3G connectivity in India [My experiences]

This week I finally took the long awaited plunge into the world of 3G. My phone was asking for the fun of 3G for a long time now and last week I gave into its whims.

Now, this is not a review exactly as a week is not enough to assess the situation aptly. It is because of two reasons – One, a good week does not make a good service; Two, I come from 2G so the comparison is not fare and I am having a sense of a honeymoon period right now. Still, let me tell you the brief details.

The company is Airtel with the plan being Rs. 49 for 7 days. I have renewed it for a week more. I am getting data of around 150 MB. Last week I finished off the allocated data in 5 days. It included one weekend and 3 working days. Generally on working days I use WiFi, so the data was in all probability filled in 3 days overall. I had formatted my phone and installed a lot of apps in that week so a lot can be blamed on that but then I did not use streaming at all.

When I was using 2G, my total data consumption for a month was around 200MB. In 3G, that seems like a week’s worth, with conservative use. Currently there are number of 3G plans available from 1GB to 4GB (on Airtel). Looking at my use, I feel that 2GB should do the trick. This is keeping a double margin on my current usage of 3G.

Now talking about speed, it is well above 2G. No kidding. After using 3G, it will be nearly impossible to go back to 2G/Edge speeds. The certainty that the browser will open your webpage is something I never felt had on 2G. I had installed Opera earlier so that most of the rendering happens on the server side. Except to save data margins, there is no such need in 3G. Use the browser you like. Other apps like Facebook etc. that like good net connection work like breeze and uploading a picture becomes considerably easy. On the other hand comparing it to the WiFi, it does not reach those peaks. But then I guess that is asking for the moon.

In all I came to two conclusions – Once a person is hooked to 3G going back to 2G will be nigh impossible, so companies should create lucrative plans or give a week or month’s 3G free with new sim-card. That should really get the mobile user hooked for life on 3G (if the mobile user can afford it). Unless the only internet pertaining app a person uses is Whatsapp (or other IMs) where a 2G works as well as 3G. Then of course there is no need to spend that extra money. The cost difference between 2G and 3G is still a lot, even though telecom operators have slashed 3G prices drastically!

Second conclusion is that unless a person is a video hog on phone the current data caps are enough for a regular user. And one more thing – Keeping 3G on all the time is a huge battery hog, so make sure your mobile battery is fully charged when you expect heavy 3G usage.

What is your take? Do you use 3G and are you thinking of going back to 2G, or you think you can go back to 2G?