Mobile broadband using data card and USB modems

India has come a long way ever since broadband started spreading at a very fast pace since 2001 when isps like sify broadband, Bsnl and Mtnl started spreading their networks to smaller towns.. since then there has been no looking back.
Now we also have mobile broadband available across India provided by a lot of companies out of which the main ones are Reliance netconnect broadband which provides a speed of 3.1mbps and Tata photon plus again provides a speed of 3.1mbps and then we have Bsnl's EVDO data cards and USB modems which are available through the country now except for New Delhi and Mumbai where Mtnl is providing their 3g service as Bsnl does not operate in these two circles although there have been talks about both the government run companies to be merged soon.
Data cards are available for laptops from different companies and the gprs ones are provided by almost every single mobile phone service provider. Airtel has recently launched its prepaid data card and has become the first company to offer prepaid data cards.
Things are changing at a fast pace and with 3g spectrum auctions coming up soon I am sure there will be a broadband revolution in India and hopefully our broadband penetration will be at par with developed economies in less then 10 years.
Please do leave your comments.

Mobile broadband is good, but the only problem is you actually take a risk because you do not know what the coverage is like at your location. I seriously think that just like Airtel 4G demos are given at customers homes, the same should be done with other mobile connections from service providers.

These days sim cards are almost free so buying a sim card just to check signal strength is not going to cost a lot.

If you are on Android there are apps which do this task. You can check the strength of your network as well as other networks available in your area.
If you need to check the strength of 3G networks, then obviously your handset should also be 3G capable.
Using such apps, you need not buy a sim card just to check the signal strength.

Check out these apps -> Network Signal Strength, GSM Signal Monitoring, Network Signal Info etc.

Offtopic:
If you have an old handset (working or non working) and you do not want to use it anymore, there are better options than throwing it straight to the bin.
Why not have a shot at glory. Take part in mobile throwing contests.

I installed two out of those apps but they only show me my own network Airtel. Is there any application that could tell me signal strength of all the available networks?

In some mobile phones (especially Samsung) the apps will not work.
This is due to the fact the function getNeighboringCellInfo returns null. On my android phone (not Samsung) the app works fine however.

You do know your stuff qwerty

I only have one phone and that too a very old Samsung one just like my computer. I will check when one of my friends visit my place who has another brand. Thanks for sharing this as I needed this badly because there is really no way to find out what would work the best.

Are you an engineer qwerty?

Originally Posted by Tanmaya

I only have one phone and that too a very old Samsung one just like my computer. I will check when one of my friends visit my place who has another brand. Thanks for sharing this as I needed this badly because there is really no way to find out what would work the best.

Are you an engineer qwerty?

Hah Hah, Sort of. But more of a reverse engineer than an engineer.

Originally Posted by Admin

These days sim cards are almost free so buying a sim card just to check signal strength is not going to cost a lot.

That's true, but I think it is just the hassle of doing all the paper work and waiting for the sim to get activated. Better idea to see what other networks are like at your home and in the area is asking the people living by.