Airtel Data Card

Mac Sami

Next question - will Airtel supply the necessary settings I need to set up my data card when I purchase the SIM in India? If so, what typically are these settings (e.g. username, password etc).

Vigile

Hopefully this will be helpful here. I was worried about this issue myself since I have to stay connected because I run an online business:

I arrived in India yesterday. Today I had my driver take me to the Reliance center in Margao. They wouldn't sell me a cdma card because I'm not living here permanently. However, he rented me a card for three months. I had internet wired up after 10 minutes. The deposit/first month was 4500 rup. It's 1500/month after that.

Easy as pie and no problems so far. Now I can get unlimited internet access pretty much anywhere in India; even the beach or the train.

pundabee

Sorry for the no-reply. Didn't realise that there were additional posts on this subject.

Once you have installed the Software that comes with your datacard (or at least the drivers) you should be able to change the settings in the software. Alternatively, you can install the software that is downloadable from Airtel's site.

The important bits are, in relation to Airtel's servers:

GPRS access point: “airtelgprs.com“
Authentication type: “normal“,
Login type “automatic“.
Leave username and password empty.

Sometimes Airtel will send an activation SMS. When your SIM receives this it should automatically change the settings if you are using a phone as your modem. I am not sure what happens when using a Datacard.

Mac Sami

Thanks so much for that - unfortunutely my data card hasn't arrived in time for me leaving tomorrow, but will have to purchase an Airtel data card + sim card when out in India.

I have downloaded the software + drives from their site, and have the necessary details thanks to the useful posts on this forum!

Will let you know how I get on.

Thanks again for all your help.

Rangoo

I have had a terrible experience with the Airtel Data Card and would like to warn everyone who is in the process of looking for a data card.

The customer service is terrible, but I wouldn't mind it that much if I was able to use the data card to connect to the internet. BUT NO! Instead of the promised 240 kbps, it connects at a speed of 0 kbps. No webpages open, and forget downloads, I cannot even send and receive email!

If you are travelling to India and would like to buy a data card, don't go for Airtel. Because all your time will be taken in getting the data card to work.

It's been a month and I haven't been able to use the data card at all and the customer support just does not care.

Well, I just wanted to warn you guys. If you know of a better data card, please let me know. And ALWAYS SAY NO TO AIRTEL!!!

Rangoo

pundabee

You have had a bad experience with Airtel. Someone else has had a bad experience with Reliance. You tell us to not use Airtel. He tells us not to use Reliance. Add every other company on the surface of the Earth, and, if following your advice, it would be the end of consumerism and capitalism. Great, if you ask me.

But, in all seriousness (and I have great sympathy for people who are clawed by companies whose main concern is to make as much money as possible), the consequence of following your advice and logic is that we couldn't get online.

Bottom line is that it isn't fair to judge Airtel on the basis of disgruntled customers expressing their views on Internet blogs.

If you have a problem with your Airtel Card I suggest that you print their warranty details, and take these to the Airtel Shop. If possible, bring your laptop and a datacard from another supplier to show the Airtel people that nothing is wrong with your computer. Present your case in a calm and collected manner, and, by all means, complain to head office.

I am not an expert on Indian consumer protection, but maybe there is somewhere to complain?

Do continue your campaign against Airtel, but it is unjustified to impose your views in this matter on other people since it is highly unlikely that even a fraction of all the people who buy an Airtel datacard will experience the problems you have experienced.

The Airtel warranty (with spelling errors and all):

"1.The Airtel Data card has two years warranty form the date of purchase directly from the maufacturer upon the proof of invoice.
2. The authorized service centre during such warranty period will either repair or swap the faulty card.
3. The repair/ swap will be implemented within 24 hours starting from the time, the end user enters any Airtel Data Card authorized service station.
4. The warranty is void if the damage to the unit was caused by the customer."

