Highspeed mobile broadband services finally arrived to India. In addition to the State owned BSNL’s EVDO service, RCom’s Netconnect broadband Plus, Tata Indicom also joined to the bandwagon with its Photon Plus. Tata Indicom Photon plus is an upgraded version of its Photon Whiz, a wireless internet service which offers speed upto 144 kbps (CDMA 1x). Tata Photon Plus uses EVDO Rev.0 technology (3G) which offers a download speed upto 3.1 Mbps and available on major cities in India.

Tata Indicom team has sent us Tata Photon plus kit and we tried out and tested the mobile broadband in all testing combination and bringing you this exclusive review.

USB modem and Router:

Tata Photon plus comes in two variants. USB modem type and Router. USB modem type is the preferred choice for Laptop and Desktop users. Wireless router is best suited for small organizations or those who want to access internet from multiple computers at the sametime. In order to use the wireless router, you must have wireless Dong in case of desktop.

Installation

Installation of Photon Plus is very simple. The USB modem comes with the necessary installation drivers and dialer software and it will install automatically on the first plug. For further connection, all you have to do is execute the dialer the software using the desktop or startmenu shortcuts.

Upload and Download Speeds

We were actually surprised with the speed. We got an average download speed of 1.5 Mb/s and Upload speed of 0.44 Mb/s on a regular basis. 25 MB of data file took me 3.10 minutes to download and 4.9 MB music file took 2.45 minutes to upload. Infact we tried downloading the beta version of upcoming Microsoft’s Operating system, which is of 2.36 GB, took 5 hrs approximately. However the connection speed is completely depending on multiple factors like the accessing area’s distance from the tower, time of the day, number of simultaneous users. Also make a note that the 3.1 Mbps download speed claimed by any service providers including Tata Photon Plus is the burst speed and is the maximum speed one can reach at the ideal conditions. So be happy if you are getting the download speed of 1.5 Mbps.

Plans and Tariffs

Tata Indicom USB photon device comes at a cost of Rs. 3500. This charges includes the USB modem charges and the installation. Tata Indicom has more plan options than the competitors, however the absence of any unlimited plan actually restricts power users to move for Hi-Speed broadband. Photon Plus starts from Rs. 250 and extends upto Rs. 1500. Photon plus has both Time bound and Data bound plan options. Rs. 1500 plan allows upto 15 GB of upload + download and yes, it is the maximum.

Network coverage

Tata Photon+ is currently avalilable selected cities in India (Delhi, Patna, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai, Jodhpur, Jaipur, Dehradhun, Shimla & the circles of J & K, Assam & NESA States). On all other parts, the device will automatically switch to CDMA 1X connection and will offer 144 kbps speed. Tata Indicom has to increase the High speed availability areas as they are currently covering very less areas when compared to the competitors.

Verdict

Tata Indicom Photon Plus offers an excellent broadband speed. It covers major cities in India and the speeds are steady while on the move too. But it covers only major Tier-I cities and North eastern region, where fixed line network is not possible as of now. Tata Indicom has to aggressively expand and increase the coverage regions. Also, Watching streaming videos, Browsing rich websites and Downloading in seconds are the major priority for any power user to switch to High speed broadband service. Currently Photon plus is not offering any unlimited plan and the plans are very costly when compared to the fixed line connectivity. We hope Tata Indicom will come up with more interesting plans to give a tough edge to the competitors.

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