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BSNL EVDO Review – High speed 3G Broadband in India

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ev-do AC8700 ZTE Introduction

Indian government is yet to give 3G band licenses for mobile access. Yet months before that BSNL has introduced 3G in the form of wireless EVDO broadband service (the advantages of being a public sector company!). It is only available in select cities in India and offers download speeds up to 2mbps! But if there is no EVDO coverage is your area, the EVDO card switches to CDMA 1.0 based Internet access which gives speeds up to 128kbps. This article will give you a complete picture of BSNL’s EVDO service, its features and a list of frequently asked questions(FAQ) on it.

What is EVDO?

EVDO (also spelled EV-DO) stands for Evolution-Data Optimized. It is a telecommunications standard for transmitting digital data through radio signals and hence is used for wireless Internet access. It used CDMA and TDMA techniques for data transfer.

EV-DO is considered as a part of 3G standard of mobile access. The maximum speed supported by an EVDO device/network is about 2.4mbps. EVDO devices offer backward compatibility and hence can access CDMA 1x network.

How to get BSNL EVDO Broadband Connection?

You need to visit the main BSNL office in your area to get EVDO connection. If you already have a BSNL service (land line or a post paid mobile connection), you just need to fill out a form. If you don’t have an existing service, you will need to give an address proof document also (photo copy of your passport, election id card, driving license, nationalized bank passbook etc.).  Once they verify your application form (you will probably have to meet the engineer in charge at the office), you are asked to pay the fee (see tariff below).  Once you pay the fee, the EVDO card is immediately issued. This comes in an elegant package along with instructions for use.

What is the cost of getting BSNL EVDO (tariff structure)?

Important Note: BSNL EVDO Tariff structure change from time to time. Please see BSNL homepage for latest tariffs. For BSNL EVDO, the fixed monthly charges for unlimited access is Rs. 750. Additional payment required for buying the EVDO card. If you buy it, it will cost you Rs. 2500. But if you don’t have that much money to spare, you can take the EVDO card on rent. This rent per month is 200+Tax and hence your monthly payment will increase to Rs. 950+.  There is also a refundable security deposit of Rs. 1000 for rental. So you need to pay the following on the day of taking a new EVDO card (under post paid plans),

    On purchase of EVDO card= 2500 + 500 (activation fee) = Rs. 3000

    On rental of EVDO card = 1000 (security) + 500 (activation fee) + 200 (first month rental) = Rs. 1700

As of August 2010, BSNL is also giving various EVDO tariff options under both prepaid and postpaid plans. For example, if you need only 500MB bandwidth per month you can take the Rs. 199 per month postpaid plan. See EVDO Tariff page for detailed tariff information.

bsnl evdo box What do you get when you buy a new EVDO connection?

When you get BSNL EVDO, you will be given a box which contains EVDO card, user manual and a CD for installing drivers in Windows systems. You will also be given a receipt for your payment along with details of your EVDO connection.
Typically the user id associated with your EVDO card is written on the card itself. In Kerala, the password is set to the last 4 digits of the EVDO card’s user number. The user number with the STD prefix (without 0) becomes your user id.  Here is an example,

The card has 1234567 (sample number) written on it. The STD code where I am staying is 0471. Hence my user id/passwords are,

    USER ID (STD+EVDO card number) :  4711234567

    PASSWORD (last 4 digits of EVDO card number): 4567

When you configure EVDO connectivity,  the phone number used is always #777.

How to use EVDO card for Broadband access in Windows?

There is a Windows software CD that comes with BSNL EVDO package. You can use it to install ZTE’s EV-DO software for Windows.

Do not connect USB EVDO card before installing the software. During installation, the program will ask you to insert the card. At this point, the EVDO card will be successfully installed. The installation also has a user manual in CHM format.

After you start the EVDO software, you need to configure phone number, user id and password (see the above section). Click on the settings icon on the right side of ZTE EV-DO App. It will open settings window and enter your details there (don’t forget to replace 11111111 with your number). Click on apply.