Sidenote: The datacard that Airtel supplies is made by Option and is hopelessly outdated (e.g. Vodafone and other mobile Internet suppliers in the UK haven't been using this card for a few years). As a consequence the Vodafone branded Option card can be bought quite cheaply on Ebay (less than £10). These should work with the Airtel software since it will include the Option drivers. So, following on from previous posts, it is possible to connect to the Internet in India relatively cheaply as a traveller or tourist, if you:

1) Buy an old Vodafone datacard in the UK (it is possible to use newer Vodafone datacards, but it gets more tricky because of potential locking).
2) Buy a prepaid Airtel SIM from an Airtel office (less than Rs. 200).
3) Buy a GPRS Internet connection from an Airtel office (Rs. 250 to 350 a month).

The only way to fulfil the requirements of 2) and 3) is to go to a flexible Airtel office (that will ignore the lack of a permanent address), to be a convincing liar, or to get someone with a permanent address to buy the SIM and GPRS connection

hawaiiyogagrl

I just read all this, got excited at the prospect of wirelss internet all over India, then I got confused. I am going to ask some questions that may have already been answered, please bear with me: I am a bit slow.
I use a Mac IBook (2005) Safari operating system.
What does the slot for the data card look like?
Would I have one?
Isn't RS 5000 sorta high?
Do I need a data card and to pay for the service?
Thanks for helping me out with this. I feel so ignorant. I have a thing that comes into my house that just transmits internet, and I use that. At home I take being connected for granted...

Rangoo

Hi Pundabee,

You are right - every company might have some issues. I don't think Reliance is any better and I have had my own experiences with them too. But the fact is, that had I known about the problems Airtel has, I would have never wasted my money in this data card.

I've already done everything you suggested, and presented my case in a calm and composed manner to the Airtel Customer Support. But of course that did not work.

I didn't start my blog the first day I realised the card wasn't working. I took my laptop and data card to the Airtel office and waiting for a whole day for those guys to fix it or at least figure out what the problem is. Didn't work.

Then, I waited for a week to hear from them, called them again, went back to the office - this time with two laptops just in case they thought my laptop was faulty. The Airtel card did not work in either of the laptops.

Then, I waited for two more weeks - went to the office, this time with two laptops and one more data card - from Tata. The Tata one worked on both laptops, the Airtel one didn't. Don't you think that should have given them a clue? NO!

Finally, after I found out that the Airtel people didn't know how their own product works and they refused to replace it for us, I started my blog.

As far as the warranty goes - I've been there thrice and my data card hasn't been replaced yet. What does that say about their 24 hour replacement guarantee?

All I'm trying to do with my blog is to show people what they can expect if they buy an Airtel Data Card. If I had found this info before I purchased the data card, I would have never considered purchasing the Airtel Data Card. Unfortunately, I found this info 3 weeks after I got the data card and it was too late then.

And I am not the only person - after I started the blog there have been lots of people who wrote in to me and said they have had the same problem with Airtel - and some of them have been fighting for years. So it's not like Airtel is going to smile and give me a replacement right away (and yes, they also have a NO REFUND policy - I guess they would rather have unsatisfied customers than no customers).

Maybe the Airtel Customer Support in other countries is way better than it is in India, but that doesn't help me because I am in India and I am stuck with this horrible experience with Airtel. You are right in saying that we shouldn't take decisions based on other people's opinions - but if we don't share our experiences companies like Airtel and Reliance will get away with anything and keep on scamming more people. Sorry, I'm not going to accept that.

These companies got away with this kind of a behavior for so long because they thought no one was going to complain. Each scammed customer would try for sometime, get no results and then think that they are the only ones unfortunate to get a faulty product and just leave it. But now, with the power of the Internet, we can share our thoughts and opinions and warn others about such companies and this is what I am doing. And hopefully, companies like Airtel and Reliance will wake up and realise that they can retain more customers if they start selling better products and offer reliable customer support.

