Hello I am traveling to India in January 2015 and will be travelling to Delhi, Jaipur, Agra, Himachal and Rishikesh, the entire trip is for 40 days, so my query here is: which mobile service provider offers best connectivity in above mentioned states. I am not much worried about call charges, all I need is good connectivity so my family can reach me anytime. Thanks in advance for all your expert comments and hints -TJ
Hello TJ, If staying connected at all times is very important to you then I would suggest getting two connections, one from Airtel and other BSNL. Some people will suggest Vodafone but honestly speaking it sucks in remote areas.
Airtel and vodafone are both playing up since they had to return some spectrum back to the government and dropping of calls is very frequently experienced. Reliance netconnect broadband plus has a good data coverage across India and even in the hills. When high speed is not available it will still give you 144kbps speed which is more then enough for normal browsing and sending and receiving emails. Most journalists use Reliance netconnect+ for that reason. BSNL is another good option because of its availability in remote areas but do not count on just one network as you will find places where only Airtel will work or Vodafone, Reliance or BSNL would work and others wont so having two different connections is advisable.
In Himachal and Uttrakhand both Vodafone gives good service. I have obtained around 6 Mbps in Himachal and around 4 Mbps in Uttrakhand bur still I advice you to keep a BSNL connection as a backup. Use Vodafone as primary connection and when Vodafone goes funny try BSNL, as you said you will go to Rishikesh only so in Rishikesh Vodafone works good it starts behaving strange only after bayasi which is around 60 kms from Rishikesh. When I was there my Vodafone worked totally alright till bayasi and I had to use BSNL netowork in Kaudilya which is around 85 kms from Rishikesh and after that Vodafone was working alright till Tihiri Dam.
