Reader's question - do you regret your R2I decision?

There was a question from one of the readers - "do you regret your R2I decision, now having made the R2I?". Thought this will be a very relevant question for many of the folks thinking about R2I. So, some thoughts on this ...

One of my friend's said while I was in US - "if you are 95% sure that you want to be back in India, don't come back"! That's very true - you need to be 99% sure that you want to be here to make the R2I. Reasons being several - there are somethings that you can't simply get here and those are out of your control. Examples being, nice parks, footpaths, nice roads where you don't need to worry about commute, discipline and order in things etc. There is no way these things can change in the near term, read, in your lifetime :-).

From my personal point of view, do I regret the R2I decision? Absolutely not, from my point of view. However, your 'mileage' may vary, as I mention below.

However, as I mentioned in my initial blog entries, R2I is a very personal decision. I was 100% sure that this is something I want to do and something that would be good for the kids. In that light, I enjoy things which were not available earlier like frequent visits to parents, kids mingling with cousins and family, Indian food, "feel of at home" etc. Fortunately, kids have adjusted to the Indian climate and don't fall sick as often. We do take precautions like avoiding road side food, not drinking water outside except bottled water etc. Also, the US style malls are abundant in Bangalore there days, which give access to latest movies, bowling, pizza, berger etc - to keep the kids connected to US.

However, same thing may not be true for lots of families or even for your family members. Dealing with the chaos here may seem like a headache for lots of people and knowing the problems will persist, may become a ongoing pain.

In summary, one person's enjoyment of R2I may not be true for another person - it all depends on your perspective and what you want out of R2I. If staying in India is the strong reason, it is very likely that you will enjoy the R2I and make it work for you.

So, no regrets? No - there are but more of irritants and I will cover those in my next post.

If you are still in-doubt, take this assessment I posted a while back and access yourself to see what factors drive your R2I decision. These are the factors that drive your R2I stay here in India as well once you are here...
http://r2idiaries.blogspot.in/2011/12/r2i-or-nr2i-not-to-r2i-dilemma-take.htm

Completed second year of R2I ...

Here we go - completed second year of R2I and onto 3rd year !!!! :-)

Big thanks to all the readers - this blog has crossed the 20K page visits mark and very happy to see that this has been useful to many people. Hope this continues. Please drop a comment if you want to hear about something specific on R2I in the blog...

I had reflected about R2I experience after the first year, here:
http://r2idiaries.blogspot.in/2012/06/reflecting-year-of-r2i.html

Not surprisingly, nothing much had changed - good things have remained and have improved. Kids know lot more about family, have gotten used to much more Indian food and have started eating stomach full in ceremonies like Weddings etc. They had a blast during the 2 months of summer vacation - visiting places, playing with cousins etc.

Bad and ugly things have remained the same - roads continue to be bad, there is much more uncontrolled construction, thanks to rain gods - it has been raining good. Otherwise, water situation would have been terrible. Unfortunately, these things change over time and are under government control. Only major change I have seen is the Outer Ring Road, which now flys all the way to Hebbal, without much obstruction of service roads. However, whenever we get on the road, it feels like we are driving on the war zone - random traffic, pot holes etc never stop!

Some pics of Sarjapur road area ...

If you are looking for housing options after R2I, it is very likely that you have come across the Sarjapur area - either apartments to rent/buy or gated communities. Also, worth the look if you are looking at one of the schools in this area.

Thought it would be worth sharing some latest pics from Sarjapur road. Will try to cover few more areas (on the IT belt) down the line - pls add a comment if you have a preference.

Here they are ...

Near Wipro Corp entrance

This railway crossing was a bottleneck, finally an overpass coming up ...

Moving to Bangalore - Where should I stay?

Thought this post might help some of you who are planning to move this year and don't have much time to explore and decide - the main question is always where should I stay to start with?

I have covered this a bit earlier but let me try to give some specific pointers ...

The place you pick depends on your work location. Normally, finding a school is not that big of a challenge since there are international schools in most of the locations. However, finding a balance is bit tough. However, if you are going to start with renting an apartment, that makes it easier to look for a place in a year or so. Even if you have a house in a 'not-so-close' to work area, consider renting a place closer to work for a year or so.

For the context here, I am assuming you are from a high-tech industry.

• If your workplace is closer to Electronic City, consider BTM Layout, HSR Layout or Electronic City itself.
• JP Nagar, Banashankari, BTM Layout, Bannergatta Road etc would work for Electronics City, Domlur area, ORR-Sarjapur Road. However, you are going thru' busy ORR and expect bit of longer commutes.
• If your workplace is closer to Sarjapur Road area of Outer Ring Road, consider HSR layout, Sarjapur Road or Marathhalli area.
• If your workplace is closer to Marathhalli, Mahadevpur, KR Puram, consider Marathhalli/Whitefield area.
• If your workplace is in Whitefield, consider Marathhalli/Whitefield area.
• If your workplace is in Hebbal, consider HBR Layout, KR Puram area. Marathhalli, Whitefield area also would work but bit of a commute.

Would like to hear from you, if you are a reader - don't just go away after reading. Please post your thoughts....

Some pics from Bangalore ...

Hope all of you are doing good and in the process of packing up if you are going to be R2I during this year (and if that is tied to the school timings)...

