I have bit the bullet and taken a BSNL 3G connection coz the bidding for 3G has just started for private mobile providers and they will be able to provide 3G connections only by the year end around (Oct – Nov 2010) and that a long wait, I have been using the BSNL 3G for the last couple of weeks and the euphoria of broadband in our mobiles is great and really convenient  but the quality of service is kind of a mixed bag.

Apart from the review in this article I would explain you how to setup BSNL 3G connection as well as show you what kind of 3G mobiles you need to get BSNL 3G, before we go ahead the first thing I want to do is to try to explain you a little about mobile networks and what 3G is all about.

If you have ever used mobile internet you might have heard of the terms like GPRS, EDGE etc, well these are the old types of data services on the mobile network known as 2G networks and basically the grading is with the maximum speed that you can achieve, for example in GPRS connection also technically known as 2.5G can get a maximum speed of 114 kbps (but in real world its around 50-60 kbps) in the last couple of years you might have heard of the word EDGE technically this is a 2.75G network which can support maximum data rate of 236 kbps and is much better than GPRS and currently most of the GSM mobile providers in India provide EDGE connectivity for data applications like mobile browsing and for very light usage and email checking EDGE is sufficient, but if you like to browse the net in its full glory the EDGE speeds are just too slow.

Now that you know a bit about 2G networks, the 3G networks (known as third generation) support high speed data services actually 3G is not that fast you might be surprised that technically  3G supports a maximum speed is just 384 kbps,  but a variant of 3G known as 3.5G or HSDPA is faster and theoretically can reach speeds upto 21 Mbps (but mostly cellular networks support the speeds in the range of 3.6 Mbps, 7.2 Mbps)  and fortunately BSNL 3G network supports 3.5G speeds, BSNL 3G has support upto a maximum speed  of 7.2 Mbps but they advertise their 3G speeds upto 3.6 Mbps I don’t know why may be only a few cell towers support 7.2 Mbps 3g speeds.

What do I need to do to get 3G on my cell phone, will any 3G mobile phone work with BSNL 3G?

The first thing is to make sure that you handset supports 3G network, also do note that many older handsets just support basic 3G speeds that is upto 384 kbps for example my old Nokia N80 had 3G support but its only 384kbps, ideally your 3G handset should support 3.5G / HSDPA to fully take the

benefits of  the 3G experience, also many of the Nokia phone have a support for 3.5G only upto 3.6Mbps this includes popular models like 5800 xm, N97, N97 mini it’s high time Nokia started supporting faster HSDPA speeds upto 7.2Mbps to make their phones future proof, on the other hand manufactures like HTC, Sony and Samsung support 3.5G / HSDPA rates of around 7.2 Mbps so if you are planning to buy a new 3G handset do note the speed that is supported by your 3G handset and it should support a speed of at-least 3.6 Mbps as not all 3g phones are equal, the other very important thing is to make sure your phones supports the 3G frequency band of 2100 Mhz that is the one that Bsnl is currently using, which is also supported by most of the European countries, currently most of the 3G phones sold in India support the 3g frequency of 900 / 2100 Mhz so that should not be a problem but if you are purchasing a phone from another country check if the 3G 2100 Mhz frequency is supported also if you want to use video calling make sure you handset also has a front facing camera.

Once you have a proper 3G mobile phone, you would need to get a BSNL 3G sim card, also existing cellone 2g subscribers can upgrade to 3G by calling up customer care and asking for an upgrade, I got a new post-paid 3G connection and it just took me around 20 – 25 minutes to get the same (I was expecting that they would asking me to come the next day to pick up the sim card but I was wrong, bsnl has improved a lot, not only I was given the sim card then and there I was also able to choose a mobile number of my choice from the list provide and the service was activated on the spot) be sure to carry address proof if you have a bsnl tel connection take that bill, identity proof which should have a photo (like election card, driving license) Pan card copy and a passport size photograph, BTW I had to pay just Rs 59 to get a new 3G connection.

How to setup BSNL 3G on your mobile phone?

When you get the 3G sim card from Bsnl, there is no instructions how to get 3G on your mobile, you are left on your own you might be thinking that we should automatically get 3G settings on your phone you are right only a few high end handsets do that but for other 3G phones you need to make a few settings on your phone to enable 3G access.

