Hands on with Dialog 3G

Dialog Telekom was the first to introduce the Third Generation mobile systems to Sri Lanka. In mid-November this year, Dialog began providing 3G facilities to all Dialog Mobile customers. All customers can now use 3G facilities if they have a compatible 3G Phone.

Soon I received the 3G service on my Nokia N80, and began to wonder if there was a mistake somewhere. When I checked GPRS, it turned out to be very fast. But Video Calling did not work.A few days later, the Press Release on Dialog 3G was made available on Dialog's Corporate website. It explained that 3G was now available to all Dialog GSM and KIT customers. I enabled Video Calling too under the given instructions.

So how was the Dialog 3G experience? For me, it was mostly trouble-free and interesting. However, some of my friends with 3G did say they have problems. But since I have not seen them first-hand, I cannot comment.

3G Internet
Internet on the Dialog 3G network was like heaven after suffering GPRS for over a year now. According to my research, 3G (not 3.5) could reach up to 1.5 mbps. Even though Dialog stated on 384 kbps as the speed on their website, I believe it surpassed that limit at certain timed. One reason for the high speed would be that few people are using 3G services at the moment, although this will change as 3G phone become cheaper.

An interesting fact is that Dialog 3G Internet surpassed the speed of my home SLT ADSL 512k. When downloading a video of about 5 MB, ADSL crawled at a speed of 5 kbps. But when I connected my computer to the Internet via my phone, it downloaded at around 20 kbps. I'm starting to consider moving to Dialog Broadband too (Dialog 2 Mbps is cheaper than SLT 2 Mbps).

Dialog Mobile TV
Dialog Mobile TV was launched a few years ago and has been one of Dialog's unique features so far. It provide CNN, Cartoon Network, and several local channels over the GPRS and 3G networks. On GPRS it would be a waste of money to watch television, as there was hardly anything to be seen or heard. But on 3G this experience changed for the better. Television on 3G loaded fast and worked smoothly without any bumps, and it was much clearer than I would ever imagine. I could actually read the text on the newsbar of CNN (although I do not encourage you to do so; the text is small and you can damage your eyes trying to read it).

Video Calling
Soon I got hold of my old N70 and enabled Video Calling on that too. I took my first ever Video Call from me to myself (later I tried with a friend). The quality of the video transmitted was good, although not crystal clear as shown in the deceiving advertisements.But it was good enough to recognize the face and even the background. And the video was transmitted within approx. two seconds. Audio did not always synchronize with the video.

So far Dialog 3G is quite satisfactory for me. With the recent reduction of prices, 3G has only become more affordable. But with 3.5G now in the market with higher data rates from Mobitel, and Airtel coming withing the next year, it will be interesting to see what happens. Competition will work to the customers advantage, although I will not be switching to another mobile network anytime soon. I encourage you to try out 3G now if you have a compatible phone.