Ways to enjoy benefits of 3G and still keep your bills down

By Nimish Dubey, ET Bureau

The wise person who pointed out that you cannot get a rose without attendant thorns might well have been referring to 3G services in India.

For, while there is no doubt that 3G (wherever available) has added a whole new dimension to what one can do on a handset, from watching streaming high-definition video to making video calls, the fact is that all this does not come free.

In fact, if you are the type that has been spoilt by relatively low charges for accessing the Internet on your handset using GPRS/EDGE, then it is a fair chance that you will be stunned by the kind of hole a 3G connection can blow in your wallet. For instance, while Airtel allows users to access the Internet using EDGE/GPRS connectivity on their handsets for Rs 199 per month with a 2GB data limit in Delhi, a similar plan for 3G costs Rs 750.

And that is only part of the problem, thanks to the faster connectivity on 3G, you end up doing far more browsing than you would normally do on a relatively sluggish connection.

Of course, if you overshoot your data limit, you will end up being charged at the rate of 30 paise per 20 kb. Which does not sound too bad on the surface, but on conversion works out to be approximately Rs 15 per MB, which in turn means more than Rs 15,000 per GB. Financial mayhem, in other words.

The good news is that, with a little prudence, you can still make the most of 3G connectivity without depreciating your bank account significantly. All it takes is some common sense and attention to download detail. (Note that this feature mainly deals with 3G usage on a phone, as that is where it is most likely to be used).

Pick the right plan

To start off, make sure you're on the right plan. As of now, most major service providers (BSNL, Airtel, Vodafone, Idea) have a number of 3G plans, but unlike the early days of accessing the Internet on your handset when you could have an unlimited data plan, there are some very strict data limits on just how much data you can use.

You can get plans for long or short periods, with data usage limits applying for both. Some operators, like Idea, have time-based plans which let you use 3G services for a limited period of time, for instance, there is a Rs 145 plan for prepaid connections in which you get 120 minutes of 3G free spread over a period of seven days.

Similarly Airtel has sachet plans that let you use small amounts of data over 3G for a limited period of time, Rs 11 for 10 MB of usage for a day, for instance.