The issue of Internet penetration in India have always been a cause for concern among anyone who is associated with the internet industry. Though broadband penetration still grows at snail pace there is hope that wireless services provided by CDMA players like Reliance and Tata could help improve the internet penetration numbers.
So both Tata and Reliance have launched their respective broadband CDMA data cards which provide broadband downlink speed of up to 3.1 mbps and a separate uplink speed of up to 1.8 mbps. The tata card is known as Photon+ while Reliance is called Netconnect Broadband Plus.
Currently the pricing for these data cards is on the higher side with Reliance charging Rs.3500 as an introductory offer for the first two months. Tata on the other end has no visible pricing disclosed on their website though they seem to be offering a high speed router as well which provides Upto 2.4 Mbps Downlink speed.
There is also confusion on what technology is used in the backend for these datacards and some GSM operators have sought the Department of Telecommunications’ (DoT) intervention to stop these services, which it claims are 3G EVDO services though the technology looks much like CDMA2000 EV-DV.
Besides for the above options there will soon be the option of 3G Data Cards as state owned BSNL has gone ahead and tied up with Micromax for sale and distribution of 3G data cards. According to this report this datacard promises speeds of up to 7.2 mbps for Download and up to 2 mbps for upload applications which is twice the speed of the CDMA data cards above.
Datacards the future of Internet connectivity in India?
With netbooks being in vogue both for their potability and their pricing (Asus/Acer netbooks are priced Rs.14,000 odd only) and data cards with high speeds being churned out by telecom players its only natural to think that these two trends would drive internet connectivity in India. The portability of netbooks and mobility of data cards combined can take internet to the last mile (till the network is available).
Would love to know real feedback on the speeds of these data cards so if anyone gets a chance to test them out do let us know.
Reliance had introduced a bundling scheme few months back with laptops. They should be providing the Card for free and charge only for the monthly usage. However I am disappointed with the limit of 10GB on the so called “UNLIMITED” offer. Hope better sense prevails and they increase the limit to around 25GB.
Old Reliance data cards gives the speed of 110 – 150 kbps only.
Recent Ads shows 3 MB speed. Is it really in MBs????? Im going to ask a demo for downloading speed.
Is 3G is better connectivity/ speed/ technology than this?
Hi
I had a chance to test the new broadband data card from Reliance. Yes.. the download speed stays on 135-140KB/s roughly equals to 1mbps(not 3.1mbps). I didnt test the upload, but using the speedtest.net tool, it shows 340kbps which gives around 40KB/s. This is good speed compare to old datacards.
Is 3G GSM technology will give more than this speed?
please clarify.