India now has 4G. But does it mean anything at all when 3G itself is yet to catch up? To ‘enjoy' 4G speeds, you must first have a 4G compatible LTE device . Enjoy? Ask any 3G customer. Or ask someone with a CDMA dongle. It is highly unlikely you will come across anyone who has ‘enjoyed' the experience.

Most companies have miserable networks. Even those with reasonably decent network set-ups never really give you the blazing fast speeds promised.

The very nature of 3G/4G technology - wireless - makes them unreliable. The first (and sometimes only) response from the telecom company is, “Many people must be using it right now. That's why the low speed.”

When you insist you never get good speeds, a guy is sent with a gadget to measure network strength. He will finally ‘discover' a place, which is most likely to be the terrace or the bathroom, where the network is ‘strong' and recommend you use the device there.

But isn't the device - mobile phone or dongle - supposed to be portable? We cannot be expected to keep sitting in the bathroom with our phones. You're also supposed to get decent speeds when you leave the house. But again, the response will be, “Where do you usually go?” “I usually go to my office,” you say, and are tempted to add: “But I can't sit in the terrace there and also don't use the restroom there much.”

There was a joke about wireless speeds on Twitter: “At last, I am getting decent 2G speeds now - with a 3G dongle.” That explains why 3G hasn't really caught up in India and also why 4G will take its own sweet time to be accepted.

>dinakaran@thehindu.co.in

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