[PLUG] [OT] Getting wireless data plan w/o having to buy modem

[Vaibhav Dalvi]

On Sat, Sep 25, 2010 at 10:52 PM, Mayuresh <mayuresh at acm.org> wrote:

> On Sat, Sep 25, 2010 at 10:15:47PM +0530, Vikas Damodar Garud wrote:
> > (http://www.bsnl.in/faq/faqans.php?paramCategory=3G%20Mobile%20Services)
> > FAQ No. 31:
> >
> > 34
>
>
> Thanks a lot for this. I also found that their tariff page clearly shows
> some freebies IF you buy modem from them.
>
> > "Which particular BSNL office is aware of this information?" is BIG
> > question!
>
> I'll perhaps take these pages to them and try now. (Going by interactions
> till now, they simply turn deaf ear if you site anything from their
> website to the CSC staff.) (They strongly believe you are either silly or
> nearly illiterate when you want a data plan without modem!)
>
> May be contacting some senior officials is needed. But wonder where such
> species are to be found in this kind of organizations...
>
> Wish the private players gear up fast and provide options soon. Nothing
> seems likely till early 2011.
>
> >
> > HTH
> >
> > Vikas Garud
>
> _______________________________________
> Pune GNU/Linux Users Group Mailing List
>

I had the (Dis)pleasure to test BSNL's 3G USB Modem on Linux. The model we
had came with Linux drivers but they were available for Ubuntu's till 9.04.
We wanted to test it on Lucid. And we had very ugly results. Half the time
the usb modem just kept freezing my computer's cursor - requiring a reboot.
And even when it worked data speeds were not much to talk about. Certainly
NOT "Faster than your thoughts"! We tested it on Ubuntu 9.04/9.10 at another
workstation, and though we didn't encounter the mouse cursor problem there,
the speeds were not much.
On Windows XP we did get some good speeds although inconsistent. And as a
BSNL Mobile User I can say that BSNL's network sucks big time - worse than
Airtel which has degraded so much these days. E.G. Just last day I was in
Ranjangaon and there's no BSNL Network! Thankfully I'd a backup SIM. I
shudder thinking if I'd not kept that backup SIM.

-- 
Regards,
Vaibhav Dalvi
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