Re: [ilugd] [OT] Best pre-paid 3G option in Delhi
On 14/07/11 9:09 AM, Raj Mathur (राज माथुर) wrote: Hi, I was thinking of getting one of those pre-paid MTNL 3G SIMs to use for 'net access when on the road or out on work. Is there any company which is giving a better deal? Pre-paid is a must: my mobile 'net requirement is sporadic, and I don't want to have to keep paying the telco every month regardless of whether I use the service or not. On a related note, anyone suggest an el cheapo mobile phone with 3G, Bluetooth and decent battery life that one can use as a modem with Linux? My Nokia 5800 does all that, but (a) it's not el cheapo, (b) I'm already using it with Vodafone and (c) its battery life, while adequate for talk, isn't too good with both BT and 3G on. Regards, -- Raj Hi, So I have tried almost all the 3G providers before settling to Reliance. Here are my observations: (All the speeds are for my home (1st floor, open area), your speeds will vary, I'll recommend to go with the one whose tower is nearest to your house) (All tests under prepaid, although it shouldn't matter) 1) Airtel: Very unreliable 3G billing. I don't understand how they charged me for 4,800 MB of data usage in 1 and half day. :( (dropped it then and there) Goods: Nice coverage, low connection drops. Bads: No good plans (infact the worst). Speed (on 7.2 Mbps beetle data card): approx 2.4 (as reported by speedtest) 2) Vodafone: I liked vodafone guys from always, but not with 3G. Goods: Nothing special. Bads: bad speed (1.2Mbps), connection drops after every 20 mins or so, costliest. 3) MTNL: I was happy to find 1650 unlimited plan in MTNL, but when I tested it, it was awful. Good: Has unlimited plan (750/- if you pay 6 month upfront), cheapest. Bads: Most of the time I can't connect or can't see HSPA, network is HSPA only, not HSDPA thereby a max rated speed of 3.6Mbps. Speed: less than 1Mbps most of the time and sometimes worse. 4) Reliance: The most stable of what I've seen till now. Good: Almost 0 connection drop (atleast my locality, most of the time connection made in the morning lasts till I shut down the PC at night), Best download speed seen among all. I usually see download speed going beyond 600Kbps via browser (=4.8 Mbps). Bads: No unlimited plan. Speed: Most of the time its between 3-3.5 Mbps on speedtest.net My suggestion: I think there are lot of options to choose from, but go for the one which has the best coverage at your home, outside all are same.. Most of the Android phones has wifi tethering, but it sounds dirty. Get a data card from nehru place for 1800 bucks. It'll be lot more convenient. Btw, using internet from a 3G phone and bridging it via bluetooth will almost waste the experience because channel bandwidth is 128KBps in most of the cell phones (bluethooth v 1.2). Tx -- Shamail Tayyab ___ Ilugd mailing list Ilugd@lists.linux-delhi.org http://frodo.hserus.net/mailman/listinfo/ilugd
Re: [ilugd] [OT] Best pre-paid 3G option in Delhi
On a related note, anyone suggest an el cheapo mobile phone with 3G, The cheapest solution would be to by el cheapo phone (without 3G) for voice calls and use Nokia 5800 for internet. Since that will reduce the load on Nokia 5800, the battery will survive somewhat longer. All this, if you are looking for a really cheap solution!! Vikas ___ Ilugd mailing list Ilugd@lists.linux-delhi.org http://frodo.hserus.net/mailman/listinfo/ilugd
Re: [ilugd] [OT] Best pre-paid 3G option in Delhi
On Thursday 14 Jul 2011, Vikas Rawal wrote: On a related note, anyone suggest an el cheapo mobile phone with 3G, The cheapest solution would be to by el cheapo phone (without 3G) for voice calls and use Nokia 5800 for internet. Since that will reduce the load on Nokia 5800, the battery will survive somewhat longer. All this, if you are looking for a really cheap solution!! Thanks for all the information, folks. At the moment Reliance looks like the best option; I only wish they had plans with validity longer than 30 days -- if I have to pay them ever month I may as well get a postpaid connection! Right, so now: which Linux-compatible data card? I presume it makes sense to buy your own data card and use the telco's SIM in that? Incidentally, Vikas, you kids don't realise that at my advanced age, getting used to a new phone's functions is no trivial exercise. I'm going to run this Nokia 5800 into the ground before starting the pains of switching to a new phone, user interface, phonebook format, etc! Regards, -- Raj -- Raj Mathurr...@kandalaya.org http://kandalaya.org/ GPG: 78D4 FC67 367F 40E2 0DD5 0FEF C968 D0EF CC68 D17F PsyTrance Chill: http://schizoid.in/ || It is the mind that moves ___ Ilugd mailing list Ilugd@lists.linux-delhi.org http://frodo.hserus.net/mailman/listinfo/ilugd
Re: [ilugd] [OT] Best pre-paid 3G option in Delhi
