• 
• 
• 

My first iPhone, a 3G model, was purchased five months ago with the hope that Thailand would soon have the third-generation network. I hear the service is up and running in Cambodia and Laos, but in Thailand it looks like it will take forever to materialise.

I'm not sure if the government will be able to auction off the first 3G licences by this year's end as promised because Thailand's telecom regulatory body is still debating a number of sensitive points, such as whether foreign ownership of these radio frequencies should be permitted.

With the further delay in the 3G auction, my love affair with iPhone continued to suffer. At The Nation's offices on Bang-Na Trat Road, the signal rarely worked for an Internet connection.

So my pricey gadget became just another mobile phone.

Occasionally, there were some 3G tests in the area, which had me excited and I enjoyed the speedy Internet connection right to the very last second.

Usually, these tests were short-lived, lasting just a few minutes.

At home, which is near the office, I had the same problem - the data service was generally weak, even at 2G (Edge or GPRS). So even at home my top-class gadget became a mere phone.

At most times, I had to wait past midnight to get some reliable, albeit slow, network access. However, this cool gadget made up for all that angst by giving me access to plenty of games and other applications at the iTunes store. My favourite application remains "Piano Man", which allows non-pianists like me to play virtual keyboards with ease.

Another cool application is "3D Chess" from Orient Maple, which allows iPhone users to play a game with lively interactive chess pieces. In fact, the game even lets you try possible moves, which you can undo if you make a mistake.

Games aside, I also expected to access my e-mail and many other online services via the iPhone, but that's not possible due to the absence of reliable 2G or GPRS or Edge data service in my area.

I complained to the service provider of this problem a few times, but to no avail. I thought I would probably have to wait for the 3G-licence auction to get a better service. Now, it's unlikely the auction will be on schedule.

Eventually, I found a solution to my problems without having to rely on the government or the existing service provider.

A competing service provider is now giving me a better service for an additional Bt350 per month (apart from the Bt600 I pay to the existing service provider) for up to 100 hours of Internet and data network access.

It's heavenly for iPhone lovers like me, because now I can go on the Net anywhere and at any time. In fact, I can even tweet when I like thanks to the new SIM card I've slipped into my beloved gadget. So just contact me at NopNation on Twitter and I'll show you how to solve your iPhone problems.

And I promise I won't stop tweeting like I did five months ago because now I have a reliable network service.