BSNL EV-DO Review from Bangalore (CDMA 1x)

Author: Santhosh

BSNL is about a launch a new kind of internet connectivity that India had never seen before!

This technology will be a boon for people on the move and for those who don’t want a last mile cabling to their houses. So, yes you are right! This is wireless internet connectivity. This is a revolutionary connectivity which people also term it as “Wireless Broadband”

Though BSNL hasn’t launched EV-DO officially, they have started giving out EV-DO devices from September 2007. The EV-DO USB Host is manufactured by ZTE Corporation. As of now, BSNL has not yet established EV-DO network which offers 2.4 Mbps with Rev. 0 and up to 3.1 Mbps with Rev. A, but they have decent coverage of CDMA 1x (CDMA 2000 1xRTT) that offers 144 Kbps and this technology is considered as 2.5G and CDMA EV-DO as 3G Technology. All CDMA EV-DO devices can access CDMA 2000 1xRTT network as a backward compatibility.

Though theoretically EV-DO offers 2.4 to 3.1 Mbps, the speed may vary depending upon how far you stay from the CDMA tower. This applies to CDMA 1x also. In order to achieve good speeds, either you should stay 3 – 5 Kilometers from the tower or your area must have wide open spaces. One can’t get a wide open space in urban places, so at least they have to make sure the tower is nearer to them. I live in a semi-urban place where I have wide open spaces, so fortunately I’m able to get good speeds though the tower is 7 Kilometers away from my home.

Click here to read the wiki on EV-DO

This is how it looks while its connected. Notice the small LED.. actually it blinks… Yellow Blink indicates the existance of 1x Network and Green Blink indicates EV-DO… i’m getting Yellow Blink:

And it’s actually NOT BAD!! When we connect the speed will be very less about 26 Kbps. and as we start browsing and downloading the speed increases gradually like 56 Kbps, 80 Kbps, 100 Kbps, 115 Kbps, 138 Kbps, 140 Kbps and so on.. The max speed will be attained within 2 minutes after the connection is established. The Max speed I got so far is about 242 Kbps which is above normal and the speed is actually increases by itself depending on the sites you are opening. Say for example you are opening some huge sites like download.com. If the speed was 100 Kbps it increases at about 120 - 150 Kbps and so on..

Overall if anyone is disgusted using dialup and fed up of paying huge bills I would sure recommend this little thing. Which is really some thing that offers better then the regular download speeds as of dialup connection. In my case I got the mere 12 - 16 KBps from fast servers…

Since the EVDO plan from BSNL is in initial stages… so still we don’t have much ads about it. As soon as they establish more towers and implement EVDO everywhere… sure we’ll be getting 2.4 Mbps without any doubt.

Price Structure as of now:

Visit Tariff Page for detailed information.

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Note: Price may vary

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