Discussion on low cost internet for home use

Dear Readers,

This blog discusses the low cost and good value internet for home use.


Also with this topic,I will also cover how internet devices like MTS/Tata Photon/Reliance/BSNL CDMA or 3g are very costly for home use

Introduction:
Nowadays mobile phones with GPRS connectivity having USB data cable to connect to PC,with bluetooth are very common and are available in market almost from 5 years

Nowadays GSM service provider 2G sim cards like Aircel,Tata Docomo,Airtel,Vodafone,BSNL,Idea etc gives good gprs plans for very less amount

Objective of the topic
To connect to internet from your mobile phone supporting gprs(A Common Man's Internet)


Tools required for this implementation
It is observed that Nokia mobile phone offers you best softwares to connect your Phone to your PC and then to Internet
Samsung also is good but the USB drivers gives too much problems for Windows XP/Win 7
I could not install Samsung PC Suite application because it failed to install USB drver on my PC
Nokia is the best option.

I am using Windows 2003 Server operating system with DNS configured and one client PC in domain

 This topic assumes that you have
1) Mobile phone supporting GPRS,WAP,Bluetooth technologies.I have tried with Nokia 3110 classic phone
2)A PC suite application having software and relevant drivers to connect mobile phone to internet
3) USB Data cable to connect mobile phone to PC
4) 2G Internet plan activated and appropriate recharge done on the Sim card.(In my case it is Aircel with 98 rupees monthly unlimited pack activated in prepaid)

The mobile phone with Sim card will act as the modem and the cellular service provider will act as your ISP

2G mobile Internet plans
Regarding 2G internet plans,there are many cellular service providers providing 2G internet services at cost effective prices.Some of them are given below(Maharashtra-Goa circle prepaid plans)
1) Aircel: 98 rupees per month unlimited usage,501 rupees 6 months unlimited,1001 rupees monthly unlimited
2) Tata Docomo: 97 rupees month 5 GB
3) Airtel: 100 rupees monthly 2 GB
4) Vodafone: 100 rupees 500 mb

Also there are plans from Idea,BSNL

Speed offered is 256 kbps for all GSM service providers

I used Aircel and tested it on www.speedtest.net
The results were quite amazing for Aircel
I was able to get actual speed between  200 to 230 kbps
Downloading:I got 24.1 kbps max and 8 kbps minimum(A download of 85 mb was done in 1.5 to 2 hours)
Uploading was also satisfactory
With Tata Docomo and Airtel also the results were similar
I didnt test Vodafone,Idea,BSNL hence cant comment on that


Starting point

1)Installation of Nokia PC suite: Install the Nokia PC suite on your PC.You can download it from the net or from any good mobile shops,you can source it for max 150 rupees
2) A Data cable to connect to PC: It can be obtained in 60 rupees max from good mobile shops

3) GPRS configuration on your mobile phone:Obtain GPRS settings from your service provider and save it on your mobile phone.Also ask for APN name from your service provider because it is very important in further configuration

Now you have a PC suite software installed,Data cable ready and GPRS settings instaled and configured on mobile phone
Next step is to connect your mobile phone to PC via the PC suite via data cable
Put the data cable in USB slot of your PC and plug it to your mobile phone

Special note
***Now when you are using PC suite for first time,you will be prompted to install USB drivers through various wizards, hence it is recommended to keep the CD of "PC Suite software" inserted in the CD drive till you connect to internet.This is only for first time use.After being connected to internet,you can take out the CD.

So I hope that the drivers are installed successfully and you are now ready to use the internet
But here is one step remaining and that is ......CONFIGURATION of PC suite

Here are the screenshots which demonstrates the configuration of PC suite to connect to internet
I am using configuration of aircel but readers are advised to refer their service provider's settings

Screen 1:
PC suite application main screen looks like this.To connect to internet,there is a button named "Connect to internet"  shown in first row third column in the screen

As discussed above about APN,
The APN is the main entity in connecting your PC to internet via mobile phone.
This APN(Access Point Name) is obtained from your respective cellular service provider
Once you confirm it,you need to store it in the settings of the PC suite

Click on the "Connect to internet" button as shown in above screen and you get the screen shown below

Click the settings button as shown in the screen below(There are 3 buttons namely Connect,Disconnect and Settings on the screen)

You get the configuration screen as shown below.
Make sure that your mobile phone model is mentioned in this screen dropdown mentioned as a modem.
If you see this,this means that Nokia PC Suite and the relevant USB drivers are succesfully installed and there is no problem.
Click next on the screen shown below

