for other details read our detailed review earlier

http://review.com.pk/2009/06/worldcall-evdo-detailed-review/

http://review.com.pk/2009/03/ptcl-evdo-broadband-on-the-go-rates-and-subscription-details/

the issues we had were

1. Extra ordinary device price (6000 vs 3000 for Worldcall)
2. Only one Package

Seems they have listened and responded well

Here is the add that appeared in the local news paper. according to it

besides the older 2000 Rs fixed package they have introduced two more options plus also allowing the 2000 as pre paid. and the sweetest change of all is the price drop of 2000 rs for the device

here are the new packages all prepaid packages are unlimited for their said duration (Unlimited data)

Device price or installation in other words is 3,999 Rupees,the previous post paid package of 2000 still holds too.

Prepaid also means that now you can pick and choose your internet usage so mage 100 for weekends is your need than this solves it perfectly.

Worldcall its your move now

With this smart move wateen has made it really difficult for wiTribe and Mobilink infinity (due to be launched soon) lets see if the follow the suit.

Wi-tribe has made a very strong come back. In our review of witribe we along with a lot of readers had shown issues with their pricing model. Seems some body up there is listening to the customer feedback and acting upon it.

Wi-Tribe has launched with full adds in print media and billboards, now coming out of their soft launch. continue reading for their packages

They have no become equals to Wateen still a bit expensive , for example wateen’s 512 kb with 5 gb cap is 599 where is wi-tribe is charging 750. I don’t clearly understand the difference between a modem for PC users and a separate one for PC laptop users, my assumption is the PC/Laptop one has a built in wireless router.  Wateen has a standard rate of 2500 for activation and device fees, wi-tribes modem for PC users is cheap how ever the other option seems expensive, you can easily get a wireless router for less than 2000 in market that would mean you can take the pc modem and take it wireless for about 2900, but then again every one is not happy to see too many wires going around, and with current situation of load shedding it’s good to have lesser devices.

How will it fare when users increase lets wait and see. if you have experienced it do let us know

Ohh by the way the 7 day tria

PTCL Launches USB Device for EvDO Connections.

The new device looks good sleeker than the previous one, in competition with the one Worldcall Launched in lahore

Sketchy details on the website indicate some kind of voice capability on the device continue reading for a picture of old device and detailed PTCL add.

Here is the quote from PTCL regarding the voice capabilities of the device

The device also supports your Laptop / Desktop PC earphone and microphone. By inserting a Vfone RUIM you can use your Evo device to make/receive voice calls or send/receive SMS.

The old device looked like this (Picture taken from tazzix.com from here )

and the orignal complete add from PTCL is shown below

I have had the chance of using it for about 2 weeks now and here is a detailed review of how it fared from the purchasing experience to the usage one.

bye the way for those of you in Karachi Mohtashim at IT Tazee has done a detailed review here also for those of you weighing your options against PTCL techlahore has a post here

So how did it fare in Lahore hit the read more link for details

Getting on Board

Getting a connection of Worldcall Wireless Broadband is as simple as it gets, you need a copy of your id card and a copy of utility bill (I still don’t understand the need for this ) The will provide you with a box like a CD box which you can take home and start using). The box contains the sleek USB Device a USB Extension cable and manual. Introductory price of Worldcall EvDO device is Rs 3000. That’s all the cost you need to start using this connection

Installing and using the connection

Installing and getting up on the connection is also pretty easy, as soon as you plug-in the device it will automatically run the installer utility and all your drivers will be installed automatically, a new connection with the name “Worldcall EVDO” and a new Program “Mobile Partner” are installed automatically. You can use the mobile partner to connect and you are online !!

Device

Worldcall’s has provided a very sleek device to access the EvDO Network, the device itself is a HUWAEI EC168C EvDO USB Stick. It is a durably built device looks good, the USB Connection rotates and fixes in place to make it more secure for carrying in a pocket or your Laptop Bag

The rotable USB connection makes it very easy to connect to a USB Port on your computer and adjust it so it does not obscure your work.

