Make hay while the sun shines.

Since the inception of 3G service in Hyderabad I have been using 3G on my phone and when I want to browse on my laptop I tether my phone to it as a modem. I was using BSNL 3G and was pretty much happy with the quality and speed, they were the first to launch 3G here, and their data plans were nominally priced. Few months later Airtel, Aircel, Vodafone etc. followed, I was never bothered about it as I knew their prices will be complete rip-off  considering humongous money they paid to get 3G licenses. As I rightly guessed, I simply laughed at the data plans of Airtel which read '1.2Gb for 799Rs', I was getting four times the data they offered with lesser price with BSNL(6gb for 606Rs).

Since one fine day, not sure what happened, BSNL 3G speeds were dropping, on few occasions it wouldn't connect after all. Things went from bad to worse, even my Airtel GPRS was faster than BSNL 3G, I thought I've had enough with all this. I decided to bite the bullet and activated 3G on my Airtel SIM card, their data plans aren't economical but still I wanted to have 3G on my phone. After activation, I streamed a video on youtube to check the transfer speeds, data transfer speed was very good and higher than BSNL 3G. I was very much astounded to see that I wasn't charged for the data usage, instead my GPRS data balance reduced.

Long story short. If you have a 3G phone and if you are using Airtel GPRS for 98Rs, which gives 2Gb/month, you can consume that 2Gb data with 3G data transfer speed(100kb/s download speed minimum) by changing your mobile network mode to 3G only. Prior to doing this, you should activate 3G on your SIM by sending 3G to 121. You will receive a message saying "existing 2G data plan will be deactivated, send 1 as reply to confirm this" reply with '1' boldly, this doesn't work as it says, you will still have your GPRS data count intact(dial *123*10# to check data balance). This is not a hack or a trick to fool around the system this works out of the box and I'm using it without problems/threats of hefty bill. I guess there is some flaw in the way Airtel have implemented 3G for existing customers, unlike BSNL where you need to get a 3G sim card to have 3G services.

This is working flawlessly with Airtel pre-paid connection, Andhra Pradesh, not sure it is the same for post-paid. You pay for a GPRS plan and consume that data in 3G with higher transfer rates. When you go for vanilla Airtel 3G data plan you need to cough out 799Rs for paltry 1.2Gb data.

For one more time, I'll simplify things.

I have a 3G phone > I have a Airtel pre-paid SIM card, I've not activated 3G in it yet > I'm using GRPS, let it be any plan, say 2Gb for 98RS (very slow) here is what you've to do. Activate 3G by sending message 3G to 121 > let the 3G activation be done(read para 3 for more) > Change your mobile network mode to 3G/UMTS > start browsing at 3G speeds. Use Mobile Office as the access point.

Here are some screen shots from my E7 showing transfer speeds.

You/I don't know how this happening and do I dare to think that a company like Bharthi Airtel is so naive that they allow customers to use 3G for bargain prices? before they pull the plug out make full use of it. Now there is a GPRS data plan costing 251Rs(AP circle), giving you 8Gb for 3 months does it ring a bell?. What are you waiting for? go and recharge.

Please post your comments and clarifications. Thanks.

A Rip-off story

Before reading this post, let me tell you i am not a cynic but in the recent times the experiences i had with Airtel is appalling and i am made myself to rant here so someone who reads it can atleast share their torrid moments with Airtel.

                                                        I rely mainly on their GPRS service, they have some good packs for that purpose and it was going on well before i noticed one day that my balance is reducing at times, i dont know how far i have not noticed it, often i keep an eye on my balance and since the previous debits were of considerably less amount i couldn't tell exactly how much got debited.  I am using RC 94 pack( For tariffs look here )  which gives 75mb free every day from 12a.m to 8a.m for 30 days, Last night 23.01.2009 i started browsing at 12.02a.m, i was downloading songs from the Nokia music store, i got 100 songs free to download from the music store and totally my data usage crossed slightly beyond 75 mb(75.228mb approximately), i checked my balance after that which normally i wont do but to my surprise it was as clean as anything left with 25p what could that be of use. My balance before this was 77Rs **P.

