At the time of writing this, there is lot of chatter around Reliance Jio but there is an unsung hero from Reliance which died with the birth of Reliance Jio and on Reliance’s switch from CDMA to GSM network and I would like to pay my respect to this hero.
As a freelance web developer I can’t stress enough how important a good internet connectivity is to me. Trying to find a decent Internet connection has been a frustrating experience:
– First Internet connection I took was from a local ISP, the speeds were really slow and service was not very reliable.
– Second Internet connection was Tata Photon+ which was supposed to be a high speed connection but unfortunately Tata only provided 2G speeds in my area. Paid around ₹1000/- every month for 2G speed which was barely usable to surf websites.
– Third Internet connection was Reliance NetConnect+ and this was a good service, for the first time I experienced high speed internet only problem being the 15GB monthly data limit.
After going through 2 bitter experiences I was finally content with Reliance NetConnect+ service, however after 3 years their service started degrading severely and I finally decided to terminate the connection and due to unavailability of other wireless ISP’s in my area I ended up buying the one and only ReliancePro 3.
Reliance Pro 3
My search for replacing Reliance NetConnect+ led to Reliance website where out of various wired & wireless internet options I found Reliance Pro 3 to be the one that suits me best. Reliance Pro 3 offered unlimited high speed internet for ₹1144/- per month. I was sceptical of this unlimited offer at such a low price, it seemed too good to be true but proceeded to buy anyway. After receiving the Reliance Pro 3 device for the first couple of months I used it cautiously, gradually increasing my net usage every month and waiting for the monthly bill to see if I have been charged extra, to my surprise regardless of my usage I was only charged ₹1144/- every month.
So with an unlimited internet at hand I started making the most of it. I used to rarely visit YouTube before but now I was visiting it almost daily, turning my iPad Mini 2 into a portable television. While working in the kitchen, I would put the iPad on a stand and play a good Malayalam comedy movie from the 1980s. Also spent a good time in nostalgia watching shows like Dekh Bhai Dekh, Zabaan Sambalke, Hum Paanch, Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi, etc. Other activities included watching entire video game plays. With all this, the monthly net usage should have easily crossed 50GB-80GB but the speed was never throttled. All in all couldn’t have been happier with the Internet service but good as well as bad things don’t last forever. After about a year of using Reliance Pro 3, suddenly their service started to deteriorate, the reason being Reliance was switching from CDMA to GSM and were slowly terminating their CDMA connections. Since I was very happy with Reliance’s service so far I decided to upgrade to the new Reliance 4G WiPod and what followed is described here.
Right now I am using Tata Photon Wireless Internet with 25 GB monthly limit. My search continues…