Reliance Netconnect Broadband Plus Review

Recently Reliance, TATA and BSNL have come up with wireless broadband which comes in a small pen drive size equipment. These are based on EVDO technology. We have got a chance of using Reliance Netconnect Broadband+, so here we have come to share the experience with our readers.

First we will see what Reliance is claiming -

• Fastest download speeds up to 3.1 Mbps
  
• Fastest upload speeds up to 1.8 Mbps
  
• Plug and Play
  
• Rotatable USB interface) with Huawei device
  
• Micro SD Card slot for data storage with Huawei device
  
• Broadband coverage in major big cities (32 cities) and seamless 1X network throughout India including 4.5 lakhs villages

Reliance Netconnect Broadband+ offering two devices to use their broadband wireless, Huawei EC168C and ZTE AC8710, We opted Huawei EC168C, as we find more utilities in that (Rotatable usb interface and SD card slot)

Now we will review, their claims and quality of service

Device and Installation

Device looks are nice and fairly modern.

Device is Plug and Play, as soon as you plug in your device, it will setup a virtual CD drive which will install software and 3G modem drivers in your system. But installation takes a little long time and after installation it will take another 2-3 minutes to load drivers, but this is a one time process. (If Plug and play doesn`t work you have a CD in package to install the software). Rotatable USB provides good flexibility as well as durability. (As an added bonus you have an extension usb wire in package). This device has an inbuilt MicroSD card Reader, which can provide you a fair amount of data storage. Well that’s an add on... Device is compatible for both High speed broadband and 1X CDMA. You can select the mode as HSD, CDMA 1X or Hybrid in RConnect Dialer Settings.

Performance

• When you press connect Button in Rconnect dialer it will hardly takes 20 SEC to connect.
  
• Maximum download speed which we have got is 1.2 Mbps (Not so bad)
  
• Minimum download speed 382 Kbps
  
• Average upload speed is 230 Kbps
  

Well on speed front reliance has passed our expectation. When we go for CDMA 1X coverage, we are able to get a speed of 95Kbps. This is best point with Reliance Netconnect broadband+, because if by any reason you loose broadband connectivity you have reliance 1X CDMA coverage.

* MicroSD card reader is little bit slow when it is compared with other card readers.

Account Management Flexibility

Reliance Netconnect Broadband+ lacks in this. You can not change your data plan online. You can check your used data with a lag of 24 hours. Every time you need a change in your account, you have to call customer care.

Cost of equipment

Well both equipment offered by Reliance Broadband will cost 3500 INR from your pocket. Right now this is same as other competitors are offering for wireless broadband service. But still we feel that reliance should consider this area. Remember Reliance old CDMA 1X data card, it started with 5000 INR and then after some time we are able to get it free when subscribing for 3 months data package. So there is a scope to reduce the price of the broadband device too.

Cost of data

I can say....... Very Costly

None of data plan is truly unlimited, Maximum you can get is 10GB that too in 1099 INR (for citywide) and 1750 INR. But I don`t think it is enough for a high speed data service. They claim this service is good to watch video, playing online games, but what will happen if you download 200MB in one hour of video watching.

Typically --

Video streaming/Hour = 245 MB of data

HD Video streaming/Hour = 400 MB of data

Normal Browsing/hour = 6 MB of data

Flash sites/hour = 80 MB of data

Voice chat/hour = 20 MB of data

So no you can choose a plan as per your requirements.

Moreover any additional data transfer will cost you 2 INR/MB , which is just double of TATA Indicom.So be careful while choosing your data plan and don`t go beyond data limits.

Basic plans for Reliance Netconnect Broadband+ are

299Rs Pay as you go ( per MB basis)

650Rs 1 GB

850Rs 2.5 GB

1099RS 5GB for nationwide

1099Rs 10GB for Citywide

1750Rs 10 GB nationwide

There is one 200Rs night add-on pack of 10GB , which is not available as of now.

Final Words

After considering everything, we can say that Reliance Netconnect broadband+ is good for people who want high speed wireless freedom; otherwise you must consider wired broadband services.