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Wireless broadband has slowly started to hit India. Tata Indicom and Reliance Communications are major players in this segment. BSNL too has launched wireless broadband but I could not get more info on that as their call center numbers were always busy. Wireless broadband in India is launched using technology from Qualcomm. It does come under 3G specification, but I wonder how they have rolled out services as the spectrum is still to be auctioned. After a quick survey of wireless broadband from forums and blogs, I decided to get Tata Indicom Photon+. I paid Rs. 3500 for a new Huawei EC1260.
Huawei EC1260 is a usb data card used to access wireless internet upto 3.1 Mbps. It is a plug and play device and will automatically install itself. There is no need of any driver or software to be installed separately. The device has preloaded installer for Windows XP, Windows Vista and Mac OS. However you may have to install additional software to activate your account. I had to install Huawei Account Tool which was supplied by Tata Indicom service engineer. It is one time activity and after that you can use your data card in any computer.
Please follow the below steps for activating the modem through Account Tool:
- Insert the data card in the system.
- Input MIN & SUB ID (MDN)
- Input SPC 000000 & press Write button.
- Close the dialog box and restart the system.