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-   -   The DATA Card and USB Modem discussion thread (Reliance/Airtel/Tata) (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/gadgets-computers-software/14087-data-card-usb-modem-discussion-thread-reliance-airtel-tata-3.html)

care to explain the horror stories?

DO NOT go for the Reliance USB card!!! I got mine free with my HP Pavilion Laptop. The following are the problems..
1. Slow speed.
2. Slow download speed.
3. Disconnects frequently. You cannot leave a file to be downloaded and be away. You never know when it would disconnect stopping the download.
4. Doesn't connect sometimes even in 3-4 attempts. (I'm placed in South Delhi and signal strength is not a problem)

I'm not aware of the PCMIA reliance card which might be better but then you need to be sure your Laptop has a PCMIA slot.

I've been using a TATA Data Card for the past year and a half now & have had a great experience with it. Coverage is very widespread & speeds are good for surfing & normal work. Hard-core downloading though is not the purpose of this connection. Though with good signal strength you can get upto 16-18kbps on a regular basis with a bittorrent client.

hmmnnn...the only thing is, my current laptop has a PCMIA slot...but i plan on buying a new laptop soon and most only come with EXPRESS card slots now. Maybe i will see about the TATA data card.

is this card available in bangalore?

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

Ram - Tata has recently launched a new Air card which plugs into the USB port of the computer. I think that should work on the 6400.

Data Speeds on CDMA will always be better than GSM GPRS or Edge speeds. Hence Reliance or Tata Indicom will be better for mobile data usage than Airtel or any of the GSM operators - unless they go down the 3G/HSDPA route.

So stick to Reliance or Tata Indicom. However, there will always be coverage and/or congestion related issues on ANY network.

In my practical experience, I have found the converse to be true.

My Nokia N73 under Pune's iDEA cellular's GPRS plan, via a CA-53 USB cord, connects at 460.8 kbps. It uses GSM EDGE (Enhanced Datarate GSM Evolution).

My Tata-Indicom Huawei CDMA aircard never connects above 230.4 kbps.

click on image


Ram

So what is the ideal choice for a download buff who uses VOIP and video streams and plays games online? Please help on this coz i'm coming to India for a while and need one immediately.

The little popup there means nothing - thats the theoretical speed that your hardware (in your case your Huawei) can support. Actual connections are a fraction of those. According to my screenshot below, I should be at 36 mbps (I'm paying for 512 kbps).


nitroxx - use a Tata Indicom or Reliance data card. Airtel speeds are pathetic.

I have a Hutch connection, When I connect my Nokia 7610 through the data cable via the Nokia PC Suite software it connects at 460.8 kbps.

If I connect the conventional way - make a new connection on the PC and proceed , it always shows me connected at 230.4 kbps.

Have tried a Reliance Data Card too and it always connects at 230.4 kbps.

But the speeds never feel anywhere close to 50 kbps be it Hutch or Reliance.

How much does this cost you? What plans are available?

Realistic speeds from DATA card or GSM or CDMA phone using a data cable wont be anything beyond 70-80 kbps..
I have used Reliance Data Card, Reliance phone with USB cable, Airtel data card, Tata Data card.. I wud say that in all the cases the data transfer average was nothing more than 70kbps... But i found the CDMA connections better than the GSM ones in terms of speed... Also the speed depends on the network congestion.. In pune i find that reliance is much faster than mumbai.. So i guess wud be the same with bangalore as the congestion in B'lore will be high...
Cheersssssss

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