Right, so now: which Linux-compatible data card? I presume it makes sense to buy your own data card and use the telco's SIM in that? Yes, as far as data card is concerned Huawei Universal data cards are good.Go for 21.6 Mbps Universal 3G data card.Huawei Web Rocket UMG1831 might be a good option as some reviews claims that they work well with almost every telcos. Note : Never used this model but people say it works well in Linux. -- With Regards, Gaurav Paliwal http://gauravpaliwal.com ___ Ilugd mailing list Ilugd@lists.linux-delhi.org http://frodo.hserus.net/mailman/listinfo/ilugd
Re: [ilugd] [OT] Best pre-paid 3G option in Delhi
Hi, On 07/14/2011 03:41 PM, Raj Mathur (राज माथुर) wrote: Right, so now: which Linux-compatible data card? I presume it makes sense to buy your own data card and use the telco's SIM in that? I think the age of the data card is now gone, the options worth considering : - get an android device that has proper tether support - get a wifi device/gsm bridge like the huawei E585 ( a MiFi ) - KB ___ Ilugd mailing list Ilugd@lists.linux-delhi.org http://frodo.hserus.net/mailman/listinfo/ilugd
Re: [ilugd] [OT] Best pre-paid 3G option in Delhi
-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE- Hash: SHA512 Raj Mathur (राज माथुर) writes: Hi, I was thinking of getting one of those pre-paid MTNL 3G SIMs to use for 'net access when on the road or out on work. Is there any company which is giving a better deal? Pre-paid is a must: my mobile 'net requirement is sporadic, and I don't want to have to keep paying the telco every month regardless of whether I use the service or not. On a related note, anyone suggest an el cheapo mobile phone with 3G, Bluetooth and decent battery life that one can use as a modem with Linux? My Nokia 5800 does all that, but (a) it's not el cheapo, (b) I'm already using it with Vodafone and (c) its battery life, while adequate for talk, isn't too good with both BT and 3G on. I've MTNL 3G, I use it with datacard provided by them. The datacard driver works fine in GNU/Linux, and FreeBSD. The only problem I face is 3G latency (+ ~30ms), and highly unreliable MTNL routing which most of the times takes you to .de/.us in ~150/250ms, but sometimes takes +150ms. The speed (200-230 KiB/s to mirrors.cse.iitk.ac.in) is good, and with unlimited plan, you can download great amount of pr0n (but if you're on high latency place, you'll end up shooting yourself in foot with 100s of connections in SYN_SENT). Roaming is free all over India and actually works with same experience (at least in Kanpur), courtesy: Bhagwan Se Nahi Lagta. HTH - -- Ashish SHUKLA “Until the day when God shall deign to reveal the future to man, all human wisdom is summed up in these two words,-Wait and hope.” (Alexandre Dumas, père, The Count of Monte Cristo, 1845-1846) -BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE- Version: GnuPG v2.0.17 (FreeBSD) iQIcBAEBCgAGBQJOHzs1AAoJEMdGz6nnT6SwTSgQAIjTMiSBEtfsI00JboqFNzjl LE/SKHf+NCxCCaCiVmjenzmB6hptOxJ7KhEwmRq7gtr7ODJ210ko2D6NN79Up0B2 QMRLWWCQbR17ujZ00yQwXxHW4jiq3IK2+fuuaIS+vMwuuA22IcE9Zi/oaRCLr1Pl qdQT18+6fgnYzyU0ftQThT7nLmC9oM+KAYdjuUtkBmkkC/hzcMkdHoMF9jjZalcg owwk7kjbx/8GduEmMkyiI0vwPGdXo/cra4KDa1EHBwzJDNMOLWp9s9tFk9a94S6+ uTQvuUGdSxLq0Nn/Ou9c7rolYVSVmmyXsIz90oN2VAHWLsingGeuoJy5MS7MXxWD /BG7Vv+MOKxJKxAHoSfVuA0eum0ZwXOXWxaakEUAmweYj6gVVba0mBcfzoo/wf1I csrifiYSPytTYC4IUxhFi3GXhigQLSXntGr77UjTrV6QM0EbHE0c873ZtMc1D/nn zlzyvQbW1s/maNkmzmCqjLuBSnbSLRMsjsjdlyWUSuQ/PLOggDnKGsImPIS1tYBh khRlQ28mkvrzrzKQf9Z7RDhICJfBG7iqjKRcEqmGT8P+qWWUPVpqqLAlfGFXlxTN Rfl1Hq9/Pewt4LC5ssfOIT/ZwDsxbylN0fsV/inBvbX6x6LuFpDvii2OZQne/4c9 REjaLemAHaxJTlEWc2CF =t25j -END PGP SIGNATURE- ___ Ilugd mailing list Ilugd@lists.linux-delhi.org http://frodo.hserus.net/mailman/listinfo/ilugd
Re: [ilugd] [OT] Best pre-paid 3G option in Delhi
On Friday 15 Jul 2011, Karanbir Singh wrote: On 07/14/2011 03:41 PM, Raj Mathur (राज माथुर) wrote: Right, so now: which Linux-compatible data card? I presume it makes sense to buy your own data card and use the telco's SIM in that? I think the age of the data card is now gone, the options worth considering : - get an android device that has proper tether support Skipping Android 2 for now due to its pathetic battery management -- all reports indicate that Android 3 is going to be way better in that arena, so will await its presence in the market. Also, need to find an Android vendor who doesn't pay royalty to MicroSux. - get a wifi device/gsm bridge like the huawei E585 ( a MiFi ) That looks interesting, could add it to the shopping list. Regards, -- Raj -- Raj Mathurr...@kandalaya.org http://kandalaya.org/ GPG: 78D4 FC67 367F 40E2 0DD5 0FEF C968 D0EF CC68 D17F PsyTrance Chill: http://schizoid.in/ || It is the mind that moves ___ Ilugd mailing list Ilugd@lists.linux-delhi.org http://frodo.hserus.net/mailman/listinfo/ilugd