Select the "Configure connection manually" option.
By default the first option of "Select operator from the list" is selected hence before proceeding next,verify that you have select manual configuration option
After selecting this option,proceed to next

Now in the APN textfield, type the exact APN name 
For Aircel, only APN is required.The other parameters are kept blank
Thus confirm the user name,password and additional parameters from your service provider

In my opinion,only APN name is sufficient for almost all cellular service providers
Click on finish button.This saves your configuration

Now again go to the main screen of PC suite and click on "Connect to internet button"
Now click on the "Connect" button as shown below in screen

If all the settings are perfect as discussed above
Just see in the right side bottom of this screen shown below
You must get the message of connection succesful

Also on the PC suite application as shown in screen below,you will get the status as "Connected"
Now the connect button will be disabled and the "Disconnect" and "Settings" button are only enabled

Thus following the steps as shown above,Your PC is connected to internet through mobile phone

Results
Speed obtained more than 230 kbps
Downloading speed: Max 24.1 kbps and 8 kbps minimum
Uploading speed: approx 11 kbps

The results were the same for Airtel and Tata Docomo.Airtel was ahead of Aircel by just a whisker in performance but considering the cost,Airtel offers 2 GB in 100 rupees and Aircel gives 98 rupees per month unlimited usage thus Aircel and Tata Docomo are value for money in mobile internet category
Along with this many pros,it is having one con and that is live streaming applications over internet like youtube etc are very very slow.But those who just surf the internet and download,this mobile internet is very much affordable plus applications like youtube provides options to download the video thus instead of live streaming,depending on the size of video(a file size of 100 mb can be downloaded in 2 hours) this is a preferable option.It will be no live streaming but downloading and watching videos thus this is not a big issue
For watching live streaming videos,broadband and Wi-Fi services are too good
Nowadays BSNL gives broadband internet for unlimited in 499 rupees to anyone who has the basic phone with them and 625 rupees for unlimited broadband+Phone combo with 100 free calls .Speed is 256 kbps but downloading speed is upto 70 kbps max which is better than speed obtained by the 3.1 mbps USB CDMA modems
Thus in 650 rupees,you get good internet and phone facility with 100 free calls whereas in case of USB modem CDMA internet,in 650 rupees you get just 1 GB of data usage per month which finishes miraculously in 15 to 20 days itself


Thus from above result
98 rupees for unlimited usage per month with browsing speed approx above 200 kbps and 20+ kbps for downloading with satisfactory upload speeds,a question comes in mind

WHAT IS THE USE OF MTS/PHOTON/RELIANCE/BSNL USB wireless internet on CDMA???
The answer to this question is
Absoloutely useless!

If you want to surf the net at home with less downloads,then why use these  USB CDMA modems
All these CDMA modems provide speed of 3.1 mbps in certain limits.They also provide 230 kbps ie CDMA 1.x when out side the city limits
And speaking straightforward,CDMA 1.x mode of 230 kbps,these USB modems gives a useless speed of just 4 to 10 kbps for download and it take ages to upload a file(attaching file in email)
Hence the cost of 400 to 650 rupees per month for 1 GB usage is not justified.These USB internet on cdma is very very costly as compared to its features.They are 300% overpriced currently


I Hope the GSM service providers to do something to increase the speed from 256 kbps to 512 kbps so that people will not purchase these crap USB CDMA modems which is more of a show business wrapped in useless services


I think that GSM service providers like Aircel,Tata Docomo,Airtel,BSNL,Idea,Vodafone etc are doing good job to spread the internet usage to vast majority of people in all parts of India.
Internet has become a common man's need today thus this must be accessible to majority of people at nominal costs.
My intention of demonstrating all this was that if you all know it,forward it to as many of people who know it.This is about common man's internet.This information is definately not a piece of junk to throw in a dustbin/trashcan of an mailbox.People are not knowing this
Can you imagine if majority of people in India knows about  then what could happen??


Since GSM mobile phone technology is almost in every part of India,very soon, a day will come when a person living in remotest part of country can send and recieve a email from that location thus in case of help needed by person at remote place,the much need help can be given , school childrens in tribal part of our country will be able to gather information over the internet and get a chance to increase their knowledge without need to travel thousands of miles for getting basic knowledge.Many such good things can happen due to empowerment of cost effective technology
With information accessible to all parts of country,definately our country can progress and I think that this common man's internet can do it