[IronH4WK]

Originally Posted by clevermax

Surprise! I am getting 3G in my Airtel prepaid, which has only the 98 Rs mobile office plan! I checked few times whether the balance is reducing, and it is not! Hurray!!!

(I had 3G disabled for the past few months in my phone... I just enabled it just to check.. I should have done that earlier!)

i'd like to see the expression on your face when Airtel sends you a big fat bill. i know you said pre-paid, but hey - this is India

[clevermax]

Originally Posted by IronH4WK

i'd like to see the expression on your face when Airtel sends you a big fat bill. i know you said pre-paid, but hey - this is India

Ha ha.. I know this hack already is working in BSNL prepaids here. (i.e., Ask for EDGE with a 2GB limited plan, select 3G in your phone and enjoy) But now it started working in Airtel too.

BTW, download speeds are not that great, it is like 20 k Bytes/sec, but upload speeds are awesome - 180 k Bytes/sec. May be this is intentional, and they have put a bandwidth cap on the download.

I am checking my balance every minute No, it is not reducing!

[IronH4WK]

Originally Posted by clevermax

Ha ha.. I know this hack already is working in BSNL prepaids here. (i.e., Ask for EDGE with a 2GB limited plan, select 3G in your phone and enjoy) But now it started working in Airtel too.

BTW, download speeds are not that great, it is like 20 k Bytes/sec, but upload speeds are awesome - 180 k Bytes/sec. May be this is intentional, and they have put a bandwidth cap on the download.

I am checking my balance every minute No, it is not reducing!

in Bangalore, Airtel has reduced the 2GB for 98/- to 1GB for 98/-. went back to 3G because i couldn't stand the slow browsing speed

[clevermax]

Originally Posted by IronH4WK

in Bangalore, Airtel has reduced the 2GB for 98/- to 1GB for 98/-. went back to 3G because i couldn't stand the slow browsing speed

Here in Kerala also, 2gb has been reduced to 1gb. That's ok because my data usage never goes beyond that in mobile.

[Bluengel180]

Originally Posted by clevermax

Surprise! I am getting 3G in my Airtel prepaid, which has only the 98 Rs mobile office plan! I checked few times whether the balance is reducing, and it is not! Hurray!!!

(I had 3G disabled for the past few months in my phone... I just enabled it just to check.. I should have done that earlier!)

Actually if you set the phone to WCDMA ONLY on an edge plan you get MUCH better speeds than traditional EDGE

[clevermax]

Originally Posted by Bluengel180

Actually if you set the phone to WCDMA ONLY on an edge plan you get MUCH better speeds than traditional EDGE

I have never seen an option to set something like that. In my phone, what I did was to simply uncheck the "Use only 2G netwroks" option, then the network got reset, and "H" appeared instead of "E".

I think they intentionally did this to enhance the speed of Edge Mobile office users, as I am not getting download speeds greater than 25kB/s or so. Upload speeds are in the range of 180kB/s though.


Recently Airtel blocked torrent sites and and they must be having surplus bandwidth in their hands now due to reduction in torrent traffic... May be this is a bonus due to that

[Bluengel180]

Originally Posted by clevermax

I have never seen an option to set something like that.

Dial *#*#4636#*#*
phone information >set preferred network type>WCDMA only

This latches you to the 3G network, as you have subscribed to a EDGE data pack it will restrict the download to EDGE speed(256kbps).But unlike 2g it actually sticks to that speed

[joslicx]

Originally Posted by Bluengel180

This latches you to the 3G network, as you have subscribed to a EDGE data pack it will restrict the download to EDGE speed(256kbps).But unlike 2g it actually sticks to that speed

This is not true Bluengel. On 2G (EDGE is still part of 2G though its also called 2.5G) your network resources are time shared (with dedicated allocation to individual users) but this sharing is dependent on network load and is totally determined by the Network. Mobile has very limited role, in that it just tells the network how much data it can handle by virtue of its mobile class (you might have seen MS Class 10 or 12 or 33 also these days) and also how good the signal it can receive. If there are too many users around then NW will keep distributing resources to each and you'll not have dedicated high speeds. 3G works a bit differently although in 3G case also too many users can choke the Network.

