EVDO still in experimental stage. Review on BSNL EVDO

After trying to cope up with problems of using Tata Indicom Plug2suffer for last 3 months, I finally decided to change my operator. At first I thought of going for fixed line broadband by either BSNL or Airtel(My experience with Reliance Fixed Line Broadband is also not very good).

When I reached BSNL office, I was surprised by availability of EVDO, strange not many people are aware of availibilty of EVDO technology in India.

Excited about it I wanted to grab one right away, however I got it today after 5 days of applying for same.(Same as Tata).

I was able to connect it on one go, however the speed is nowhere close to EVDO technology though much better as compared to TATA. In Plug2surf I was getting speed of 20-25 kbps(as against 144 kbps claimed by company). BSNL I am getting around 250-300 kbps as against 2400 kbps maximum. Still better then other mobile Internet solution.

The best part is its tariff which is just Rs. 550/- pm for unlimited data download. Once the services of BSNL improves, I can put on server of my home network and use wi-fi router to broadcast it to other 2 machines+ my laptop. but for 4 machines I need atleast 1000 kbps of consistent speed.

One negative is that most of the laptops today are having PCI Express slot, EVDO is available in US by sprint / AT&T on PCI Express card, whereas one provided by BSNL is USB device by ZTE.

Second negative is that you cant roam with this device, BSNL is yet not offering roaming feature.

I hope BSNL improves the services soon, still the best amongst the worst.