BSNL launched 3G service in India with costly data plans

BSNL has been decided to introduce 3-G mobile services, with this launch, BSNL/MTNL had become first company to launch this service in India. Presently it is available in Ambala and is going to be available shortly in all state capitals and other major cities.

Click here to know What is 3G and what you can do with it.

BSNL claims "Practically, you are going to get broadband experience with speed better than 384 KBPS"

A new 128kb USIM is required to access 3G, which can be bought by paying Rs 300. USIM stand for Universal Subscriber Identification Module. USIM is provided to access 3G services. Please keep in mind that 3G services depends on your handset. At this stage migration is not allowed, you have to buy the new SIM, but you can retain your BSNL/MTNL number, which is not possible for private operators.

Lets talk about the charges..., Its really costly...

If you want to try the service, you can go for

Trial Pack of 50 MB worth Rs 60 with 15 days Validity.
Trial Pack of 100 MB worth Rs 120 with 15 days Validity.

BSNL 3G plans (MBV 250, MBV 400, MBV 650, MBV 1000, MBV 3001) are expensive too.., You get unlimited internet surfing if you pay around Rs 3300 Per month.
You Pay Rs 290 for 300 MB and Rs 1150 for 5GB. I wish BSNL will reduce the charges as soon as it gets more subscription. You can also buy the data card, USB or PCMCI which supports HSDPA.

For more information, visit BSNL site

3G simply explained, which 3G mobile phone to choose?

3G is the next generation, after GPRS edge technology, mobile communications systems which enables the data transfer ranges from 384 kbps to up to 7.2 mbps.

Looking at the past, we have different version of G..,2G, 2.5G, 2.75G, 3G and now 3.5G.

3G starts with UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) with maximum speed of 384 kbps, but usage different technology then GPRS. The maximum speed, so far, supported by UMTS network is 7.2 mbps called HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access) , sometimes known as 3.5G. Work is also progressing on improving the transfer speed with the HSUPA (High-Speed Uplink Packet Access) which could be known as 3.75G. There are different versions of HSDPA, which supports 1.8 mbps, then 3.6 mbps speed.

3G network uses different band of (HSDPA 2100 / 900 for Europe/Asia and (HSDPA 850 / 1900 for America).

With high speed, you can use 3G network to make video calls, VoIP calls, surf internet, watch movies, cricket match on your TV. Well its not free, you have to pay for it.

You need to have 3G enables handset in order to use it, please check before buying, if your handset supports 3G or not. Just supporting 3G is not enough, I recommend you to go for HSDPA phones for higher speed.

Like Nokia N73 supports 3G, but the maximum supported speed is 384 kbps. On the other hand, Apple iPhone 3G, Samsung i900 Omnia and HTC Touch Diamond have HSDPA 7.2. There are some intermediate phones like Samsung black jack have HSDPA 1.8 mpbs.

UMTS phones are available in the market ranging from 60$ to ...$, you can choose the phone as per your requirement.

Having 3G mobile and data plan subscription could reduce the cost of calls to zero.

Tuitalk: Free calls per day to over 40 countries, Now India included

We already discussed about tuitalk , It is an ad best free VoIP phone call provider, it is offering roughly 10 minutes of free calls each day to over 40 destination at the cost of advertisement, you have to listen and watch the ad before your call is connected. And the good news is, Now India is included in the list.., and you can make free call from India also.

Before your call connects, you will watch a short video ad. These advertisers are sponsoring your call.

You can talk as long as your sponsorship lasts for your call. An indicator on your computer screen will tell you how much time you have left. With tuitalk you can call Every day!

You need to register and download the tuitalker in order to make the free calls.

1. Click here to Join tuitalk

2. Download tuitalker

3. Dial the #, watch an ad, and talk for free.

Mobile calls: Only India, USA and Canada mobile numbers can be called. If you find a call error for these countries, please try again. Sometimes you need to see 2-3 ads in order to accumulate the money to call. This has been tested and working properly.

It also gives you option to download Windows PC and Windows Mobile Smartphone software, by which you can make call directly from your phone.

You may make international calls from anywhere in the world to Turkey. At this time, tuitalk is not available for making calls from Turkey.

Dialadvantage promotions: Up to 20 free minutes from USA.

DialAdvantage is a prepaid long distance phone service offering up to 20 free minutes from USA, Calling to some countries may net less than 20 free minutes for your free trial.

Click here to activate a standard account & receive free minutes as a bonus.

Please note that Credit card not required for free trial, However your account will be processed in a similar way and needs activation after call confirmation from dialadvantage customer support.

I do not think its the best or cheap service for regular use, but you can always use the free trial minutes given by the companies. If you want a regular plan, I would request you to try Stanacard

I could not try this service, because I could not verify my account as I am not in USA. Leaving positive/negative comment after trying this service would be appreciated to help other readers.

Communitytelecom offeres 1 USD free trial call to all destinations

Community telecom is offering $1 free trial call to its registered users. You can make the PIN less call from your registered phone. If you are calling from another number, you need to dial the PIN.

Visit http://www.communitytelecom.com/ and then click on "call free".

It takes some time (10-30 minutes) to credit your account with $1.

I tried to register and I could see $1 credited to my account but I couldn't make the trial call because of some technical reasons. I called the customer care but still the problem could not be resolved, You can try this service, I hope it would work for you..

Thanks to Driss from morocco for sharing about communitytelecom.com

Lacalphone reduced rate to India, 2.9 cents per minuts as regular rate.

