The fastest hotel internet in Thailand? That'd be Conrad Bangkok.

One of Conrad's 22 meeting rooms

As someone who virtually lives on the internet for work (yes, this IS work, jing jing) this news release is something that will have business travellers to Thailand whistling while they work ...

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The Conrad has made a decisive step toward being the best business hotel in Bangkok by upgrading its internet bandwidth line speed throughout the 391-room hotel to 50Mpbs.

“High-speed connectivity in business is an absolute necessity these days, and the Conrad wants to make sure our tech-savvy guests enjoy the best technology facilities that this city can offer,” says Manfred Pieper, General Manager.

This is the second time since he came on board in August 2008 that the hotel has undertaken an across-the-board speed upgrade. In January 2009, the hotel moved up to 30Mpbs.

“30Mbps was a big deal back then, and this underlines how fast the technology is changing. We have to anticipate those changes and invest in them on behalf of our guests to exceed their expectations. Information is sometimes confusing to guests because some devices’ capacity is advertised, not actual line speed. And others have a fast line speed but it is a shared line, not an individual one. Anyway, at 50Mbps our internet service is now two to three times the speed of some of our competitors.”

The hotel has invested in state-of-the-art Ruckus ZoneFlex 2942 wireless systems, considered to be the world’s smartest 802.11g access points, with no configuration required by guests.

”This smart system automatically steers your wi-fi signal to the best route to avoid any signal interference and maintain high-speed integrity without dropout,” says Pieper. “Our guests will also be pleased that it is available on a complimentary basis in all our executive rooms, suites, executive floor lounge, hotel lobby, swimming pool, and all our restaurants and bars. That means it’s free in around two thirds of the hotel.” In public areas, the complimentary time limit is one hour.
Elsewhere throughout the hotel the top-speed wireless can be enjoyed on a chargeable basis.

This technology upgrade bolsters Conrad Bangkok’s aims of being the city’s first choice business and meeting hotel. (It has previously won the Business Traveller Asia-Pacific ‘Best Business Hotel in Bangkok’ award.)

With 22 meeting rooms covering more than 20,000 square feet, its facilities are best-in-class, especially their audio-video conference facilities, including teleprompters, and video conferencing."

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So maybe the tin cans and string the sales guy sold me as state-of-the-art are not quite up to speed. State of the ark, more like. Time for me to upgrade to thicker string me thinks ...