VC’s Techie CockTail

My brother has recently got a Tata Indicom Plug 2 Surf device as a back-up to the existing BSNL Broadband connection. I decided to give a test ride in my Acer TravelMate laptop.

First the pack contains the USB 1x CDMA modem almost similar to a “Thumb Drive” but marginally bigger, with a mini-cd, installation manual. Without reading the manual (one of the whims of a computer engineer ) I plugged the device and inserted the CD but after the initial installation steps, it said the hardware was not installed properly. So then I unplugged the device, from the autoplay screen of the CD pressed Installation, which installed the tata indicom dialer and after the software installation , i plugged the USB modem it got installed automatically and the green light started blinking indicating that the modem was correctly working now.

Then I started the Tata Indicom Dialer software. Its a single window with various options like “Connect”, Inbox, Contacts, Settings, Sent Message. Once the device is plugged in I was able to receive or send messages. The address book had options to store number and group numbers too. The upper part of the window showed the reception strength and other service information.I tried calling this tata indicom number from my mobile, it was ringing in my mobile but the device didnt show any response in the monitor or in the device itself.

I pressed connect and got connected almost instantly informing the speed was almost 230.4 Kbps. I opened 3 tabs in Firefox, and atleast one of the 3 pages said it couldn’t find server. To check two mail boxes it took me almost 5 minutes which I was able to do in a minute in my broadband connection.Next I checked its speed using McAfee Speedometer it said my connection speed was 40 Kbps.

To conclude its no way going to replace your broadband / Wi-Fi connection. The only advantage is that it can be used anywhere in India where tata indicom connection is available to check your mails or catch up on news.

At a price of Rs. 2850/- (72 $) and Rs. 100/-for the SIM card and a monthly rental of Rs. 325/- (30 hours free per month), if you think you need a way to be mobile internet you can try this. Its slightly better than GPRS connection provided by GSM operators (in India) as far as I have tried.

written by Vignesh