Tuesday, March 22, 2011

iPhone 3G/2G on BSNL 3G settings and WiFi on BSNL Dataone Speed tests

 

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I recently got an iPhone 4 32GB after already being a droid fan for a long time. Now I am torn between the two. Some things are great in the iPhone and other in the HTC Desire running Android 2.2.

And to top the cake with a cherry, BSNL recently launched 3G in my home town, Dehradun. I went thru the whole bureaucratic red tape and got a prepaid 3G SIM for Rs 180 (120  + 60) thats gives me Rs 50 talktime and 500MB data for one month. Good enough for a test run.

1k7loAfter dealing with the minisim - microsim fiasco, which was a tough thing to sort out in itself, I got the phone running on Cellone (BSNL) carrier network.

This was my first time with 3G and it was liberating. It goes to say even wifi is not true wireless freedom as it has a very limit range. 3G helps a lot with that.

To activate 3G I have to put ‘bsnlnet’ for APN Settings under Settings>General>Network>Cellular Data Network. It took a few switching on and off of the ‘Cellular Data’ settings. Toggle ‘Enable 3G’ to switch between 3G and 2G(Edge/GPRS)

The good thing is that bsnl push notifications work great and let us know hwo much data we used up as soon as we switch off ‘Cellular Data’.

The browser and youtube work fine but it is hard to tell if the speeds are faster then wifi. (i have a 512Kbps Unlimited plan from BSNL Dataone).

In this screenshot of the “SpeedTest.Net” app you can see the speeds that I get. The first one is Wifi which is not surprising as I have a 0.5 Mbps dataone landline connection. The second is the 2G setting for cellular network. It is pathetic. But as soon as we switch to 3G the beasts are unleashed! 1Mbps+ is more that sufficient for a mobile connection.

This also opens up the possibilities of using the phone as a WIFI or USB tethered device for mobile internet access on your laptop. I switched on wifi tethering and connected my laptop to the phone’s wifi hotspot and I was browsing 720p videos on youtube! It was amazing. Take that USB Stick modem! Open-mouthed smile

PS: To take a screen shot on you iPhone, press and hold the home button while you press the power button and the screen will flash and save the image in the camera roll.

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