Idea Cellular, India’s fourth largest mobile service provider in India has introduced Wi-Fi services in 5 Indian cities of Pune, Ahmedabad, Cochin, Vizag and Hyderabad. Although most telecom providers do provide data plans through dongle, Idea’s Wi-fi service is very different from “internet through dongle” type of services.
Simply put, Idea Wi-fi service can be called as city-wide hotspot, though with some differences. Aircel was first company to provide similar services where they created hotspots in a given area, based on which they provided internet access to subscribers. however, it looks like the service did not gather much steam since they launched early in 2011.
Although not many details are given on the Idea Wi-Fi microsite, it looks like Idea Cellular plans to create a city wide wi-fi network. It is not clear whether they will create a separate network or the existing mobile network will be used for the same (as far as I can tell, it will be the former).
Idea Wi-Fi subscribers will need a router which can either be procured from the open market or can be purchased from Idea customer support personnel. There is a one-time installation charges of Rs. 500 for postpaid and Rs. 562 for pre-paid plans towards configuration of Idea WiFi services at the Customer Premises.
Tariff plans for Idea Wi-Fi services
The plans offered by Idea are quite competitive from pricing perspective especially in Pune. I pay around Rs. 2400 on a Reliance Wi-Max post paid plan for unlimited connection, which has a FUP of around 50GB. Whereas, if you look at post-paid plans on Idea, it has a 50GB plan for Rs. 1299 after which the speeds comes down from 2mbps to 512 kbps.
So, if you are interested in getting Idea Wifi services,, you can fill out this form available on their site currently and Idea representative will give you a call to take it forward.