What is the monthly bandwidth limit for BSNL EVDO access?
Get ready for the biggest surprise. As of now there is no monthly bandwidth limit on BSNL EVDO service. That means you can continuously use it without fearing additional bills. BSNL EVDO broadband service is still in experimental stages and not many people are currently using it (people know it from friends and relatives). Once it is officially rolled out, we may see some limit on the monthly bandwidth. But right now it is time to enjoy unlimited Internet at 2mbps!
Update in August 2010 – Now unlimited EVDO is costlier and there are many limited bandwidth plans available at lower cost.
Why is my EVDO Internet access speed so slow?
There could be many reasons for slow EVDO access. You may have weak signal at your area or there may not be any EVDO coverage in your BSNL network antenna. Also if there are too many customers connecting to a specific BSNL network antenna, you will see slow access speed.
Is there a way to boost EVDO speed?
If the signal strength at your area is weak, experiment positioning the card at different places. You might be getting good signal near room corners. Also turn the antenna and see whether signal strength improves.
How to use EVDO data card in Linux?
Most of the latest distributions (Ubuntu 8.04, Fedora 9 etc.) supports BSNL EVDO card out of the box. You just need to plug the EVDO card and then configure the dial up connection using phone number #777, your user name and password.

What is the hardware used for BSNL EVDO?

BSNL uses AC8700 EV-DO card manufactured by ZTE Mobile Tech. This is a sexy black USB card with adjustable antenna. It weighs about 40g and in my 4 months of use I found it quite sturdy. ZTE also provides software drivers for Windows XP, 2000 and Windows Vista.

There is a service indicator on the card. A blinking yellow indicates CDMA 1.0 access and a blinking green indicates EVDO access. So just by looking at the card you can know whether your area has EVDO access.

Are there any technical limitations for BSNL EVDO service?

evdo speed variation for a single file download Typically BSNL EVDO service doesn’t give you a public IP (As of August 2010, public IP is available for a monthly fee of Rs. 150). Your Internet access is routed through a static shared IP. This typically doesn’t cause any issues, except in cases where the public IP is important. For example, services such as Rapidshare has a download limit per IP. Since you are sharing the same IP with a lot of other EVDO users, you may not be able to download from Rapidshare (free service) at all!

There are rumors that you can sometimes get a unique public IP when you connect to EVDO. According to some reports, each area is given about 60 public IPs and the first 60 to connect are given those. The remaining connections are given shared public IP!  IP4 addresses are fast depleting and I don’t think we will see unique public IPs for all EVDO users until IP6 is rolled out.

Currently EVDO coverage is still very low and you may not get high speed at many places. In such cases the bandwidth will be limited by CDMA speed of 128kbps. Even when EVDO is available, the Internet speed depends on the signal strength. Another interesting aspect I noticed is that the Internet speed is not uniform, it varies a lot (see image – this shows downloading a large file).

How can I share EVDO Internet connection with two or more computers?

The easiest way to share EVDO Internet connection between two machines is to use a proxy server. You can connect to Internet from Machine 1 through EVDO card. You also need to run a proxy server software on Machine 1.  Then to access Internet from Machine 2, configure the Machine 1 as the proxy in Internet explorer. This way you can configure any number of machines to use the same EVDO Internet connection.

AnalogX is a very small proxy server available free of cost. You can download it from here.

Can I pay EVDO bills online?

Yes. If you have online banking account of SBI (State Bank of India), you can register your EVDO number in bill pay options. After this registration you will receive EVDO bills in your SBI online banking account (internet banking account) and you can pay the bill by just a mouse click!

Troubleshooting EVDO connection problems

If you are having troubling connecting to EVDO network or accessing Internet, try the following steps.

    Double check user id and password entered.
    Check that you do have EVDO or CDMA coverage at the area (antenna indication).
    Disable all other network connections in your Windows machine. Sometime software such as Vmware can