saw any improvement in the second or subsequent download.

----- CDNs

I investigated various CDNs and the short answer is that if the CDN has edge servers in Thailand, it is way, way too expensive compared with hosting.  For example, after wasting my time getting routed past front-line sales droids in India and having to repeat my query more than 4 times to layers of salespeople who never read what I write, I eventually determined that Akamai has excellent coverage in Thailand (servers in 3 major ISPs and 18 datacenters) but various salespeople quoted me between USD$245/mo and USD$600/mo for a package able to deliver 300-500GB/month data transfer.  CDNetworks also measures excellent bandwidth in Thailand but their lowest price package was $500/mo.  All the super-easy-to-use smaller CDNs I investigated (such as MaxCDN) did not have edge servers in Thailand (closest was Hong Kong).

----- WHO I CHOSE

Given all the glowing reviews of Thai ISPs in this thread, and the fact that a few of the more honest Thai ISPs I contacted got back to me and said they cannot handle my data transfer needs anyway (despite what their website said), I decided not to go local even though I do believe it would yield the highest average transfer rates for clients in Thailand.

It looks like I will go for Amazon AWS S3 hosting (many thanks for the pointer RedCardinal) with two copies of my big file hosted in Singapore and the US.  A large part of the reason for this is people's glowing review of S3's reliability, plus how quick and easy it was to set up and test without paying, without having to talk to some annoying salesman on the phone, and without having to deal with annoying Thai bank transfers backed by dubious money-back guarantees (or no guarantee).

Amazon essentially charges US $0.19 per GB of transfer per month (plus storage costs which are inconsequential for my application) and it is pay-as-you-go.  For 500GB/month data transfer (the same figure I used when pricing the Thai companies), this works out to US$1,140 or 34,200B/year.  So if my traffic is as expected, Amazon would be more expensive than any of the Thai options, but not by much.  Hopefully the extra cash will justify hairs not being ripped out of my head.


Thanks again for all your help!

LandOfSmileys, on 2011-12-16 14:07:26, said:

Definitely speed.

The clients who will be downloading this big file will be doing so with my HTTP client that has auto-resume.  So reliability is handled for them.

The goal is simply to make the big download as quick as possible.

Does anyone have benchmarks of download speeds of big files from various points on Thai networks to providers in Singapore?
I'm curious if there is a hit going out of country to Singapore.

Tatsujin, on 2011-12-16 08:12:31, said:

Yes, I looked at CDNs before looking at Thai ISPs, but so far I wasn't able to find any CDN with a POP in Thailand, except for:

- CDNetworks, whose minimal package costs $500 a month, and
- Akamai, who wouldn't even respond to my query, probably for the same price reason

I would be most grateful if anyone could recommend an affordable CDN with a POP in Thailand.

I have found some with a POP in Hong Kong, but bandwidth from Hong Kong to Thailand doesn't seem so great.

Oh yeah outside English language bookstores would be another good place.

I think I might look around the area of the Thai immigration office when I go there, or perhaps even my embassy, though I don't go to my embassy often.

But maybe a better idea is some kind of very farang restaurant or other hangout?  Ideas?