The first thing you need to do is to go to your phone settings locate the network mode and set it to “Dual Mode”  or “GSM / WCDMA” mode from the earlier “GSM” if you get a 3G, 3.5G or H symbol on your mobile home screen that means you are connected to the 3G network.

Before you can start using 3g you need to setup your accesspoint to do so send a  SMS to 58355 from you Bsnl 3G mobile, the proper settings for bsnl 3g are sent to your mobile you might get 3-4 sms after sending this SMS

The format to send this SMS to 58355 is <Your Mobile model>

For example say you have Nokia 97 the sms to be sent to 58355 would be  Nokia 97 for opening the message the pin code is 1111, open the configuration sms messages and save them, thereafter open your mobile browser and you should be able to  start browsing.

Sometimes these auto settings do not work with some mobile phone, so you need to manually setup the accesspoint on your mobile, use the apn name or acesspoint name as bsnlnet and leave other values as it is you don’t need to enter any  username and password.

So how is the BSNL 3G service

Note: That I have done this testing in the Hyderabad city and the review is based on the same.

The service of BSNL 3G is a mixed bag,  if you don’t get a 3G signal you automatically go back to the old 2G network, thought if you are in the heart of the city you will get the 3G signal but again in my experience over the last month the 3G signal for BSNL mobile is a bit patchy about 20% of the time I automatically get downgraded to 2G “EGDE” network and its hard to get a full signal strength on the 3G network, but a the same location I get the full signal with 2G network from BSNL and other private mobile providers like Airtel, Vodafone and Aircel so the signal strength of BSNL 3G is not that great and if you live in an area where you have patchy 2g service I doubt BSNL 3G will work, it’s best to ask some one who already has a 3G connection to check if the connection is stable in the areas you wish to use this connection.

But when you get the 3g network you can comfortably browse websites check your email it will look like you are on your broadband connection the first day when I got the connection I thought I had switched on my wifi on my phone but only after 20 minutes I realized that I was using 3g so in terms of speeds its decent but don’t expect to stream videos or do mega downloads on the connection coz the connection speeds is no that consistent, the one thing I found interesting is that this connection works even when you are on the move like inside a car, I was able to surf website send emails even while on the move, there are some slowdowns at times but it works most of the time.

In my testing I found that I get an average speeds around 350 – 700 kbps, I did manage to touch 1.8 Mbps only once and one of my friend even managed to touch 4.2 Mbps, but these speeds were achieved during off peak hours.

The BSNL 3G connection works even when you are roaming provided 3G is available in that particular area, the good thing is that the data rates that you pay are the same even when you are roaming.

Call Quality on the 3G network

The other thing that I have noticed is that the cellular call quality is also not that great on the Bsnl 3G network, I almost every time get dropped calls / voice is not clear or get disconnected when I make a normal mobile telephone call when I am on the 3G network, again I get a crystal clear call quality when I switch back to 2G (GSM) network,  as I am using this new 3G connection as my primary mobile phone number I have set my network to 2G and only when I need to access the net I switch to the 3G network this is a bit of a hassle and I hope the 3G network improves over time, also if you are on a call and the network switches from 3G to 2G your call will be disconnected.

What are the data charges can I use it as a replacement to my broadband connection?

BSNL 3G post paid and pre-paid connections are billed at a flat rate of 1 paise for 10 kb of data so it works out to be Rs 1 / MB, if just check your emails and do only a little bit of surfing and your internet usage is limited you can use this as a replacement of your broadband connection but if you are a normal to a heavy net user who likes to watch videos / download stuff from the net this connection would work out to be very very expensive for example if you use download 500 Mb worth of data it would cost you Rs 500.

If you really want to use 3G as your broadband connection you can opt for the BSNL 3G data cards as these data cards have a higher usage limits, but for mobile phones BSNL 3G has only the flat rate of 1 paise 10kb of data which works to Rs 1 / MB there is no data pack for mobile phone 3g plans.

Conclusion

It’s just great that we have 3G service available in India as it has been a very long wait and 3G brings the excitement of  broadband on the move, thought this cannot be used as a replacement for our broadband needs it sure fills the gap , though the BSNL 3G service is not very expensive at the same time for heavy broadband users its not the ideal solution, I just hope the quality of service improves and they launch some good bundled data packages as time goes by.