Rangoo

pundabee

There is no doubt that you are dealing with a group of incompetents. But for everyone else to completely reject Airtel is probably a slight overreaction.

pundabee

All your questions should be answered in this thread except one:

I am almost certain there is no PCMCIA card (which is needed to fit the datacard) in an Ibook. Therefore, you would have to use a mobile phone to connect your computer, and the phone's software would have to be compatible with Mac.

Rangoo

Well here's why I insisted on saying No to Airtel so much in my last post - this forum is for people who travel to India.

Now, would you rather chunk your carefully planned vacation/business trip and spend it all in the Airtel Office just to get connected to the Internet? It's just a fair warning to anyone who's considering this - but otherwise, I think people can decide on their own whether or not they want an Airtel Card.

The good thing about this post is that I found out from you that the Airtel Data Card is not the only piece of equipment I can use. I'm checking out ways to get the data card you mention in your post. Thanks a ton for that info :-)

Rangoo

pundabee

A valid point. I think the answer is that your experience with Airtel depends on which Airtel office you go to. I have had the (mis)fortune of visiting three different Airtel offices.

The employees in the Kochi office were very helpful, friendly and seemed to know what they were doing. They activated our GPRS connection twice without anything going wrong (first in November 2006 and then again in January 2007).

The employees in the Madurai office were not helpful at all, seemed mentally slow and were largely incompetent. We had to renew our monthly GPRS subscription in December 2006, and that turned out to be completely impossible in Madurai even though I was registered as a legitimate Airtel customer. They claimed that I had to have a registered address in Tamil Nadu in order to renew the GPRS connection I had received in Kerala (plus I would have had to get a new SIM). Obviously, this doesn't make any sense; the point of having a GPRS connection is, at least in part, to be able to travel all over India, and to be able to renew it wherever you happen to be at the time of renewal (after all, the datacard fits into a portable computer). Airtel even have a marketing slogan that goes: "connecting without boundaries" or something to that effect.

Luckily, we were only in Madurai for a few days and decided to renew the subscription when we got to Pondicherry. Unfortunately, even though the employees in the Pondicherry office were very helpful and friendly, they were as useless as the Madurai people. After several visits and failed promises they had to give up on activating the GPRS connection. Consequently, we had to wait until we returned to Kerala in January to get a connection. That we got from a small phone shop in Kumily (very small town in the mountains); the shop assistant called up Airtel and activated the GPRS in no time.

So, I agree that Airtel have certain shortcomings, but I think it has more to do with incompetent staff than a failing organisation. And it is not enough for me to completely dismiss the company; the alternatives could very well turn out to be as bad as Airtel.

Nick-H

Yes, it is.

And the sooner some companies started to realise that... In fact the sooner some Indian companies (including ISPs) realise there is such a thing as the WWW, then the sooner they might start improving.

Its not just India... HP became red-facedly famous world wide for the abject and continued failure to deal properly with a DOA PC.

The best advertising a company can get is word-of-mouth recommendation.

The opposite is true too.

pundabee

Well, no. It is the equivalent of mob rule. All companies have unhappy customers. The larger the number of customers, the more unhappy customers there will be. This doesn't mean that the company is necessarily any worse than a small company. It will just seem like that because of its relative size and the fact that people use the Internet to complain.

An example. A company with 1 million customers out of which 1 percent are unhappy will face an army 10,000 people who will try their best to portray this company as unacceptably bad. A company with 100,000 customers out of which 5 percent are unhappy will face an army of 5,000 people who will try their best to portray this company as unacceptably bad. So, whereas the first company is much better than the second company, it will still, based on the number of people complaining on the Internet, look worse than the second company.

The only way to actually determine the quality of a company is to carry out consumer surveys taking into account the size of the company. Internet campaigns are rarely a true reflection of the real world.

chrissi

Hello everyone!

I have been trying to follow the discussion here but I'm still confused.

I have an Apple Power Book G4 from 2003, Mac OS X version 10.4.9

Reliance tells me that their Data Card doesn't support Mac.

Please, does anyone know how I can get Data Card to work in my laptop?
What about TATA Data Card? Does it work?

Thanks!!!