Airtel Launches 21Mbps 3G Wi-Fi Dongle With Postpaid Cashback Plans

Airtel, after launching its 4G Internet services in Kolkata, has now introduced a new 3G dongle in Mumbai and Andhra Pradesh.

The 3G (HSPA+) dongle by Airtel would offer a maximum of 21.6Mbps download speed, and 5.76Mbps upload speed. The 3G dongle can also be converted into a Wi-Fi hotspot once plugged into a laptop, phone charger or a car stereo system.

With the Wi-Fi hotstop Internet sharing capability with up to five users at a time, the ZTE-made Airtel 3G dongle also comes with a microSD card support for up to 32GB, as well as SMS support.

The Airtel 3G dongle will be available to other regions later via some popular retail chains - Vijay Sales, TMS & Reliance Digital in Mumbai and Universal, Hot Spot & Technovision in AP.

Notably, Airtel is not the first one to offer such service to its customers. Noted telecom operators like Tata Docomo and MTS are already offering similar Wi-Fi dongle services based on their CDMA/EVDO networks.

Airtel is additionally offering cashback plans for its postpaid users using Rs. 650 or higher plans, offering Rs 100 per month for seven months. The unlimited plans for prepaid users give 3GB, 4GB, 5GB, 6GB and 8GB of full-speed data for Rs. 650, Rs. 750, Rs. 850, Rs. 950 and Rs. 1,250 respectively. Once the data limit is crossed, the download speed would drop to 128Kbps. However, the validity will remain till the 30-day period only.

Earlier this month, Bharti Airtel launched 4G services on mobile in Kolkata, with plans for prepaid customers starting at Rs. 42, and speeds of up to 100Mbps (download). The company had launched 4G services in Kolkata in 2012, which could be accessed only through dongles.