Internet and WiFi in Asia: What Expats Actually Get

The Remote Worker's First Question

Before I'll commit to living anywhere for more than a month, I run a speed test. Not from the cafe down the street or the coworking space's show demo — from the actual apartment I'm considering renting, using the actual ISP the landlord has installed, at the actual time of day I'll be working. This habit developed after I signed a six-month lease in Bali based on the landlord's promise of "fast internet" and discovered that "fast" meant 8 Mbps that dropped to 2 Mbps every afternoon when the neighborhood's kids came home from school and started streaming YouTube. For anyone whose income depends on video calls, file uploads, or consistent connectivity, internet quality is not an amenity — it's infrastructure, and it varies enormously across Asian countries.

Country-by-Country: The Real Numbers

South Korea: The Global Leader

Korea's average broadband speed exceeds 200 Mbps, and gigabit connections (1,000 Mbps) are available in most apartments for ₩30,000–45,000 ($22–$33) per month. Providers: KT (formerly Korea Telecom), SK Broadband, and LG U+. All three offer comparable speeds; KT has the widest coverage. Installation takes 1–3 days after applying and is usually free or costs ₩30,000 ($22) as a one-time setup fee. Mobile data is equally impressive — 5G plans with unlimited data cost ₩55,000–80,000 ($41–$59) per month. Korea's internet is so reliable that outages are genuinely newsworthy events rather than routine occurrences.

Japan: Fast but Bureaucratic

Japan offers fiber connections of 1 Gbps through NTT FLET'S Hikari, au Hikari, NURO, and SoftBank Hikari. Monthly costs are ¥4,000–6,000 ($27–$40) for most plans. The catch: installation requires scheduling a technician visit that can take 2–6 weeks from application, and some apartment buildings require landlord permission for new fiber lines. Many newer apartments have pre-installed fiber, which eliminates the wait. Pocket WiFi rentals (¥3,000–5,000/$20–$33 per month) bridge the gap while you wait for home installation. Mobile data plans from NTT docomo, au, and SoftBank cost ¥3,000–8,000 ($20–$53) for 20–100 GB monthly.

Singapore: Reliable and Affordable

Singapore's broadband is among the fastest and cheapest in the developed world. 1 Gbps fiber plans from Singtel, StarHub, and M1 cost S$40–50 ($30–$37) per month. 2 Gbps plans are available for S$50–60 ($37–$44). Coverage reaches virtually every building on the island. Installation takes 3–7 days. Mobile plans with 50–100 GB data cost S$20–40 ($15–$30) — some of the most competitive mobile data pricing in Asia.

Thailand: Good in Cities, Patchy Elsewhere

Bangkok and major cities have reliable fiber from True, AIS, and 3BB, with speeds of 200–1,000 Mbps for ฿600–1,200 ($17–$34) per month. True is generally considered the most reliable for consistent speeds. Outside major cities, quality drops significantly — Chiang Mai's internet is good in the city center but can be unreliable in surrounding areas, and island destinations like Koh Phangan or Koh Tao have limited bandwidth that struggles during peak tourist season. Mobile data from AIS, True, and DTAC offers 4G/5G coverage in urban areas at ฿300–700 ($8.40–$19.60) for 30–60 GB monthly. For remote workers in Thailand, having both a home fiber connection and a mobile data plan as backup is essential.

Vietnam: Improving Rapidly

Vietnam's internet has transformed in the past five years. VNPT, Viettel, and FPT Telecom offer fiber connections of 100–200 Mbps in major cities for VND200,000–400,000 ($8–$16) per month — some of the cheapest fiber internet globally. Speeds are generally consistent in HCMC and Hanoi, though occasional slowdowns during peak evening hours affect some providers. Mobile data is absurdly cheap: VND100,000–200,000 ($4–$8) per month for 2–4 GB daily, with 4G coverage in all urban areas. The main complaint from remote workers is that international bandwidth (connections to servers outside Vietnam) can be slower than domestic speeds suggest, particularly on some routes to the US and Europe.

Indonesia (Bali): The Problem Child

Bali's internet has improved but remains the weakest link among popular expat destinations. Fiber is available from IndiHome, Biznet, and CBN in developed areas like Seminyak, Canggu, and Sanur, with advertised speeds of 50–100 Mbps for IDR400,000–800,000 ($25–$51) per month. Actual speeds during peak hours regularly drop to 10–30 Mbps, and outages happen weekly in some areas. Coworking spaces like Outpost, Dojo, and Hubud invest in redundant connections and offer more reliable internet than most residential installations. If your work requires consistent video calls with clients in the US or Europe, test your specific connection thoroughly before committing to a Bali base.

VPN Considerations

China blocks Google, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, WhatsApp, and many Western news sites behind the Great Firewall. A VPN is essential for living and working in China. ExpressVPN, Surfshark, and Astrill are the most reliably functional VPNs for China as of 2025, though the government periodically disrupts VPN connections, particularly around politically sensitive dates. No other major Asian country has comparable internet restrictions, though Vietnam blocks some gambling and pornography sites, and Thailand occasionally blocks websites critical of the monarchy.

For non-censorship purposes, a VPN is useful for accessing home-country streaming services (Netflix libraries differ by country, and many expats maintain their home library through VPN), securing public WiFi at cafes and coworking spaces, and accessing services that are geo-restricted. NordVPN and ExpressVPN both have servers throughout Asia with good speeds. Budget $5–$13 per month for a reliable VPN service.

The Coworking Backup Strategy

Regardless of your home internet quality, identify 3–4 backup work locations within 15 minutes of your apartment. Cafes with reliable WiFi, coworking spaces with day passes, and hotel lobbies with guest WiFi access (some hotels sell day passes for their business centers) all serve as insurance against home internet outages. This is particularly important in Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, and the Philippines, where residential connections can be disrupted by weather, infrastructure issues, or mysterious provider outages that nobody can explain. The remote worker who has only one internet connection has zero internet connections the day it goes down during a client call — redundancy isn't paranoia, it's professionalism.