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.
