Bharti Airtel has announced that a new 3G dongle with integrated Wi-Fi support has been introdced in India and it will initially go on sale in select circles. The new device is made by ZTE and it offers a hassle-free way of creating a Wi-Fi hotspot. However, no price details for the stick have been provided as yet.
Airtel notes that the new 3G Wi-Fi dongle will go in sale in Mumbai and Andhra Pradesh. The device will be available in other locations as well, but the company plans to roll it out in a phased manner. The new internet stick works on HSPA+ technology and it offers peak downlink speeds of up to 21.6Mbps. For uploads, customers will have around 5.76Mbps of uplink.
There’s also a microSD card slot onboard which is found on almost every 3G dongle on the market. The 3G Wi-Fi dongle even lets you send and received text messages. Like Tata’s Photon Max Wi-Fi and the MTS MBlaze Ultra Wi-Fi, you’ll be able to setup a hotspot by simply plugging the dongle into a USB port, be it a PC, mobile device, media player, car stereo or a wall socket.
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Additionally, you’ll be able to share your internet connection with up to 5 devices only. In other news, Airtel is in processor of taking over Loop Mobile. The customer base of both providers amounting at over 7 million will be combined post acquisition and the latter’s cell sites are also part of the agreement.
Currently, there’s no price or exact release date for the new Airtel 3G Wi-Fi dongle. The carrier is still to shed light on plan rates as well.