Thursday, April 23, 2009

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.

22 comments:

  1. Thanks for the valuable post! I'm totally fed up with my old wireless net connection. Reliance net connect broadband plus seems to be great and effective. I'll definitely buy this one. Also, the USB looks very smart!

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  2. hello... hapi blogging... have a nice day! just visiting here....

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks for the valuable information .But i am unable to user EC168c Reliance Netconnect in WindowsVistax64bit OS.Can you send me the drivers and installation steps.

    This is my mailid syamsurapaneni@yahoo.co.in

    Thanks,

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  4. I bought Netconnect Broadband connection from reliance today. The huawei device looks sleek and the data access speeds are acceptable if not good. The transfer speeds I'm getting are between 50kBps - 200kBps (KiloBYTESPerSec).
    Overall, much better than my pathetic Tata Indicom WiMax Broadband connection.

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  5. Will this evaluation vary according to the place or do we consider it as a standard.

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  6. I bought this device 2 days ago. The ACTUAL data transfer speed on my Dell laptop (by McAfee Internet Speedometer)is about 1.1MB, which is great. However, video streaming is NOT continuous in some sites. Tolerable in some other sites / web pages. Light videos download fast, whereas high resolution vids take long time to stream. The download speed avegrages to about 120 kpbs, whish is good. I chose the misleading "Unlimited Plan", which is really 10GB. It is portable and works in any PC (200 kpbs only on my old desktop) in city limits. Pls see you don't exceed usage limit. Otherwise you will end up paying high bills. So far, my "usage limit" has not started appearing in the Reliance web site. It is 24 hours lagging when it starts! A negative feature, Reliance should urgently look into.

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  7. where to find the driver for huawei model ec168c

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  8. Abhishek your can download it from reliance netconnect broadband website

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  9. Per MB cost is reduced to 50paisa/MB for Postpaid Users.

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  10. used on a mac. speed while downloading 300kbps(transfer rate) ie connection speed as 3.1mbps. way to go reliance. during night unlimiter dwnld speed 200kbps, so connn speed 2mbps. totally rocking, yay...

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  11. I wnt to buy this pen drive plz call mee and sagest mee no 9769804855

    ReplyDelete
  12. can anybody say if I can use it on any sim based network while touring Europe?
    hardi.trivedi@gmail.com

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  13. it sucks...!!!! the speed keeps on flactuating, it disconnects frequently... and the worst part u cant do anything about since u have already paid for it.!!!!

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  14. I am using the reliance Net-connect from last 6 months.

    The service is not good. I have selected the monthly plan of 1200rs. But reliance fixed my Credit limit as 800rs. This is a stupid idea. The credit limit should be greater than the monthly rental. Due to this every month my connection will be deactivated because of exceeding the credit limit. I am facing this issue from 4 months. No proper support from reliance customer care. Reliance is very keen only selling the products; they will NEVER CARE after selling the products. Customer has to beg for each and every time.

    Reliance customer service is very very BAD.

    So friends, please do not buy reliance... Please go for TATA or BSNL. It is my suggestion/advice

    ReplyDelete
  15. I'm using BSNL 3G and it is not at all good -- neither technological service nor customer service. I was thinking of going for Reliance NetConnect but it seems it is as worse as BSNL. Is there any alternative?

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  16. I Have Reliance Netconnect zte ac8710 Working Great In Win 7. Recently I Buy Google Apad {china} Have Android Os,I want driver For Android.Help Me.

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  17. I am working in Bangalore. We have tested Reliance and tata photon broadband datacard in 3 places of Bangalore. I agree that Reliance datacard is good compare to other datacards.
    But don't expect that speed what they offer 3.1Mbps. When you see in Reliance netconnect window it shows nearly 600kbps. But this is misguiding you. Actually if you compare this is also wrong. I have tested this datacard by downloading WinZip (18MB). During download I have opened Reliance netconnect window in one side and normal download window in other side. In normal download window also we can check speed (bottom of the window), so don't use any testing software. Reliance netconnect window shows nearly 600kbps and normal download window shows it as 60kbps. For work comfortable like in office landline connection we need 126kbps. But 60kbps also okay, np. So, Reliance is cheating, what they have done in the nectconnect window software that normal download speed * 10. That means 60kbps * 10 ==> 600kpbs. It is ultra cheating. But if you compare to other datacard, the Reliance Datacard is toooo good. I am using it for remote connection of my office desktop and using 5GB plan. 5 GB plan is more than enough. Normally it won't reach more than 2 GB. And also there is no frequent restarting of connection problem like in BSNL landline and tata photon.

    ReplyDelete
  18. reliance netconnect broadband plus cheated me.
    i m used to playing online games. the dialer shows 3.1mbps and when i do a speed test the pings are higher than BSNL landline (2mbps).
    Speeds are worst during a cloudy day.

    ReplyDelete
  19. I had been using reliance netconnect broadband plus in Bangalore. I felt the device is costly and the speed was slow. And the customer helpline is pathetic. Disconnecting the service is a nightmare , and the process is so bad you will end up taking round of reliance webworld and top of that they will keep sending the bill after disconnecting the service..a horrible experience with reliance.

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  20. I am using reliance nectconnect 3.1 mbps, since the said it's up to 3.1 mbps most of them would say you won't get that much maximum speed, if you got the full tower you need to get 95% of the maxium speed more than 2.6 but it's not gettting like that. I tested the speed of the internet using the web address speedtest.net. Hence i beleive it's better to go for another data card. I need any suggesstions, is there any link to check the speed. Thanks.

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  21. I had been using reliance netconnect broadband plus in Bangalore. I felt the device is costly and the speed was slow. And the customer helpline is pathetic...
    We provide Reliance Broadband Plus Plans

    ReplyDelete

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