Airtel 3G WiFi Dongle is reliable, speedy and trustworthy

Data cards and WiFi dongles are the rage these days. The aggressively advertised Tata Photon Max WiFi was launched last year. Bharti Airtel has followed suit and has launched its 3G WiFi dongle . The Airtel 3G WiFi dongle looks similar to other dongles available in the market. Made up of white plastic, it has Airtel branding in red on the top. There is a light indicator also that shows the status of the connection.

Set-up: Although my review unit was preconfigured, I still had to set it up to find the password. It took hardly a couple of minutes. The dongle was accompanied with a manual that is simple to follow. After installing the software, I had to log in to find the password. Within four minutes, I was ready to use this WiFi dongle.

How to use:  One can plug in the dongle into a computer to use it directly. At the same time, it creates WiFi signals too. One can also plug it into a power socket using any adapter. In both the cases, the dongle is in action in less than a minute. The dongle has two notification lights that show its status. A stable light indicates that the connection is made. This dongle can be used to connect up to five devices at a time. These devices can be anything, from laptops and phones to consoles, tablets and TV.

Connectivity: During one week of testing the Airtel 3G WiFi Dongle, there wasn't any instance of a signal drop or disconnection. Even on the move, it performed smoothly. Fortunately, I was able to use this dongle in areas where my Tata Photon Max Wi-Fi fails to work.

Speed: Airtel claims to offer download speed of up to 21Mbps on its 3G network. It lives up to the claims as the download speeds were fast. I was able to download heavy files in a fraction of seconds. Heavy files measuring 1GB were downloaded in just a couple of hours. Even when five devices were connected, there wasn't any lag in connectivity.

String missing: One thing Airtel forgot to add is the string that connects the dongle with its cap. I had to be careful about storing the cap every time I connected the dongle. Once, I ended up hours searching for the cap. While I tried to insert a thread to connect the two, the loops were small and I failed.

Challenge: While everything works smoothly with the Airtel 3G WiFi dongle, the trouble arises when you exhaust your usage. Depending on the plans, one does get unlimited usage as slower speeds of 80kbps for the rest of the month, which feels extremely slow. However, this isn't the case with this dongle only as it stands true for almost all connections, including broadband.

Offer:  As stated on the website, postpaid users will get cash back of Rs 700 (Rs 100 per month) on Rs 650 plan and above. Prepaid users can enjoy 6GB of bundled data.

Name: Airtel 3G WiFi Dongle
Rating: 4.5/5
Price of the dongle: Rs 2,499