Why do some accommodations in the Khao San Road area of Bangkok only offer Wi-Fi during daytime hours?

Why do some accommodations in the Khao San Road area of Bangkok only offer Wi-Fi during daytime hours? - Laundry drying on clothesline near condominium entrance

I arrived at the (in)famous Khao San Road in Bangkok, Thailand very late last night and checked some cheap guesthouses between 1am and 2am.

One trend I noticed was that it was common at night to only have Wi-Fi for the guests in the reception area but during the day also in the guest rooms. At least at the low end of the budget range.

I've never come across this anywhere else in my travels. Does anybody know why this is done? As a hitchhiker one of the first things I want to do after a long hitch is get online and update my whereabouts for people interested in my adventures or worried about my mode of travel.


The only reasons I can think up are people talking on Skype at night, but they could still watch movies off their hard drives; or people greedily soaking up too much Internet by downloading movies all night ...



Best Answer

I noticed this too when I was in Thailand. My guess would be that since fast Internet access, the kind that a commercial establishment would need to serve multiple guests, is relatively expensive in South / South-East Asia, they try to regulate access points for maintaining speeds. So for instance in the morning, guests would typically be out, and return in the evening, thus putting greater demand on the network. By limiting the access point to the lobby, it adds extra effort on part of guests to go and use WiFi, rather than everyone joining in from their rooms which could result in a trickle of bandwidth available for everyone.

The other reason could be that bandwidth-limited internet plans are common in South / South-East Asia with limits in 10s of GBs, so it's a way of regulating how many people are using the Internet to ensure they remain below the limit and don't get hit with extra charges.




Pictures about "Why do some accommodations in the Khao San Road area of Bangkok only offer Wi-Fi during daytime hours?"

Why do some accommodations in the Khao San Road area of Bangkok only offer Wi-Fi during daytime hours? - Drone view of modern buildings located in rows between roads in suburb of contemporary town on daytime
Why do some accommodations in the Khao San Road area of Bangkok only offer Wi-Fi during daytime hours? - From below of classic styled residential buildings with symmetric windows located in city district on cloudy day
Why do some accommodations in the Khao San Road area of Bangkok only offer Wi-Fi during daytime hours? - Aerial view suburban area with residential cottages and commerce buildings



Why is Khao San Road famous?

Besides housing and feeding the largest transient backpacker population in the world, Khao San Road became a world-record contender for its black market in unlicensed cassettes, CDs and DVDs, fake IDs, counterfeited books and brand-knockoff luggage.

What city is Khao San Road?

Khao San road, which now represents a series of streets, is a place in downtown Bangkok where backpackers and tourists are immediately drawn to from when they first touch down in the airport. It's actually kinda far from Bangkok's city centres of Sukhumvit & Silom but that doesn't stop the movement.



[4K] Walking night \




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Images: Meruyert Gonullu, Kelly, Erkam Hayta, Kelly