Every company is reducing the rate to India, with locaphone is ahead of all announcing second reduction in the call rate to India in 2009. The first announcement was made on 26th Jan. Now you can use local phone to call India landlines and mobiles for only 2.9 cents (USD) per minute. This is their regular rate. So if you want something cheap other than some promotions like stanacard , you can always buy credit. I suggest you to try their good quality service with no contracts or monthly fees, and no connection or service charges.

Click here to register

We already discussed about the localphone, You can use Localphone Direct, Localphone Calling Card, Localphone VoIP, You can use your broadband internet connection to maximise savings Make cheap international calls from your computer or laptop, or even use your existing landline phone with some VoIP adapters.

Dcalling: up to 30 minutes free trial International call

Do not try this, it does not work anymore

Dcalling.com (english version) or dcalling.de (German version) is offering free trial International call.

You can also try their service for 30 seconds without registration, it seems useless to call for 30 seconds, but still you can call somebody and ask "how are you?" just enter your own number and a destination number that you want to call into the above fields and press "call". But If you register you will be given max up to 30 minutes of free calls. For India its up to 8-10 minutes.

<<Click here to register>>

They offer various services, which include SPEED DIAL, SIMULATOR, CALLBACK, WEB-CALLBACK, WEB-PHONE, ACCESS BY SIP, CALLER ID , SMS. You can also use their service via SIP device, with your username and password with proxy sip.dcalling.de

Well their calling rates are not cheaper and referral program is also not good as offered by Stanacard, I suggest you to buy credit within order to get the max benefit, click here.

Operatorone: €1 free credit plus 10 minutes free international call to try

Operatorone ("Operator One") is an independent international operator which offers easy to use communication services. They are offering 10 minutes + 1 EUR free call credit to call your country.

For details visit http://www.operatorone.eu/

Before signing up, you can try their service for 10 minutes free of charge. You can call to any country you like, including India, Pakistan.

You can also get €1 free credit (17 minutes to India) by registering your own phone number and the phone number of the friends.

For you international number, operaorone will give you a local number (local operator), and you have to dial the local number from your registered phone and you are done.

You can use this service from:
Argentina,Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Greece, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States.

Operatorone, as of now, does not offer any referral minutes as offered by stanacard. I request you to use stanacard so that you can get max benefit with cheapest rate.

You need to enable your caller ID to make the phone calls or to verify the phone.., for this reason, its diffucult to have Operatorone hack to make free calls.

They also have registration issues with the numbers starting with 0 just after the ISD codes. So if you are trying to register a number +3902XXXXX, it will take number as +392XXXXX.

Youtring valentines day 2009 offer, free calling minutes around the globe

We already discussed about youtring, which is a social networking website like orkut, facebook, but youtring is integrated with Telecommunication solutions. Not only this, it also gives you earning potential by referring friends, uploading video and images and many more.

Click here to register

This season of love in February 2009, YouTring is pleased to announce the special Valentine's Day scheme, which would allow you to get even better value-for-money , free calling minutes around the globe to stay in touch with your loved ones.
This scheme is applicable on three denominations: $25, $50 and $100.

They are giving away free calling minutes to all users who purchase these plans between [2nd February 2009] and [15th February 2009].

MyLivio: Free call to France mobile and landline, 10 minutes per week

MyLivio, a trial and free version of the service from a French company Inexbee is offering free incoming calls to French mobile and landlines phones, Free incoming means, the caller does not have to pay for this call.

Lets see how it works?

Right now this service is working only for France (mobile+landline), User having French number can register with their service and get a link. You can give this link to your friends outside France to call you. Please note that call to France mobiles are too costly, so it could be a good idea to register you mobile phone and let your friend call you on your mobile.

MyLivio website: http://www.mylivio.com/

Few advantages of MyLivio

- Calling in one click directly from the web

- Immediacy: callers do no need to register

- No software installation required

While MyLivio is in beta stage, the maximum length of one call is limited to 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, the call will be automatically terminated. Every user can create one and only one MyLivio button and can receive up to 10 minutes of communication per week (Monday to Monday) on the phone number registered with MyLivio. When this limit is reached, any call through MyLivio to this number will be blocked, till the following Monday, when 10 minutes will be credited again on every account. Unused communication time is not transferred to the following week. Furthermore, a phone number must be linked to only one single button (1 button = 1 phone number). Any improper usage of the MyLivio service will lead to an automatic suspension or deletion of the user’s account, without any prior information nor compensation

Thanks to Mr Driss from morocco for sharing this tips with us, Unfortunately we are not in France so we couldn't test this service, but leaving a comment would be appreciated.

Phones.com: $2.5 worth free credit for free SMS or call??

Phones.com, number one online phones comparison websites, is offering $2.50 worth credit.

Thanks to Mr Driss from morocco for leaving comment about this site on 30th Jan 2009. I would request him to contact me meravikas--at--gmail.com to send a gift for him.

I am not sure if you can use this credit to make the call, I tried 3-4 times and it seems that we can use that credit to just send SMS, not to make the call. Anyway you can give a try and let us know if you could make the call.

How to get the free $2.5 credit?
1. Click here to register at phones.com with correct mobile number and email.
2. Verify your email address from activation link sent in your mail.
3. Log in your account and verify your mobile number.
4. You will get $2.5 free trial credit in your account as soon as verify your phone by verifying 8 digit activation key.

You will see during the process of verification
Your mobile phone is not verified.
Verify it now and get $2.5 Free Credit!
SMS with the activation code has been sent to your phone number on 2/2/2009 1:24 PM.

Now you are ready to make phone to phone call, if your call is going thorough, for me it did not, my calls were in queue and never connected.., If you are in Europe, you can change you verified mobile number to any landline number to reduce the cost of the call. Nevertheless, you can use this credit to send SMS.