I’ve tried to write an honest review of Tata Indicom’s Photon+ wireless broadband device.
I had first thought that wireless internet would always be slow, having used a Reliance R connect(whatever) earlier and having had a very bad experience with it(I guess it was a dialup, and it used to disconnect often), until this salesman from Tata Indicom came to my office. I had never read any review of this before, nor had anyone bought this before.
During the demo at my home, the salesman brought a different photon+ USB device, which was about the size of big matchbox(than the handy one being advertised now), whose speed was lot better than the new instrument. We tested the speed thru a speed-test website, and to my amaze, it was downloading at 300 KBps! Never imagined this speed. I tried it on my laptop(a 2 minute auto-installation, software for which is inside the USB stick). I tested by carrying my laptop to different locations in my house, and the speed was pretty good. I was happy with its performance and booked one.
The instrument was delivered on the same day(the new and handy one), though installation took about 4 - 5 days, as another technician had to do that.
Now, for the performance of the actual device.
The lowest speeds that I have got is 0 KBps. This happened many times during 9 PM to 11 PM(the tech guys say its due to peak hour traffic). But this speed is not continuous and it returns to the average speed for browsing, which is around 40 KBps. But this is a big turn-off for me, as this happens many times when I am downloading something or watching videos online, and the connection stops responding, sometimes upto 5 mins continuously!
The highest speed which I’ve experienced is 343 KBps(when I was downloading a movie), and it had averaged around 240 KBps, which I still feel is pretty decent for a wireless connection, given the amount of data packets tat get lost due to all the physical disturbances surrounding me in my room.
I feel that as there are not much Tata towers in the city, the towers are not able to handle the bandwidth, and so each user who has connected at any moment briefly gets to access the service(at maximum speeds) and bandwidth switches over to other users in line(when experiencing speed of 0 KBps)
Overall average speed is around 90 KBps.
Some negative aspects:
The device gets hot during long hour usage, but I’ve never experienced any compromise on the speed due to this.
Sucks in a lot of power(electricity) from ur comp. U’l feel this especially if u use a laptop.
Light keeps blinking even after u eject the USB device from ur comp(even after system shows’Safe to remove hardware’). Due to this, there is power loss from my comp.
The USB extn. cord provided is very tight when the device is inserted, I feel that my USB has started shaking due to constant usage with the extn. cord. I prefer using my USB port on my laptop rather than connecting thru the extn. cord.
Other(non) important points:
I’ve heard customer service is good(from reviews I read after purchasing), though I’ve not tried. Have to call a technician to look into why it reaches 0 KBps suddenly when downloading at 50 KBps continuously.
Cost(Rs.3500 as mentioned in the product detail) is including service tax/VAT. Rs. 200(I think) is charged extra, if you’re not a TATA employee(I am one)
Online bill payment is one of the worst services I’ve ever seen of any such service provider. I could not register my device on Tata Indicom website(as it accepts only 10 digit Tata Indicom phone numbers, and my registration no. for Photon+ is a 9 digit number, eventhough Tata Indicom assigns a 10 digit phone number to each Photon+ instrument). I currently pay my bill through this link(https://billdesk.com/tataindicom/html/instantPay_billdetails.htm), though I still doubt over the reliability of this link(it was constantly rejecting my number last month when I tried to pay my bill in time!). I have never tried any of the other payment methods mentioned in the website(such as Ozone or other physical payment kiosks)
I have taken the 3600 minutes per month free package, which I think is most useful to me. It costs Rs.750 per month(excluding service charges). This comes to around 2 hours of unlimited usage everyday for a month. I’ve never crossed this limit till now.
I live in Chennai and have never really taken this device to any other place, other than my home. The salesman had promised that cost would be the same anywhere in India(no roaming charges), though I’ve not taken it anywhere yet.
Have tested it, though, in different locations of my home, and find the speed inconsistent, reasons for which could be many, like bouncing of waves off walls, poor connection at unreachable locations, etc. Speeds are much higher when there are open windows through which the waves could easily reach and move about. I’ve experienced bad speeds in rooms with closed windows/doors.
Have dropped this device few times, and nothing has happened to it yet. Pretty solid I guess.
Think I’ve covered many aspects about this device in this long review. Do reply if you find my review useful, or if you have any queries on the same. Happy browsing.