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Monday, August 19, 2019

Jionet - 2019 Review

I was in Ooty few days back, and surprisingly I found that my hotel, Sterling Elk Hill Resort (https://www.sterlingholidays.com/) has Jionet and JioPrivateNet hotspots. As I have a Jio SIM I first tried with JioPrivateNet via AKA authentication method by selecting SIM - it did ended up in authentication failure.

AKA (Authenication and Key Agreement) SIM Authentication
In Jio's website, it is written that you have to use AKA method to access JioPrivateNet. If your device does not support this one, you can't use it. (Reference to Jionet FAQ here

Monday, August 12, 2019

Beaches in West Bengal


Beaches are integral part of West Bengal, as Bay of Bengal lies at south of the state. The holy river Ganges meets the sea at Sagar Mohona. Thus it divides the beaches into west & east beaches of Bengal.

✔ East beaches : 

This side Sundarban takes on maximum coverage and here handful of beaches are there.

Bakkhali ( বকখালি)
Fraserganj (ফ্রেজারগঞ্জ)
Henry's Island ( হেনরি আইল্যাণ্ড)  
Sagardwip - Gangasagar beach ( সাগরদ্বীপ/গঙ্গাসাগর)
Mousuni Island

✔ West beaches:
These are on East Medinipur district and attracts huge number of footfalls throughout the year.

✔ North of Kanthi/Contai (কাাঁথি):
Junput (জুনপুট)
Bankiput (বাঁকিপুট)
Boguran Jolpai (বগুরান জলপাই)



✔ South of Contai 
These beaches are main tourist beaches in Bengal. There are one after another beaches lying across the sea til Orissa border. Talsari is another nearby beach inside Orissa. 



Tajpur (তাজপুর)
Chandipur ( চাাঁদিপুর)
Sankarpur (শংকরপুর)
As I visited Sankarpur in August 2021, the goverment has literally killed the natural beauty of the main beach. Full of concrete and lack of nature would put you in disappointment. Bit of nature still lies in the area of fishermen's habour. 
Mandarmani (মন্দারমণি)
Digha Mohona (দীঘা মোহনা)

Digha/old Digha (দীঘা)
Digha is one of the most popular tourist spot in West Bengal. From the capital of Bengal, Kolkata it takes around 4-5 hrs to reach Digha by car. Originally known by the name “Beerkul,” it was first popularised during the British Raj by the then governor of Bengal, Warren Hastings, who said Digha as 'Brighton of the East'. Bengal Gazette (1778) noted down the bungalow of Hastings in Digha, which was built in 1775. Later tidal surge and land erosion had Birkul reduced to rubble. Even Hastings' leisure bungalow also sank into the sea.

After a long gap, Digha had been a place of interest when John Frank Snaith came to Digha in 1923 and leased 11.5 acre area near the sea beach. That time Digha was a mere village, under Ramnagar thana, under Contai district. Mr. Snaith founded Runswick House. 

It was developed into a tourist destination through the efforts of Dr. Bidhan Chandra Roy, the first chief minister of Bengal after the independence in 1947. 

New Digha (নিউ দীঘা)
Udaypur (উদয়পুর)
Udaypur is located just at the border of West Bengal & Orissa. The beach is great but the crowd is not worth. You can drink on the beach by renting a table & chairs from the local shops. They will serve the food too. But too noisy, and not a good quality crowd - not my cup of tea. 


Saturday, August 03, 2019

Airtel to Shut Down 3G Completely, Jio Turns No 1, JioPhone 3 and GigaFiber Update

In an expected move, Airtel, once top player - now 3rd, has announced that they will complete shut down of 3G networks (WCDMA/HSPA/HSPA+) across the country. Airtel started 3G shut down in Q2 of 2019 from Kolkata circle and has planned to do in another 6-7 circles in September. The remaining circles will see 3G shut down by March 2020. There is no news of 2G shut down as of now. 

By 3G shut down, Airtel will have more spectrum for 4G. Airtel's 3G networks are on 900 and 2100 MHz band, and sooner or later all spectrum of these bands will tranform into 4G wave. In brief Airtel's LTE network will be largest in the country, transmitting over 900, 1800, 2100 and 2300 MHz band. (in 2015 I wrote a story on LTE2100)


We hope that Vodafone Idea will follow the suit very soon.