Icing on the Cake

The most interesting thing for me (might not be important for every one) in the device was the ability to access a micro SD card, there is a hidden slot which appears when you open the device where you can insert a micro SD card, I had a 1 gb old Micro SD card which i inserted and viola!! I had a usb stick with me, I had been thinking of buying a USB device for some time but this really came as a savior, now don’t need to carry two separate things, also it will enable for quicker access to the Micro SD of my black berry for the pictures or videos i keep snapping. According to specs it should be good up to an sd card of 8 gb capacity which is enough for my needs. One caveat how ever would be how this device acts when connected to a computer which does not have all the drivers installed it will install the drivers for evdo before allowing the system to access the storage, however for me its a god send gift

Packages

We have already covered the packages in our previous post Worldcall EvDO coming to Lahore on 25th Of May

just reposting for new readers here

Introductory price for service activation is 2999/- (Its my assumption that it means the cost of device too) which is not a bad deal considering the device is being charged at 4500 in Karachi, and PTCL device costs 6000 rs

Comparing with PTCL EvDO Rates for 2000 you get an upwards of 1 Mbps connection with same unlimited downloads where as for 1800 worldcall gives you a 512 Kbps, and with the recent launch of USB Device from ptcl the competition would be stiff, the plus point PTCL also has is the continuous functioning of device even out of major cities, but Customer service of PTCL has been an issue for people having problems.

Some addition to our initial observations is that wordcall does have an edge of providing flexibility in packages where a user with a lower budget could go for the 1200 Package which is absent from the PTCL deal.

Speed and Connectivity

Speed of worldcall EvDO is as promised on speedtest.net I got this (the download never exceed the 512 though which is the speed of my package.

The browsing is fast and ftp downloads are also fast (will update with accurate speeds later).

I have so far have not faced any signal or connectivity issues how ever as one reader has suggested in his comment and on his blog its not working in Cantt area of Lahore

http://daudahmed.wordpress.com/2009/06/01/worldcall-evdo-not-available-in-lahore-cantt-yet/

similarly i have heard that there are some times (rare) issues of remote computer not responding type but they are still far and beyond.

Conclusion

For us consumer the advent of EvDO and Wimax present some very good alternatives to DSL which some times can be a night mare if your landline has noise etc (Try getting it fixed through PTCL). EvDO in itself presents a very viable options for people on road, allowing connectivity in small portable packages, also with the current load shedding if your laptop can withstand a 1 hour black out it would mean that you can stay connected through the load shedding which in itself was a major thought when i went for this. The competitor in its space is PTCL which has a better cost to speed ratio but a little less flexibility in packages and a considerable startup cost of 6,000 rupees (against worldcall’s 3000 )

Do let us know your experiences and comments

Finally after waiting for Eternity Wi-Tribe has been officially launched,

As we noticed in morning that they were offering free 7 days trial

http://review.com.pk/2009/05/wi-tribe-launching/

I had thought it would take another few weeks but boy was I wrong.

Keep reading for a detailed review of the service

Outstanding Customer Service

I was pleasantly shocked by the speed of their delivery and their customer service.

After requesting a sign up on their website, I received a call in less than 10 minutes (yes this is not a typo ) on my cell phone, regarding my interest in the service. I definitely was interested to try out specially because of the free offer, so I asked how soon can they install at my place and her answer was 30 minutes, I said ok (thinking that the sales person on the other end is being over enthusiastic due to launch), I did ask what would be the documentation requirements which were just a copy of NIC which i asked my wife at home to keep handy just in case (I was in office).

Before the said 30 minutes had expired I received a call from home that they are their and have installed the device and tested it, and would need 1700(Monthly Charges for 1 MB ) + 999 (Installation Charges) up front. Upon my inquiry I was told that the free offer is for 7 days money back (This includes weekends so be careful), so if I am not satisfied I could return the device with a call (they would come pick it up and return the money),
I decided to take the red pill and find out how deep the rabbit hole is

But in short in 40 minutes without getting up from my seat i had working internet at my home I was really impressed, full marks for customer service.

Sleek device

The packaging is excellent unlike wateen’s which only have motorola written on the box, these guys have taken time to spread out their brand on the box packaging

The package contents were this most beautiful looking wimax device I have yet came across, and manuals and cables.

The front was powered up by green LEDs which added to the sleekness of the device, these blinked while looking for connection and stabilized, I was lucky to get full five bars of signal

Back of device had one LAN port and two ports for telephone

For the more techy ones the device is Motorola CPEi 35750.

Download Speed as Promised Upload …

Internet speed was ok not exceptional the download was good around 1.2 MB, but the upload was only about 0.2 MB when compared to servers in Islamabd

the result was more or less same for servers in California

Upload speed is below par.

