The DATA Card and USB Modem discussion thread (Reliance/Airtel/Tata)

[CaliAtenza]

Originally Posted by ram

Friends:

I also get a very good surfing experience out of my
Tata Indicom Huawei EC321 CDMA air card.
This is installed in my Dell Latitude D510 laptop.



Have used it in Mumbai, Bhopal, Bangalore, Solapur, Ramtek, Nagpur, with no complaint.

But friends, I have a question.
I recently recommended to my brother-in-law, a Dell Inspiron 6400 laptop.
He bought it.

It came with an Intel Core2 Duo Processor T5500, 1.66 GHz 2MB Cache, 667 MHz frontside bus, 1024MB of DDR2 SDRAM and 80GB SATA Hard-disk drive.

Unfortunately, it doesn't have a slot for the now obsolescent PCMCIA card.
Instead, it has a slot for the new ExpressCard. As ExpressCard directly connects to the system bus over a PCI Express x1 lane, it can attain a theoretical max. of 2.5 Gbit per second throughput.

The problem is:
Does Reliance, Tata Indicom or any other Indian vendor provide an AirCard in the ExpressCard formfactor?

Ram

yep this is the exact problem i was describing earlier. I searched on the net, apparently there are adapters for the PCMCIA cars to make them fit into the ExpressCard slots. I dont know how much the prices are though in india cause i saw a suggest retail price of $110 for one adapter :(

[CaliAtenza]

so it looks like the general consensus here is that to go for either a reliance or a TATA indicom connection. I'll check both out when i get back to india next week. I wont be doing any heavy downloading...mainly just streaming/buffered video and music, web browsing, email, etc. No gaming though.

[mithun]

I would recommend you Reliance over Airtel based on Cochin experience although I don't know more about the tariffs charged by both.

Also make sure that you select the service which provides a Bill that you can tolerate unlike the BSNL Dataone !!!

[Ram]

Originally Posted by ram

My iDEA cellular gives me an unlimited GPRS traffic plan for a flat rate of Rs. 500/=.

Some asking around has revealed that, in every single one of India's metropolises, cellular operators are happy to charge by the kilobyte rather than by a flat-rate unlimited plan.

Only iDEA in Pune has this Rs. 500/=, flat-rate unlimited plan.

When I roam with this plan, it remains unlimited everywhere in India, except in Mumbai.
Hutch who got sold recently, is iDEA's roaming partner in Mumbai.
Hutch/BPL Mobile wants to charge by the kilobyte.
iDEA is (we're told) about to start operations in Mumbai.

Ram

Update: As of 1st August 2007, iDEA in Pune has doubled the price of their flat-rate unlimited plan to Rs. 1,000/=. It doesn't make so much sense anymore. I am dumping them for Airtel.

And one whole year after getting the letter of intent for the Mumbai circle, they have still failed to start operations in Mumbai.

Ram

[rahul_intlad]

And one whole year after getting the letter of intent for the Mumbai circle, they have still failed to start operations in Mumbai.

Its not idea's fault,they have not yet been allocated spectrum in Mumbai city,and a delay of even upto a year more is expected.

[Raja]

Originally Posted by ram

Update: As of 1st August 2007, iDEA in Pune has doubled the price of their flat-rate unlimited plan to Rs. 1,000/=. It doesn't make so much sense anymore. I am dumping them for Airtel.

And one whole year after getting the letter of intent for the Mumbai circle, they have still failed to start operations in Mumbai.

Ram

iDea website shows PREPAID GPRS access at Rs5 per day, does your letter state what the new prepaid price is?
http://www.ideacellular.com/IDEA.por...s_mh_gprs.html

[subscrive]

Airtel mobile card + Edge mobile handset is the way to go.
Unlimited bandwidth, 115kbps speed.
And reasonable price of Rs12 per day.
Disable the service if you dnt require the net.

[abdriver2000]

The reliance card does not work with some laptops like the dell d610. Also, most laptops nowadays do not have the PCMCIA slot.

[khanak]

Originally Posted by abdriver2000

The reliance card does not work with some laptops like the dell d610. Also, most laptops nowadays do not have the PCMCIA slot.

They also have a USB version.

[Steeroid]

Originally Posted by khanak

They also have a USB version.

Yup, and from personal experience recently Reliance data speeds are much higher than any of the GSM operator GPRS speeds. Which is as it should be - CDMA 1x is faster than GPRS.

[Zappo]

How much does reliance charge for the data card (in USB version) and then for the surfing? The last I checked their rates are just too high (in fact its the same for any mobile operator). At their huge per Kb rates it does not look like a very feasible solution for regular surfing.

[vid6639]

The card now costs Rs.2850. Rental I think is the same at Rs.650/month for some 1GB limit.

[rahul_intlad]

There is a night unlimited offer from reliance too if you want to use the net for the night only @ 400 bucks per month[unlimited usage at night],daytime usage charges rs .50/min.

1500 bucks for 24hours with unlimited usage.

anyways here's the link:
:: Welcome to Reliance Communications ::

[khanak]

Originally Posted by rahul_intlad

There is a night unlimited offer from reliance too if you want to use the net for the night only @ 400 bucks per month[unlimited usage at night],daytime usage charges rs .50/min.

1500 bucks for 24hours with unlimited usage.

anyways here's the link:
:: Welcome to Reliance Communications ::

What happens when you travel?

Does the 1500 include access all over India?

[musicmanaman]

My vote would go to Reliance, have been using it since July 2006 and it's good, about speed, it shows about 240kbps, but is much slower, it's better than a dial up tough. About Air-tel, I don't think they are as good as Reliance on this count, I have travelled all over the place with the data card and never had a conectivity problem. I was on the unlimited plan earlier and was paying about 1730 everymonth, this I did for about 9 months and realised that my usage was well below 1 GB, now I'm on a Rs 650 Plan where the bills comes to Rs 730 with Taxes and this suits me fine, advise would be to not go in for the higher plans and start with the 1GB plan, if you use more, which is very unlikely only then switch to higher plan. Hope this helps.