Just a couple of years ago, buying a 4G LTE dongle to use with Airtel’s 4G service meant shelling out Rs 7,500 or so. Today, LTE dongle prices have crashed and the latest entrant to the market is the Huawei E3276, which supports 4G, 3G and 2G.
The E3276 is available in the market for just Rs 1,300 – or about 30% more than what a 3G-only dongle would cost.
UPDATE: Most of the E3276 4G dongles available in India support only Band 40 (TDD band), and not band 3 (1800 MHz FDD). The version that supports both these bands is called E3276-601. It is available from Aliexpress at $30.
And in case you are buying Airtel’s own dongle (which you can use with Airtel only), you have to spend only Rs 1,500. Similarly, Airtel is selling WiFi-enabled 4G LTE dongles for Rs 2,300.
Besides the ability to support networks such as Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, Aircel and Idea Cellular, the Huawei E3276 also has several other advantages, including the ability to support external antennas.
It also comes with SMS and voice call support.
However, there are several variants of this dongle, some of which support only the 2300 band TDD service, while others support both the 1800 FDD service (Idea Cellular) and the 2300 TDD band.
It is expected that the availability of cheap LTE dongles will increase further with the launch of Reliance Jio’s services next month.