Gods Own Country Goes 3G

[savramesh 37]

Source

The much sought after 3G mobile services have finally arrived for the people of Kerala with BSNL formally launching the service in the northern city of Kozhikode. The service will soon encompass all the 14 district headquarters of the state by the end of January. Apart from these locations, seven more major towns would be 3G equipped by the end of the month.

The 3.5G services will provide users a very fast online user experience right on their mobile devices with facilities like video calls, blazing fast Internet access on the go and live streaming of video. The service supports speeds of up to 3.6Mbps. According to BSNL Kozhikode General Manager C Sunitha, the current capacity of 3G connections in the state is just 2.65 lakh with 37,758 lines taken up by Koxhikode alone. Hundred base stations are also being set up to expand the services in Kozhikode initially, she said.

The arrival of a 3G enabled network might just boost the fortunes of this southern state of India, which is already a hot tourist destination. What more would a tourist need than getting fast Internet access whilst on the move?

[::Hitesh:: 1,763]

I am waiting for private parties to get 3g band !

[srk006 21]

I tried to migrate existing 2G prepaid to 3G by sending SMS. Got reply "Invalid Symbol".

Looks like its just an official announcement. Full launch is going to take some more months.

[spknair 1]

HHuuuummMMM

Waiting for other networks for tariff slashing.

:( :(

[ipkonfig 10]

I tried to migrate existing 2G prepaid to 3G by sending SMS. Got reply "Invalid Symbol".

Looks like its just an official announcement. Full launch is going to take some more months.

Dont we have to purchase another 3G enabled sim? Or are you already using the new 3G sim from BSNL?

@savramesh Thanks for the info

[srk006 21]

The BSNL site says there is no need to change the SIM and you can use the existing 2G SIM..

[srk006 21]

From their FAQs

What is USIM? USIM is a SIM card for 3G services. USIM stand for Universal Subscriber Identification Module. USIM is provided to access 3G services.(For existing need not change the present 2G SIM to upgrade 3G)

[ipkonfig 10]

Ok. Thanks.

Recently i came across an interesting post on BSNL 3G. The author has mentioned a new 3G sim. You can the entry in here http://gxsaurav.com/bsnl-3g-it-works.html

Hence, i was curious

[commonman 228]

You require USIM (3G enabled SIM) to access 3G services. What BSNL really means is that the existing users can use the same mobile number for 3G services.

p.s. I'm using MTNL 3G in Delhi for last two months.

[srk006 21]

Finally.... I am on 3G!

Converted my existing Cellone prepaid from 2G to 3G through SMS. Activation of 3G took around 4 hours. I am still using the same 2G sim! 

Existing balance was carried forward but lost validity as 3G gives only max. six months validity. But hey, no probs.

Used Gmail and Opera. Speed is good. I am using N73 and hence no HSDPA. Some how I felt the response time(the time to start loading after clicking a link) while browsing on Opera to be longer than on Vodafone-2G as well as RGSM.  May be due to distance of 3G tower. I am receiving signal strength of -91dbm while I get -76dbm on Vodafone. 

There is no disconnection of network. Kept it on for 4 hours. The GPRS used to get disconnected on RGSM at least once in 2-3 hours.   

Connected to PC and the speeds are definitely better than 256kbps. Did a speed-test and got the following result

http://www.speedtest...t/685291550.png

one more... 

http://www.speedtest...t/685292685.png

Pings are high. mostly >400ms on foreign servers.

Connection on PC is not as stable as on Mobile browsing. 

Tariff as you all know is 1p/10kb. So Re.1 for 1Mb. They have to come up with a reasonable UL plan.

Btw, this post is using BSNL 3G!   

[ipkonfig 10]

Hey thanks for the informative post.