Reliance R-Connect PCMCIA Card - Requesting Review

[nebeldunkel]

I'd like to say hi to everyone as this is my very first post on this forum.

It was not till recently when I found out about Reliance Info's R-Connect Card service and after going through the website, it says that they offer 144Kbps speed and unlimited surfing at Rs 650 per month.

Does anyone on this forum use such a service. I used to live in Bangalore till 3 months ago where I had a high speed connection but now that I'm in Kerala in a small village, the only way to get connected to the internet is using a dialup which is extremely slow and the above service seems to be the best option available.

I'd be interested to see a review on the above service. Are there no additional charges apart from the 650? If I understand it correctly, the R-Connect card is very similar to a phone and can also be used to make calls, send SMS etc. So wouldn't there be telephone charges applicable in addition to the 650?

If its really worth it then I could get myself a PCMCIA reader and get one of these cards and stay connected all the time.

My telephone bill for March was over Rs 5000 because of the dialup usage so this would be a very economic alternative.

[a_medico]

sounds a good option for u...

But

1) card itself costs around 13-15K Rs !!

2) u need a laptop... u dont get pcmcia slot in desktop.... not sure whehere theres such option.

Rs 650 is i think for 1 Gb data transfer...i think they also give unlimited transfer at 1500 Rs per mon

[nebeldunkel]

Actually you can buy a PCMCIA Reader that'll take up a PCI Slot for desktops. I can see an auction for a used one on eBay for only $10.

Anyway, I am planning to buy a laptop this month and the card. Yeah I do know about the cost, almost Rs 15000.

But I'd like to know about the reliability in the connection. I have not heard from many people who've actually used the card themselves but according to someone on the RIMWEB forum, he's used the card in mumbai and constantly got about almost 20KBps download speeds which I think is excellent. I was wondering if this might be the case everywhere.

I think the connection would greatly depend reception. I'm not very sure where the closest tower might be.

Do you think this card would be useless after they've introduced the EvDO cards after the announce of the spectrum policy? Its been delayed a lot already and don't know how long more it would take so at this time I think I should just go for the Sierra Wireless cards that they're offering now.

But it would be good to see reviews on this product by users from different cities before I buy it. Rs 15000 is too much to just test a product.