Urban Echo

I was intrigued by the recent Tata Photon+ unlimited wireless internet plan for 950 rupees per month, but blogger vaibhav's post Tata Photon Plus Mobile BroadBand 950 Unlimited Plan Reality Check states how (after I've cut out most of the drama in the post) Tata gives unlimited usage a new meaning:

"the UNLIMITED according to Tata Photon plus is just 5GB...calling this UNLIMITED as far as it comes under FAIR USAGE POLICY that is 5GB per month.And what [is] worse [is that] after finishing your limited [bandwidth] they will take your speed [back] to the dark age of 155 kbps"

I originally meant to comment on this post but technical issues prevented me from doing so. Here's my two cents:

Thanks for the clarification. There's always a catch with these new plans. Too bad they don't give you the fine print upfront. Then again you can't discount the convenience of a USB dongle, plug and play anytime, anywhere - just don't lose it.

Why don't you cover how existing customers with older Tata Photon (CDMA 1x), or for that matter Reliance Netconnect data cards are stuck with legacy hardware after shelling out 3000 rupees for each one. Yes, Tata and Reliance don't have any discount or buyback policy for existing customers to upgrade to Photon+ and Netconnect+.

By the way, that BSNL 750 p.m. plan is capped at 512kbps. That's not broadband. Airtel has a, albeit more expensive and possibly limited to a few circles, Impatience 899, 899+taxes p.m., 4Mbps upto 6GB, 256kbps onwards. It works as advertised. If you could provide details of similar or better fixed-line or wireless plans, that would be nice.

To be fair, the plug n' play USB dongle, take-it-anywhere-plug-it-into-any-computer (Windows 7 users will have to upgrade the device's firmware), net anytime, anywhere, is a one of a kind service in India with other companies offering non-portable wireless or fixed plans at similar rates. 5GB is more than sufficient for basic browsing (maybe not for facebook games and youtube addicts) and a few movies and songs. 950 rupees per month is certainly not cheap for a vast majority of Indians, but then again nationwide computer penetration is low, let alone internet access. We could digress into how broadband costs are high and speeds are low in India, but what would be more pertinent is how secure is a 3G broadband solution relative to, say, DSL or Wi-Fi modes.

P.S.: You want to know the real "dark age" of internet? I still have a 14.4 kbps modem! Still, that speed was sufficient for surfing the web in the early 90's.

UPDATE: Newer TATA Photon+ dongles are Windows 7 compatible.