In India, BSNL is the only provider offering 3G services as of now. In Hyderabad, the service was launched in the first week of March. Private players are participating in auctions for getting the 3G slots. After buying a powerful mobile, Google Nexus One, I decided to avail this service of BSNL. But, I struggled a lot to get a new connection and get it activated. Even worse thing is that there are only very few knowledgeable in the dept and it was tough getting info from them. None of the customer care guys were able to help me in setting up the 3G services on my phone. Mr. Google helped me but I could not find out that link again. Create a new APN from Settings > Wireless & networks > Mobile networks > Access Point Names > New APN. Please enter the below details and leave the other fields with default values. After few seconds, the notification bar should indicate ‘3G’ if connected properly.
Name: bsnlnet
APN: bsnlnet
MCC: 404
MNC: 73
If APN: ‘bsnlnet’ does not work, try using ‘gprssouth.cellone.in’ as APN. Either of these should work. The transfer rate of 3G is quite good with few disconnects. The download speed was 300+ on an average. If the 3G auctions goes well, India will get few more players on this 3G space by September, 2010. Waiting for that.
-- Varun
Wat is the charges for this service?
ReplyDeleteThanks Varun for this tip. I plan on getting one from the US through a friend. I had a doubt though: there are supposed to be two variants for the phone - one for T-Mobile with the 900/AWS/2100 MHz bands and one for AT&T with 850/1900/2100 MHz bands. What would you suggest I should buy for India?
ReplyDeleteRegards,
Rajath
@Tom: the charges are reasonable. I have taken the basic paln. 1 Rupee for 1 MB. There are lots of other data plans available.
ReplyDelete@Rajath: I got the one with T-Mobile frequency.
Varun, I have a BSNL 725 unlimited GPRS plan, will this work when I get a Nexus One or should I go for 3G Sim / data plans, please let me know
ReplyDeleteRegards
Sri
@Sri It will work. But, its better to upgrade to 3G SIM for faster internet
ReplyDeleteWere you able to get rid of the notifications sent by BSNL everytime you use 3G saying "X KB used, etc etc"? That gets really annoying and after a while the phone clogs up...
ReplyDeleteI never got those notifications. Talk to the customer care and get this disabled.
ReplyDeleteThanks a lot. This worked for me.
ReplyDeleteThese settings work for me too on my Google Nexus S in Bangalore. bsnlnet for APN and leave everything else to their default values; I even left the mobile network code at 71 (I believe it's ignored or overridden as long as the apn name is correct). Make sure your sim has been activated before you try this - I think it took a full two hours for me. All the times I tried before the first two hours, I never saw the APN listed after saving the settings - an indication that it couldn't be found I assume; voice started working earlier though. Once you hit save and see bsnlnet listed as an APN, you'll see the 3g icon within a few seconds, and it works! If you see the icon, you are done. Depending on coverage and signal strength that might be fluctuating, you may have to wait a little more before you make your first meaningful transfer of data!
ReplyDelete