I've been using BSNL EVDO for the last 2 months. It was pretty hard to get my hands on one - as there was a shortage of EVDO USB equipment. The tariffs BSNL proposed were also awesome - Rs.500 for 2.1 Mbps unlimited connection. I had two options - one buy the device or get it for rent. As I had heard that the service provided for the device is pretty bad, I decided to go for renting. So monthly charges became 750 (Rs. 250 as rent).
When I got one in my hands I was pretty impressed - a sleek little devide, slightly larger than a match box. The package also contained a 1 X 2 USB connector (might be for USB 1.0) and a mini CD. Plugging in the device is pretty simple - but XP does not identify the device. I put in the CD and installed the software provided - that's the drivers plus a dialing software for connecting to the network.
The dialler is pretty good - shows the signal strength too. The speeds available will depend on the signal strength you get - as the BSNL CDMA tower is within a couple of KMs from my place that was not an issue. Setting up the connection is also straight forward. The right side of the application has buttons - the second last one being for settings (u'll hv to scroll down for tht).
The username is the localcode+phonenumber, the code without the initial zero.(The code should be of the place you took the connection). The password is the last four digits of your phone number. Clicking the globe on the top left authenticates and connects to the network. The connection and network status are shown on the display (with BSNL logo on the background). Double clicking on the display swithces it to a graphical plot of data rates.
Review
After I have used BSNL EVDO for 2 months, Iam pretty impressed, thouhh not comlpetely aware of the BSNL customer service for EVDO (actually there have been no need to contact them till now). The speeds are pretty good - it does not reach anywhere near the offered 2.1 Mbps speed. as seen in the image above, Max Rate is 994 kbps - thats the maximum speed attained so far. I have been able to get speeds to about 1200 kbps. As it is a wireless service the speeds are fluctuating as u can see in the graph. But that does not affect the service quality too much. Downloads have speeds above 100KBps quite often.
Compared to wired connections with unlimited data limits, the EVDO is a better option. 256 kbps unlimited service costs you around Rs 750. EVDO provides around 1Mbps around the same price. And being portable is a plus. The drawback currently being the coverage for the EVDO service. In India BSNL EVDO service is available only in cities and towns. But, the coverage will pick up within a year and as demand picks up.
TataIndicom and Reliance have also started their EVDO service - with the bandwidth being offered at 3.1Mbps. Compared to BSNL, this is better in terms of raw speed. But the tariffs offered is not anywhere near that of BSNL. It costs you around Rs.2 for an MB of data transfer. There are unlimited options, but the monthly rate being above Rs. 1K and the unlimited data transfer packs having a data limit of 10GB per month. Above that 1MB is charged as Rs 2.
Conclusion
If anyone is within 5kms of the BSNL EVDO tower, then this service is their best bet ( The only other option that might be better is BSNL night unlimited with speeds of 2Mbps). It provides great speeds at a cheap price.
More Details
Tariff
Availability
Currently the cities covering EVDO are:
Kerala
- Alleppy - Calicut - Ernakulam - Malapuram
- Kannur - Karaikal - Kilvelur - Palaghat
- Kollam - Kottayam - Trichur - Pathanamthitta
- Trivandrum
Andhra Pradesh
- Hyderabad - Vijayawada - Vishakapatnam
- Guntur
- Ahmedabad - Anantapur - Assam - Bangalore - Bhopal - Bhubaneswar - Bokaro - Coimbatore - Dhanbad
- Erode - Indore - Indrapuram - Jaipur - Jamshedpur - Kanchipuram - Kaushambi - Lucknow
- Ludhiana - Meerut - Nachiyarkoil - Nasik - Patna - Puducherry - Pune - Rajkot
- Ranchi - Salem - Surat - Kurnool - Tirunelveli - Vaishali Region of Ghaziabad
- Vasundhra
http://keralatelecom.com/Broadband/evdo.asp
http://chennai.bsnl.co.in/News/EVDO.htm
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