I had picked up a BSNL 3G connection a few weeks back hoping for a faster internet connectivity on the move on my N900. The N900 being a mobile computer, I’m able to do most of the work on that without having to boot up the computer. It’s also an advantage having a fast connectivity on the mobile with the 4-8 hour power cuts in Bangalore, the UPS doesn’t hold up with WIFI connectivity too long during an outage.
When you get a prepaid connection from BSNL, their initial 120 topup gives 25 MB download free. The call rates also seed reasonable. I was pretty impressed with the speeds I got on the mobile. Here’s the screenshot of the speed test on the N900′s browser:
That’s pretty decent speeds for general surfing, VOIP calls, and IM. Even Skype calls go through without any major breaks in the call. This kind of speeds after the ultra slow Edge speeds on Airtel GPRS was mindblowing.
Now the free usage was coming towards it’s end, and I had to look for ways to top up the balance. After surfing around the unintuitive BSNL portal, I found that their portal shows data plans for prepaid and postpaid over at http://karnataka.bsnl.co.in/3G/dataplans.htm.
First stop’s their dealer
The dealer I got the connection from had no clue about how to get this done. The BSNL rep who was at the shop also was clueless about 3G data plans. He asked me to call the customer care folks to find out the details.
2nd stop: Customer Care Number
Customer care on the other end just want to end the call as fast as possible. The first time I called customer care, the person hardly heard what I was asking for and told me some instructions to get Blackberry service on the mobile and dropped the line. The next call I got through asked me to SMS some text to a number. When I did so, I just got a reply message that the option I messaged was wrong!
Still getting no where!
I searched for other dealers on the way to office and dropped into one more place – they too were clueless about the 3G data recharge. Next stop, Customer Service centres. I hunted and found their CSC locations and phone numbers from their site. I tried the two locations closest to me, and tried calling up to find how to reach there. No replies on the numbers listed on the site!
Recharge online?
They advertise that you can recharge online on their portal portal.bsnl.in. Well you can, if you have the patience for the site to load up. My luck’s been so good this far, that when I try logging to recharge, I never get past the login screen. Luckily I found another service to recharge my talktime balance for BSNL. Unfortunately, neither BSNL or other recharge portals I’ve checked out, provide data recharges for BSNL’s 3G serviceUnfortunately the other recharge portals I’ve checked out don’t provide data recharges for BSNL’s 3G service.
Update: I did check out the BSNL portal after reading a comment from Uday, using Internet Explorer, the site did go through and I did see a data top-up option. But the payment options don’t include a credit card, you’ll need an account from one of the National Banks to pay on the site. The banks I have accounts in don’t seem to be on the list there.
I still have yet to get the data plan top-up done. If any of you know how to get this done, and a CSC/dealer where the people know how to do this, do let me know by commenting below! BSNL’s service is good while it runs, when you need help, you’re on your own. Their service is like a do-it-yourself kit where the instructions are missing.
uday on April 11, 2010
portal.bsnl.in has never failed me. I have done 4 normal topups and 2 data topups on the site. One thing when you do transactions on portal.bsnl.in is to ensure you use Internet Explorer.
vinuthomas on April 12, 2010
Thanks for the tip Uday. It did work after I went into the site with Internet Explorer.
Unfortunately, I'll need to get an account in a National Bank to pay on portal.bsnl.in . Why can't these guys accept credit cards or debit cards from any bank?
madhu on May 2, 2010
similar issue solved here
http://broadbandforum.in/bsnl-3g/58641-usage-da…
vinuthomas on May 6, 2010
Thanks Madhu. That was a very useful link
Sethuma on May 13, 2010
Bsnl online recharge now works. Try it out.
Sethuma.
vinuthomas on May 18, 2010
I’m not to sure what goes on behind the scenes on the BSNL portal. It’s frustrating enough to get the basics done on that portal, when it’s working that is.
Madhu on May 18, 2010
does the recharge portal internally verify whether i have purchased a data card with them or not
coz i am using the data plan on a 3g mobile and not on data card
it shows me the error 'you are not eligible for 3g recharge'
whereas no such message for voice recharge/topups
Ramkumar on September 23, 2010
Have you figured out how to make data topups yet?
I have another query, I took a 3G SIM card and activated with te general 120 Rs FRC. My question is, whether I need to make voice RC as well to keep the number active or just the data recharges will do?
vinu on September 23, 2010
@ Ramkumar
The recharge portal does allow data recharges – but it’s quite flaky and three out of four times it failed to do the recharge after taking the money. Had to call the customer care people and ask them to revert the charges – which took up to 1 month to happen.
Finally some of their resellers have figured out how to do the data recharges and I get them done though them these days.
You’ll have to have voice balance in order to do any recharge or top-up of data. If your voice balance goes to 0 or past the expiry date, so does your data.
Krishna on November 4, 2010
Guys,
I have recharged with a data-top of Rs.606/- which has 1 GB morning usage and 5 GB night usage (11 pm-7 am).
Sadly I am just able to use 1.5 GB for the past fortnight. 3G link keeps on blinking as soon as I try to connect. I was getting a 300 kbps link on N70 and was able to download at 30bps be it torrents or plain downloads. When ever I try to recharge BSNL portal allows only 197 as top-up amount.
DELLstreak on November 6, 2010
BSNL does suck, I have terrible experience with their network.but its mostly their awful service and their duffer engineers that makes me hate them .Hey folks I’m sorry to say that you guys are stuck on Rs1/MB prepaid cause you never ever able to buy those complex 3G Data and voice tariff plan from BSNL. Those who are working in BSNL are in fact agents of other would be private 3G service providers. you see most of us are allready prepared to join private 3G network providers once they hit the market. Unfortunately The GM of my city;s BSNL office is a person who took 10 years to finish his BE graduation and most of their JTO are from the era of DOS and Windows95. Believe me they are still using PC running on windows 95 & 98. what do you expect from them rather they are expecting that we do not disturbed them. So guys wait for couple of weeks and you will see the shining Airtel, Vodaphone ,Tata and Idea 3G.
Manoj on November 21, 2010
I agree with most people to figure out the 3g plans but after that its pretty stright forward from their portal. I am on their 700 pm plan unlimited! I usually get over 2 mbps on my n900 and at worst/peak times around 1 mbps. Show me affordable 3g data plans from private players and I will take them. Till then BSNL will do.
Deepak Gupta on December 3, 2010
Payment through Credit Card still does not exist. Any help would be highly appreciated
Srikanth Cheela on December 8, 2010
Hi,
I had taken a new 3G Data Card. Tried to connect to the net. Its astonishing. Its running at 4Kbps speed. I tried calling customer care atleast 100 times in 3 days. Everytime call gets disconnected without the solution. Can some one help me. I’m from Hyderabad. 3G service is available in our city.
Harsh Agarwal on December 24, 2010
when I try to recharge my no through bsnl portal it shows please enter a valid number i tried the same with some other random 89 series no in the 3g as well as 2g section but it shows none of them as a valid no…
moreover with my no I am getting connection speed of around just 150 kBps and a doenload speed of 20-30kb/s which is same as the gprs speed on a 2g connection….so I stuck with a pathethic speed and no way to recharge any data vouchers online
Edwin on July 28, 2011
BSNL portal loads slow and they do not accept credit cards.Most of the listed banks transaction fails because of technical error.
However I’m able to use credit card for 3G Data Card top-up .
Go to this post http://www.techpings.com/2011/07/bsnl-3g-datacard-top-up-credit-card.html
Vinu Thomas on July 28, 2011
Thanks for the Tip. I’ll be sure to try that out next time I’ve got to recharge.