Recently, RelianceGSM has launched 3G services in Assam in two cities- Guwahati and Jorhat. I have got the chance to test the connection in the testing phase itself. The speeds here in Guwahati was capped at 256kbps during the initial launch and now the towers are supporting up to 16mbps downlink and 5.67mbps uplink. It gives good surfing experience with smooth YouTube videos in HD as well. State owned BSNL has launched 3G services back in 2009 but their speeds are supporting only up to 2mbps downlink in Assam(all cities where BSNL 3G service is available) and with very pathetic upload speeds which hovers around 0.16mbps (160kbps). Recently Aircel has also launched 3G services and their maximum supported speeds are up to 3.6 mbps (7.2mbps in some exclusive plans only) for downlink and reasonable upload speeds. Below are two snapshots which shows the better 3G speeds provided by Reliance (unlike their voice services which suffers from regular call drops and congestion).
above snapshot shows the download speed in IDM.
Sanpshot2 shows the MDMA data counters with speed details supported by the tower serving my place.
I’m enjoying the speeds. Only downside is that reliance offers no unlimited plans and the available plans are pretty costly for heavy users like me. I’m waiting for some cheap and good speed plans from any operator. Airtel’s 3G signals have also gone live in some area but I think Airtel will take some more time to launch their (with obviously costly plans) 3G services.