                                                     I called their customer services the next moment thats the number i can call anyway with that balance, it was 3.05a.m in the morning and i swear everybody in the customer services would have got surprised by my call, i was never rude to them doing so would make them not to refund that amount, it became a supervisor call since its an issue which the person who took the call first cannot deal with for his level, i spoke to a supervisor who empathised me, they are good in doing that so was I in my days, he booked a complaint and told me that it would get refunded within 27th of this month,Hold on! till that i cant browse with that paltry credit and that fellow was dare enough to tell me to recharge for 10rs so that i can have some balance for browsing  i accepted it anyway and finally gave me a complaint number, Good Night (Oh! i should say Good morning).

                                                     At around 3p.m in the afternooon i called for the status of this complaint, gave them the number again the person transferred it to the supervisor after checking their damn systems for sometime the supervisor got back to me and said you have used airtelgprs.com as the access point which incur charges seperately, I thing he is out of his mind i was using the same access point to download for all other days before this one and nothing happended to my balance and he was repeating those words, I totally got exhausted talking to people who are not helpful. 77Rs is some amount as far as i am concerned and i cant leave it as such for a system which has worked the wrong way on that particular day. I am going to visit their center which is at Begumpet and demand proper explanation for this.

Ok my rant is over for the day. 

Thanks for reading.

What am i trying to establish

My suggestion for all is "go mobile" smartphones are now available in really less cost when compared to laptops and desktops in addition to that they can make calls too

Some providers are giving unlimited internet for their postpaid customers so get a smartphone with a good data plan and be online wherever you go

Why not go for wireless internet providers

After reading all that rubbish you may ask me "Are you a fool to use mobile internet services" when there are lot of wireless services available

for that i first need to buy a laptop or desktop "good" i can buy one and next i need to shell down some money for subscribing to wireless services there are wireless providers giving high speed broadband services
my question is,
1. are they affordable?
2. Getting them is a bit difficult when compared of getting a new mobile prepaid connection
3. They say high speed broadband connection but in most of the areas in our country doesnt have that infrastructure implemented
4. Finally availing a costly one which doesn't gives us what they are intended to do

Why mobile service providers in INDIA doesnt offers good data plans anymore(mainly prepaid users)

I became a hard core mobile fan by late end of my engineering career and love to browse internet in mobile device, really liked internet service given by my provides because no other provider was giving unlimited internet access and download for 24 hrs at a meagre 20rs, there was also a weekly plan where you get unlimited internet access and download for 75 rs, and a monthly plan for 375rs for the same, is that a good deal?? A big YES from me, its icing on a cake for a die-hard mobile internet user and i wonder if someone denies it
all above i have mentioned is only for airtel users in TN circle, i agree offers varies from state to state
i was using it to the fullest extent including for my project works
Things changed and i moved to hyderabad because i got a job there the moment i went there i stuck to the same provider(Airtel ) only for the internet services they offer and boy i was happy(i can check mails, chat with my friends, download songs, update my profile(orkut,youtube),check for updates for my mobile, download softwares for my mobile a lot more) to my surprise the services were even cheaper when compared to TN but there was a blessing in disguise from airtel here, only daily plans were available at 15rs/24hrs, no weekly plans and no monthly either, thats a real bummer
But that didnt hurt me a lot as i was busy with my work too and activated it only on my weekly offs things went on smooth and in came a message to me
"Dear customer the unlimited gprs plan is withdrawn and you can access rental free internet service at a "pathetic" 30ps/50kb"

why on earth you do that without giving any proper justification, the next moment i called their customer services and had a go at them and till now i didnt get any proper answer from them, torrid customer response

Days went past and there are no signs that they are going to reinstate that service and also there was no one word answer YES or NO from them

So what basically a customer do "move to another provider" i did that and choose RelianceGSM and enquired about their internet services it is next to horrible and they are not even close to what Airtel gave me but i am having an eye on their internet services because they are the only 3G ready provider once the 3G auctions roll out i will consider them

So still i am stranded by not getting the deal i wanted from any providers

Then came the revolutionary TATA DoCoMo try this too said my instincts also they charge per second "Great" other providers fall on their feet, what can they offer for customers like me well they too followed the herd in mobile internet services, the best available from them is 10ps/10kb

Coming back to airtel they came back with some decent offers like do a RC 28 and get 15mb free valid upto 7 days, RC 94 get 100mb valid upto 1 month but none close to what they are capable of "Why cant you give unlimited internet back" is that because of recession you couldn't afford, there can only be assumptions not confirmations

so still i hope in near future they will reinstate back