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Really big numbers in Internet Access:

Recently while on vacation in India I needed some form of Internet access. Unfortunately it turned out that getting a short term connection from BSNL (incumbent provider) was in the too hard basket. So I opted for Reliance Net Connect 3.1 Mbps ( See Their Site ). Essentially it is a GSM wireless device which connects to your PC via USB. The technology is sometimes also referred to as EVDO ( See Wikipedia ) .

For anyone that may be interested I’ve described my experience with Reliance NetConnect 3.1 Mbps below:

You can find other peoples experiences at MouthShut.com

Overall I was pleasantly surprised to see that in comparison to most other internet service providers in the world Reliance Net Connect was able to deliver really big numbers. This is especially true on weekends (Saturday / Sunday)

Summary:

A unique service that provides “Broadband Internet access at Dial-up Speeds”

Check out the following Big Numbers for weekend Internet access:

open www.cnn.com in firefox on Reliance took 187 seconds or 3 minutes. BSNL could only manage 35 seconds – Not even close. clearly Reliance is the winner on that site. Even Orcon Internet here in New Zealand is much worse with just 9 seconds

open www.google.com in Chrome on Reliance took 11 seconds. BSNL was only able to clock 3 seconds on this. Orcon Internet here in New Zealand only managed 1.5 seconds – Again Reliance Net Connect wins by a large margin.

open www.indiatimes.com in Internet Explorer on Reliance took 24 seconds. BSNL on the other hand took 27 seconds. Orcon Internet in New Zealand took 29 seconds. I guess Reliance lost on this one but only by 3 seconds to BSNL and 5 seconds to Orcon Internet.

Broadband Weekend Bandwidth Tests:

Next I thought that 3.1 is a really small number so lets test it out and see if we can get better numbers as opposed to the claimed 3.1 Mbps.

So I did a few bandwidth tests on Reliance NetConnect 3.1 Mbps. The results were actually astounding. I was truly amazed. At one point I was able to get 11000 bits per second on a 5 minute test. Some jealous people who thought that their choice in dialup connection was better than my broadband choice kept telling me that this was only 11 Kbps. So fine 11 Kbps or 11000 bps whatever it may be even 11 is still bigger than 3.1. So my point still stands.

Comparing this with my Orcon Internet in New Zealand made me wish Reliance would come to New Zealand. Can you believe it Orcon could only manage 2Mbps. Losing by 9 to Reliance’s 11Kbps.

Once again Reliance Net Connect wins with really big numbers.

Broadband Weekend Disconnection Tests:

The Reliance Net Connect service has the ability to automatically reconnect if configured properly. So I thought that I should put this to the test. Lets see if we get really Big numbers here as well.

In a span of 12 hours I checked the number of times a BSNL ADSL modem has to reconnect versus the Reliance Net Connect 3.1 service.

In a span of 24 hours the BSNL ADSL modem did not manage to reconnect even once. Thats right it did not even reconnect once. On the other hand the Reliance Net Connect service reconnected to the Internet a total of 17 times. It was actually 19 times but I did not count the two times where they disconnect everyone from the Internet at 10PM and at 6AM because their billing system cannot handle it. Counting those 2 as well would not be fair as that would be a case of artificially boosting their numbers.

In a span of 7 days ( till I got tired of waiting today ) My Orcon Internet connection did not disconnect and reconnect even once. This is truly sad. How could New Zealand which has had a head start on Internet Infrastructure score so much lower than India.

Once again the results show Reliance as the clear winner with 17 disconnections with auto reconnect each time as opposed to zero for BSNL within 24 hours and zero for Orcon Internet in 7 days.

And folks there you have it Reliance NetConnect 3.1Mbps is the clear winner with really big numbers.

So in conclusion clearly my choice of Reliance was a good one. After all we are told that Big is Good and as you can see from the examples above I got really BIG numbers. Numbers that are so big they put other countries like New Zealand to shame. After all as Mitre 10 Mega keeps telling us in their commercials “Big Is Good”

So in my personal opinion when your choosing an Internet connection in India. If really BIG numbers are important to you then the obvious best choice is Reliance NetConnect 3.1 Mbps. I really think that they should change that name to 11 Kbps or 11000 bps because both 11 and 11000 are bigger numbers than 3.1

I mean my Internet Provider Orcon Internet must be so ashamed of their smaller numbers that they do not even put a number on their broadband services. It is just called ADSL Broadband or Wireless Broadband. After all how could they put a number like 2Mbps next to the product name and be proud. Of course once the 24Mbps connections become widely available then of course that is at least something worth talking about. But 2Mbps against 11Kbps how can you even compare such a small number like 2 against such a big number as 11.

Wish you all the best and hope you choose Reliance Net Connect 3.1 Mbps for your Internet Access Needs in India. Especially if you want a truly unique experience “Broadband Internet Surfing at Dial-up Speeds” and really big numbers.

If in time things change and the Big numbers are no more, then if you are reading this post please do take the time to let me know so that I can change or delete this blog post.