I have been using Airtel Data Card for last 1 month from Bangalore location and here is a brief of what all has happened and how it continues to perform once intial hiccups are over.
ADC is not my primary way of connecting to internet but when I go to my native town, airtel is the only service provider out there and I did not want to have a broadband connection for few days in an year that I travel to my native place.
Initial Connection Setup: The product is priced at Rs. 5K which is pretty less than what it started with 2 years back. It is just another matter that probably still it is highly priced compared to the benefit that you get out of it. Even before I received the card physically(I brought it via indiatimes shopping), airtel was fast enough to give me another sim to be used with data card. Once I started using the data card with Rs. 49 monthly rental plan(all uses chargable at 1paisa/KB), I came to know that the plan was not enough for me as you can not connect to VPN servers for any official work. For that, you have to go for Rs. 350 a month plan with VPN connection. Airtel should have clarified these differences at the beginning or in their tarrif sheet in the internet.
Customer Service: When I tried to shift to another plan with VPN connection, they took away my GPRS connectivity. How can you connect from then onwards, if GPRS is still the backbone of this adc. Even though, they have a separate helpline(7070) for adc, but all your GPRS related queries will be answered only by their regular customer care(121) and this guys do not have slightest clue of what an adc is. I kept on bouncing between these 2 numbers for few days before it got resolved after around 10 days. Then, I really started working with that small piece of wonder.
Bandwidth: There lies the pathetic truth.2-3KBPS is what you will get. Do not expect anything more as I called 7070 for this and they came back with a generic answer.there is some problem in your area, we are rectifying that. It will never be rectified, though. If you are looking for checking some mails(small ones, definitely) and chat, then probably, this bandwidth will suffice but then for this why to pay Rs. 5K. Can’t you do the same just by enabling mobile office in ur mobile and using that a modem with your laptop. You won’t get any less speed, for sure.
One thing is for sure, once you are connected, you will remain connected. But, that is more probably, at this bandwidth, you will hardly come to know whether the connection is alive or dead or just hanged.
I m yet to get my first full month bill and so do not know what surprises are stored there.but, overall, I am dissatisfied to the core and just because I have spent Rs. 5K, I think, I should use that for few more months.