If 3G is not enabled in your registered services by the Network then no way can you get 3G speeds just by what you are suggesting.

[Bluengel180]

Originally Posted by joslicx

If 3G is not enabled in your registered services by the Network then no way can you get 3G speeds just by what you are suggesting.

256kbps is not 3G speeds.if you are in a 3G network with an EDGE data pack the download speed is throttled down to EDGE speed (256 kbps)

When you select the WCDMA ONLY option your phone is locked on and only operated on the 3G network (which handles data better than 2g).hence you get much better speeds while using your EDGE pack in comparison with a 2G/2.5G network.

[joslicx]

Originally Posted by Bluengel180

256kbps is not 3G speeds.if you are in a 3G network with an EDGE data pack the download speed is throttled down to EDGE speed (256 kbps)

When you select the WCDMA ONLY option your phone is locked on and only operated on the 3G network (which handles data better than 2g).hence you get much better speeds while using your EDGE pack in comparison with a 2G/2.5G network.

Well 3G speeds start from 64kpbs Though it cannot be called 3G nowdays, but from spec perspective it is still there.

I have done speed tests on my mobile (using speedtest app.) I was earlier on 2G only (1GB/98Rs plan on Airtel). On setting NW to 2G, I would get speeds around 170 kbps (so about 22 KBps). On setting NW to 3G the speeds I would get were 44-50 kbps only!!! So my mobile on 3G was never as fast as it was on 2G!!!

[Bluengel180]

Originally Posted by joslicx

So my mobile on 3G was never as fast as it was on 2G!!!

Depends on the network. 3G is still bad on coverage. Here we have good 3G coverage and a VERY congested 2G network,the 2G speed is never more that 5-6 KBPS at any given time. so everyone switches to the 3G network .

[F150]

Originally Posted by joslicx

Well 3G speeds start from 64kpbs Though it cannot be called 3G nowdays, but from spec perspective it is still there.
So my mobile on 3G was never as fast as it was on 2G!!!

Originally Posted by Bluengel180

Depends on the network.

We have pretty decent 3G coverage on vodafone here in PUNE.

3G is anyday faster than 2G, no two ways about it.

I get a minimum of 2Mbps.
Will post a screenshot of the speed test from my office, I have full network there.

[shipnil]

I have a question on 3G service of Vodafone in Bangalore.
Officially, Vodafone does not have a 3G license in Bangalore but from the news reports I could gather that they use Airtel network to provide 3G service. My question is, if I buy a Vodafone sim card and activate 3G then it would use Airtel network to offer 3G service, but what happens to my voice calls? Will they be routed through Airtel network only when I am HSPA mode? If yes, then what about the charges like home network / roaming? And what happens to incoming calls? As far as I know, you can log into either 3G or 2G network at one point in time from one handset.

Answers from any first hand users would be appreciated. BTW, which is a better 3G provider in Bangalore?

[Jaggu]

Originally Posted by shipnil

I have a question on 3G service of Vodafone in Bangalore.
Officially, Vodafone does not have a 3G license in Bangalore but from the news reports I could gather that they use Airtel network to provide 3G service.
============
Answers from any first hand users would be appreciated. BTW, which is a better 3G provider in Bangalore?

Yes data will be through Airtel but for a user it will not make a difference coz its all managed well by Voda-Airtel and the softwares. Voice will continue with Vodafone.

Airtel has the best coverage and stable performance right now.

[naveenroy]

I have Airtel Mobile Office - which allows me unlimited browsing on Edge for 99 bucks. I think Airtel no longer has this scheme but I have continued using it for years now. I am thinking of moving to 3G. Hows the schemes working out these days? Got a message from Airtel some days back saying they have slashed the rates for 3G by upto 70% or so. I use Twitter and FB regularly and use GMail on phone too. Not sure how much data these eat up.

Any suggestions? Not sure Airtel will allow me to go back to the Mobile Office scheme if I want to come back from 3G.