Tariff Most Expensive around

Their tarrif which is

is on the higher side, as comparatively Wateen is offering a 15 GB Cap for a 1 MB connection for only 1,599 Rupees for same package of 10 GB Cap at 1MB Wateen is asking for only 1,199 which is what these guys want to charge for the 512 Kbps package while limiting the download at 8 GB.

And this is just the Wimax if you start considering the prices of LinkDotNet and PTCL Broadband with the fact that they offer unlimited downloads then these guys don’t even stand a chance.

Will they turn around and offer competitive packages we could wait and see.

But the Wimax Battle is heating up

I was delighted to see this on the home page of wi-tribe. They have finally started showing signs of a launch.

on the contact page there are Addresses for offices in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad some thing which tells us this will be launched in these major cities first

Also the drop down for contact also emphasizes this concept.

Package details are as follows, I am sure they will introduce more packages as they go ahead currently only 2 speeds are offered each with its own relative download limit

PTCL EvDO (Broadband on the Go) Rates and Subscription details

With the launch of this PTCL wins over WorldCall EvDO because its still only in Karachi where as PTCL not only offers exceptional service in all major cities but in case you travel out of the boundaries of Major Metropolitan like Karachi/Lahore/Islamabad it will automatically switch to CDMA 1x so it keeps you connected.

Cost of USB EvDO Device from PTCL is 6000 Rs and monthly charges as mentioned earlier are 2000 Rs.

For subscription you need to take you ID Card copy and a copy of PTCL Bill in which you want the recurring monthly charge to appear.

Tech Lahore (I blog I follow religiously) was the one who brought this to my attention and I went to the customer service center to confirm.

He has his lucky hands all over the device and is raving about the service here.

Some excerpts from his Post

about setup he is all happy

I got a sleek looking, black EV-DO wireless USB dongle with an extensible antenna, that happens to go perfectly with my T60. The dongle has a built USB storage, so all I had to do was plug it in and the setup program started… from the dongle itself! Pretty cool. It took me about 5 minutes to run through the install, and boom! I was in business.

And he is pretty amazed by the speed, so much that he ran the speed tests a lot of times

Pretty insane! I’m getting 2.28Mbps downlink from Texas and 1.57Mbps from New York! I thought this was too good to be true so I reran the tests multiple times. The results were in the ballpark each time. Over the next couple of days I tried the tests at different hours of the day. No difference. These are real!

And finally his recommendation which is making me reach out for my wallet (Its just that i will have to wait for next month to get this beast or my wife would kill me for spending so generously on the last couple of days of the month .

I’m a convert, if you can’t tell. I think this is PTCL’s best service offering since they launched WLL a few years ago. If you need to be mobile and require high-bandwidth access, PTCL’s EV-DO is indispensable. Get it today!

PTCL EVDO Review
i bought ptcls evdo service on Monday and my device was “authenticated” today. This post is going to be a review of ptcls service and i will compare it to my previous ISP wateen.

The basic requirement for now is a laptop with a pcmcia slot, IMO this is a stupid decision by ptcl pcmcia slots are on their way out and virtually no new laptop bought nowadays comes with one.
The sign up process was very simple all i needed was a copy of a NIC and nothing else signing up for the service literally took me abt 20 mins, but even though u can get the device quickly theres a problem you have to bug ptcl again and again to get ur device activated for me this process took abt 2 days. As for the customer support i havent had a encouter with them yet so cant say anything.
Speed is amazing though it varies with timings usually around peak hours my speed drops to between 512k and 1mbit but during off-peak hours like in the afternoon i get near 2mbit speed havent tested in the night so cant say about that.
A great thing is that each user gets a unique ip so theres no problem in forwarding ports in fact there is no need for it, since its a direct connection to the internet all the ports are forwarded.

Another user some way down the thread notices this

Around 15 days back before going to Islamabad, I used to get average 2.4 and bursts to 2.8Mbits frequently. But since I have come back, speed is considerably slow, and especially today (Sunday), it is not going up 1.2Mbits.
As for the traceroute, it gives Timeout errors on client side, but I tried an internet back trace route, and there is nothing special about it, except that after Karachi PIE server – RWP PIE Server and then Lahore PIE server, the rest time out.

As we noted in our previous post PTCL EvDO (Broadband on the Go) Rates and Subscription details people have shown issues regarding only the availability of PCMCIA device and no USB. PTCL needs to act fast to get this hurdle removed.

Original thread can be found here