I’ve been offline for a couple of days. Airtel credit ran out. Which gave me the opportunity to switch away.

So I went to a store nearby and signed up for BPL prepaid, telling them that I want it ONLY for GPRS access with my laptop – no calls, no SMS – just net.

After trying to get through to customer service for about 4 hours (network busy or something), some time around midnight I got through. And was promptly told “we don’t have GPRS for prepaid customers”.

Contrary to the information given to me at a BPL store AND at the smaller store I purchased the card from. I was livid.

After arguing with no less than 3 reps, I decided that my plan of action should simply be to return the SIM card (there are laws about false advertising and whatnot to protect consumers – even in India).

Long story short, after proving to the store once-and-for-all that BPL doesn’t do GPRS for prepaid customers, and insisting that, as a non-Indian, post-paid is NOT an option, (2 hours or so of coercion), I’m getting my money back.

So, what next? Well, Idea wasn’t fantastic, but it was far superior to Airtel. Think I’ll go top that up. So I did. And I reactivated GPRS and everything worked hunky-dory (there have been a few changes in the last month-or-so, I see).

So below is approximately the speed I’m getting. Compare that to Airtel and I must say, I’m pleased to be back with Idea. Even so, I definitely need to change the face of Indian broadband.

 

Idea Speed (airtelbroadband.in)

Idea Speed (airtelbroadband.in)