How To Get Online in India for 20 Rupees a Day
July 7th, 2007 | Published in dispatch, tech | 8 Comments
The quick and easy way. Provided you have a Nokia 3G phone, a Mac, and an Airtel prepaid card. Also available on Windows PCs, Hutch, and other phones, but I have no experience with the rest of them.
- To make things easier, make photocopies of your passport, Indian visa, and your identity card. (Because the Singapore passport does not state permanent address, so the identity card is needed). The Indian government requires all prepaid signups to register with photo ID with an address. If you’re Indian, your driving license, voter card or similar will do.
- Go to a mobile retailer or an official Airtel shop to sign up for an Airtel prepaid card. You’ll have to fill in a number of forms and sign on your documents before the line can be activated.
- Send an SMS to ‘567′ with the message, ‘GPRS’. Airtel Mobile Office will be activated within a few seconds.
- Check that your Airtel Mobile Office connection works by browsing on your phone’s web browser. (All the settings should be pre-configured, otherwise you can call 121 and ask a customer consultant to send them to you.)
- Download Ross Barkman’s Scripts for Nokia 3G (EDGE/UTMS) phones. He has a number of scripts available for many other types of mobile phones, also available on that website.
- Open the .sit file. Drop both scripts (named “Nokia 3G CID1” and “Nokia 3G CID2” into /Library/Modem Scripts (in Macintosh HD, not in your home directory).
- Open Network Preferences. Create a new location, name it whatever your like (”Mobile”, or “Airtel India”). Select Bluetooth modem.
- Click on the PPP tab. The settings are — airtelgprs.com (service provider), guest (username), guest (password).
- Click on the TCP/IP tab. Enter under DNS Servers: 202.56.240.5 and 202.56.230.5 (put both addresses in two lines).
- Click the Bluetooth Modem tab. Select Nokia 3G CID1 as your modem. Check Show Modem Status in menu bar.
- Click the modem icon in your menu bar, and connect away.
The above was tried and tested with a Nokia N95, a MacBook and an Airtel connection; and should work with others too, but this is the combination that works the best IMHO. Speeds are reasonably fast; on non-3G phones it’s likely to crawl. More information about Airtel: a starter pack is likely to run you close to 500 rupees. 49 for the SIM card, 200 to get 30 days validity (think of it as ‘rental’), and another 200-300 for top up. Get the maximum talk time top ups (offers change frequently, I’m now on the 301-for-301 top up), so consult The Chart wisely (there’s usually an updated chart showing you the latest top up options and how much talktime/validity you get for each pack). Why Airtel? It’s available everywhere, has the best cellular coverage, and has the best host of services. Roaming is activated by default; you can activate Mobile Office without having to talk to anyone in a call centre, and best of all it charges a very affordable 20 rupees a day for a full 24 hours with unlimited data. The rest of them don’t have such good connections, and also charge for data by the kilobyte.
July 8th, 2007 at 11:46 pm (#)
If you were using a Sony Ericsson phone, steps 4-11 would simply be: Click “Join Network on ” in the Bluetooth menu icon. Bluetooth PAN.
July 8th, 2007 at 11:47 pm (#)
I stupidly put the words ‘your phone’ above in arrow brackets. Well in any case it’s supposed to be the Bluetooth name of your phone up there.
July 9th, 2007 at 2:27 pm (#)
hi adri..im in mumbai now..and yr wonderful advice came 9 weeks too late..good stuff..
July 9th, 2007 at 4:02 pm (#)
[...] Picking it up for around S$189, this is a newer breed of bluetooth GPS receiver units with the added ability to log your waypoints without a computer (i.e. you could plant it anywhere). Using the stand-alone travel recorder feature, this is ideal for travelers (e.g. Popagandi) who wish record the journey they’ve taken through the day (logs over 100,000 records). [...]
July 12th, 2007 at 9:42 pm (#)
Hi Adri!
I love you for providing this info! :)
Scratching my head for last few months on how to connect using my Mac.
However there is a correction to Step 8 above. Can you do that in your post?
1. “Service Provider” field doesn’t matter. You can even leave it blank.
2. “Telephone Number” field should be “airtelgprs.com”
I have a post-paid connection with Airtel. But, that doesn’t have anything to do with the above correction.
Owe you a party if you happen to come to Hyderabad! :)
Thanks,
iR
July 12th, 2007 at 9:52 pm (#)
think it works in a variety of ways — as long as you’ve got that script — i’ve found out even username and password, if it’s ‘none’ rather than ‘guest’ works even better (connectino isn’t dropped as frequently)..
i AM coming to hyderabad! i’ll arrive in secunderabad on the 20th of this month — and will be staying there.
July 16th, 2007 at 11:17 pm (#)
coooool!
20th is the beginning of the wknd!! :)
will send out an e-mail from this ID tomorrow…!
I would be surprised if u haven’t already visited most places @ hydbad/secbad too, but I might still have some ‘undiscovered’ ones… (unless… well… u open google maps and scout for them! there u go!! :) )
./iRebel
April 16th, 2008 at 10:22 pm (#)
see i found free airtel gprs by using a java browser(a good browser and every time team airtel leaves a fault) ,when use this java browser airtel is no paying their browsing charge ( airtellive as acces point)
download the application from the following link
http://www.mobilebox.co.cc/showthread.php?tid=520