The following is the detailed description my procuring and testing AirTel GPRS in Chandigarh on a Pre-Paid card.
Procuring the chip also known as SIM card:
I got this pre-paid card from a local dealer in Chandigarh. The card was activated on January 31, 2006. I had to send a SMS to 700 “PGPRS” – All capital letters according to recommendation of the Customer Service Representative (CSR).
The cost of subscription here in Punjab Circle (under which Chandigarh falls, even though it is a Union Territory) is INR 375/month unlimited download/upload.
The method to use the internet connection thru the Nokia telephone is:
Phone--Data-Cable--Laptop
Equipment:
Nokia 6610 with CA-42 data-cable. The CA-42 is a local/Chinese make marketed by a company called NOVEL, cumbersome to install but works just like the OEM.
Speeds:
The speeds are extremely variable. They go from as low as 1 KB/sec to 5.4-5.5 KB/sec (Not kbps). I have been successfully able to download 2 MB file in 11 minutes. Very acceptable for GPRS. Speeds from the speed tester (https://speed.touchtelindia.com/meter.php) or AirTel is around 2.7 KB/sec to 3.6 KB/sec.
Applications tested:
- Skype (voice/VoIP application): Roundtrip times were about 5554ms to 9234ms whereas normal roundtrip times are about 480ms to a UK phone. Of course GPRS is never ok for voice chat. Even Skype’s website states that. EDGE could be better, yet to try it. If you have let me know. This is Skype’s web address (https://skype.com).
2. FTP downloading: I tried multipart FTP downloading and speeds averaged to about 4 KB/sec. Of course the GPRS connection froze in about 5 minutes this. But it gave a good idea of speeds possible.
Restrictions:
There are no usage restrictions on the card. Use it anytime anywhere AirTel is present. I can be connected throughout the day and do not pay a dime more than INR 375/month. Great, that this can be used throughout India wherever AirTel has presence without any roaming charges. So now I can travel from Chandigarh to Delhi thru Haryana without network disruption. But at times the GPRS freezes when you do a large data transfer.
Busy signals:
There are times when you really cannot login. The GPRS will simply not connect. GPRS uses time slot assignment. When the given area is overloaded, providers will restrict the GPRS connectivity to ensure that calls come thru in the area and outbound calls can be successfully made too.
Ping and Tracert outputs (Long useless data to some people):
This is a 10 ping output: “ping –n 10 https://yahoo.com”
Pinging https://yahoo.akadns.net [66.94.230.45] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 66.94.230.45: bytes=32 time=823ms TTL=51
Reply from 66.94.230.45: bytes=32 time=923ms TTL=51
Reply from 66.94.230.45: bytes=32 time=1153ms TTL=51
Reply from 66.94.230.45: bytes=32 time=960ms TTL=51
Reply from 66.94.230.45: bytes=32 time=931ms TTL=51
Reply from 66.94.230.45: bytes=32 time=705ms TTL=51
Reply from 66.94.230.45: bytes=32 time=1326ms TTL=51
Reply from 66.94.230.45: bytes=32 time=974ms TTL=51
Reply from 66.94.230.45: bytes=32 time=739ms TTL=51
Reply from 66.94.230.45: bytes=32 time=1168ms TTL=51
Ping statistics for 66.94.230.45:
Packets: Sent = 10, Received = 10, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 705ms, Maximum = 1326ms, Average = 970ms
About 400-600 milliseconds are added to the regular ping timings. Here are the ping timings of regular AirTel broadband in Chandigarh for comparison:
Pinging https://yahoo.akadns.net [66.94.230.45] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 66.94.230.45: bytes=32 time=288ms TTL=51
Reply from 66.94.230.45: bytes=32 time=286ms TTL=51
Reply from 66.94.230.45: bytes=32 time=285ms TTL=51
Reply from 66.94.230.45: bytes=32 time=291ms TTL=51
Ping statistics for 66.94.230.45:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 285ms, Maximum = 291ms, Average = 287ms
This is the tracert output: “tracert https://yahoo.com”
Tracing route to https://yahoo.akadns.net [66.94.230.34] over a maximum of 30 hops:
1 865 ms 954 ms 634 ms 172.20.202.145
2 729 ms 651 ms 606 ms 172.20.202.146
3 1439 ms 597 ms 636 ms 172.20.202.153
4 644 ms 710 ms 770 ms 192.168.201.163
5 469 ms 588 ms 596 ms 203.101.111.49
6 926 ms 678 ms 586 ms 61.95.252.17
7 945 ms 670 ms 697 ms 59.145.11.65
8 1215 ms 596 ms 693 ms 59.145.6.38
9 909 ms 896 ms 1296 ms 203.208.168.241
10 1326 ms 955 ms 1135 ms 203.208.168.246
11 755 ms 949 ms 926 ms ge-4-0-0-p440.msr1.scd.yahoo.com [216.115.106.201]
12 878 ms 917 ms 936 ms ten-1-3-bas1.scd.yahoo.com [66.218.82.217]
13 1412 ms 958 ms 824 ms p3. http://www.scd.yahoo.com [66.94.230.34]
Trace complete.
Two files one 100 pings and another 1000 pings are located at the following addresses:
100 ping: https://geocities.com/jat50b/100.txt
1000 ping: https://geocities.com/jat50b/1000.txt
Conclusions:
AirTel offers good GPRS in the Chandigarh area. In fact it even offers EDGE (Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution) for a monthly rental of INR 999 only in their post-paid option. Not all of Punjab or other circles are EDGE enabled. Only major cities are enabled. No hardware like specific cell phones or PCMCIA cards like Sony Ericsson GC83 are endorsed by AirTel. So a good thing option will be to go with the leading provider of these hardwares like Nokia and Sony Ericsson. Samsung and LG maybe good choices too but personally I have no experience with them.
The following cities (in alphabetical order) are EDGE enabled as of February 2, 2006 (according to an AirTel GPRS helpline representative +91-98155-12345)
Ahmedabad, Gujarat.
Bangalore, Karnataka.
Bombay (now known as Mumbai), Maharashtra
Calcutta (now known as Kolkata), West Bengal
Chandigarh, Union Territory (Punjab and Haryana common capital)
Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu
Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh
Jaipur, Rajasthan
Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh (East)
Ludhiana, Punjab
Madras (now known as Chennai), Tamil Nadu
New Delhi, Delhi NCR
Pune, Maharashtra
It is a good choice if you are always on the move and want to be reachable throughout the AirTel footprint. Only in EDGE can you get reliable data transfer capable to send large office attachments, etc. But in GPRS coverage messengers and small files come in easily. Personally tried on the Nokia 7710 and browsing was a snap.
It is not the best way (in reliability terms) to keep in touch. It the GPRS service is yet to catch up as not always is it possible to connect and may drop a connection at times.
I am awarding 4 stars to AirTel GPRS because of Price, consistency in service when connected, availability of 24 hours GPRS helpline (in Punjab at least)
I have removed a star because of the problem of connecting at the exact time. Some times if may not connect for hours together. This is what AirTel needs to work on to get more clients on the GPRS.
I recommend AirTel GPRS in Punjab, but only for non-critical communications. I will update later of my experience in other parts of the country. For critical I will say to use Reliance or TataIndicom. Personally I found TataIndicom more reliable than Reliance, but that is not the matter of this review.