I have used both the wireless cards: "Netconnect" card(120kbps) for a
year and recently "Broadband" card(3.1mbps).
Speed:
- For broadband, I got 500 to 800 kbps consistently(not the 3.1 mbps!).
(in Bangalore, Marathahalli, near to Intel office). It seems that’s
the speed range most people get. The speed never crossed 1mbps. Moving
outside the city, the card switched to 120kbps rate.
Plans:
- For "Broadband" cards, there is no unlimited plan; the ones available
are not good enough. This can be a big factor for heavy users. With
"Netconnect", you can get unlimited plan for Rs. 799 per month(used
to be Rs. 1099).
Reliability:
- Never rely on these connections. My connections got reset often(that
prompted me to write this review!). They seem to do some sort of
traffic policing. Today, my attempt to download 23MB file was reset 4
times(after several minutes in each case), I finally gave up. In one
of my conversations with customer-support-staff, I was told not to
exceed 600MB per day else might end up with very slow speeds.
Customer service:
- Don’t expect too much. What you will hear mostly is to install
netbooster software(which seems to downgrade the quality of the
images you see), then to install or not to install antivirus. The
dealer(KR Puram) from whom I bought the card was very helpful. You
will have to use the Reliance email id(they provide you during
installation) for email communication with support people.
Would I suggest this product? Not sure, but I’ll keep using it for now;
it’s not that bad, seems ok, though a lot is desired in terms of
speed and reliability. I haven’t tried other providers.