One thing I was looking for was good, latest pics from Bangalore, specifically in & around tech sectors. Thought of sharing some which are the latest to give you an idea how things look here. These are from in & around Outer Ring Road. This is a major artery now, connecting all the way from Banashankari to Hebbal. Also, connects with the other ring road at Banashankari, going all the way to Mysore Road, Vijayananagar and back to Hebbal. Most of the tech companies are located in the Sarjapur Road-Marathhalli belt, K.R. Puram and Hebbal (Manyata IT Park).

If I get some good reader feedback, will share some more videos and pics from other areas as well.

ORR - near HSR Layout

ORR - near Silk Board

ORR - near Banashankari, with Metro track overhead

ORR - near Bellandur, Bangalore Central Mall

ORR - near Mahadevapura

ORR - another Metro track

ORR - Marathhalli

ORR - towards Marathhalli

Hebbal - Manyata IT Park

Inside Manyata IT Park

Investing in Bangalore real estate - pessimistic view ...

I covered the optimistic view in the last post - had to give good news before giving the bad news! Now it is time for the pessimistic view.
Why both optimistic and pessimistic views?  That is the nature of the beast! The old saying of 'risk versus reward' can't go wrong and this is definitely a 'time will tell' type of story.

As a R2I hopeful, you might be quite familiar with what happened in the Western world in the real estate scenario in the last few years - lets revisit that a bit. There was so much hype that even office cleaners bought homes(not a made up one, this is a real story and I have seen this) - since homes can be bought literally for 'free' - loans were available with no down payment and pretty much 0% interest. No background checks were done for income or eligibility. Needless to say, all of got foreclosed when their 'free' term ended and they couldn't afford to even do the interest payments. Now, that was greed working its way and taught some tough lessons that 'nothing is free'.

So, what is the take away for Bangalore real estate from this story? There are few for sure and this is where the pessimistic view comes into picture. Let me list few downside points and leave you to think about those...

• There is a huge demand for apartments in Bangalore and there is no statistics to show how much of these are investment properties versus how many of these are bought for occupation. There is a good demand for rental housing as of now and is expected to stay but at the current rate of new building, there could be an oversupply when constructions are completed - needless to say there are so many new mega size projects which are in-progress as of now.
• Adding to this factor is that - there is very minimal control on how much can be built. Many of the apartment complexes are very large and can house anywhere from 300 to 1000 families. BBMP, one of the worst run entity is not worried about any of the factors like road infrastructure, water - anything is possible by 'you know what' and 'you know who' factors. It is the golden time for real estate in Bangalore and so many things can be developed in-terms of infrastructure with the taxes that are pouring in but unfortunately the funds are pouring in to leaking pots! That can spell doom to the real estate future of Bangalore.
• Infrastructure: As I said above, the density of occupation is not measured against available infrastructure and building happens without any regard to such factors. You would be surprised to see  that for a apartment of the size of 300-500 families, there would be 5-6 visitor parking slots! That is the kind of planning and approvals that go along with these buildings. The approach roads are so small  hardly one car can pass thru' but that is not a factor when building permissions are given.
• Water availability: You might already be aware of the 'Kaveri' war! Unfortunately, there isn't sufficient natural water supply closer to Bangalore. With the indescriminate digging of borewells, there is more water extraction than preservation. Rain water harvesting is a must for new development but nobody checks whether they are really maintained after homes are built. As one saying goes 'water scarcity has made cities to vanish'. Water scarcity can impact Bangalore real estate scene in a major way. Unfortunately, our politicians are busy holding on to their seats and filling up their pockets than any of these real issues.
• Tech industry dependence: Unlike other cities, the apartments and high end real estate is driven only by tech sector in Bangalore. We do see other industries like pharma etc coming in but at much slower rate. If the cost keeps going up and it is not economical anymore for multi nationals to come here, that could impact this sector in major way as well.

Anyway, these are my opinions - pls feel free to sound off your thoughts ...

Investing in Bangalore real estate - optimistic view ...

As I mentioned in my previous post, let me cover the optimistic view of investing in Bangalore real estate. Unfortunately, like any thing else, risk and rewards go hand-in-hand here as well. If somebody says 'investing in real estate in Bangalore/India is the sure bet to get handsome returns', don't trust that! The old truth of 'risk versus rewards' always wins. However, in the current environment, Bangalore real estate does look in the upward trend and what future holds is a 'time will tell' story...

Many factors contribute to this:

• Tech sector is definitely driving the housing market. Banks are still generously giving home loans and it is very easy to get funds to invest in an apartment unit. Crossing loan amounts of above 60-70 lakhs becomes a challenge even for the tech folks but even at this level, it is still possible to settle on something.
• Availability of high-tech workers: It would be hard to find anywhere else in India the amount of tech savvy people like in Bangalore. This naturally attracts more tech companies to have Bangalore as the location, which in-turn drives the real estate market.
• There is still a good influx of people from all parts of the country to Bangalore(not only in tech sector but other peripheral sectors like hotels, construction etc) and that will keep the demand at higher level. The fact that it is difficult to get a good apartment unit in a decent location shows that there is still demand for apartment units. This is typical in larger communities where there are good facilities like swimming pool, club house, good walking area, gym etc.
• Bangalore tops in getting access to malls, entertainment, good Indian/international food etc. This does attract lots of folks to stay in Bangalore.
• Whether is a major factor - it is comfortable throughout the year, which is hard to beat even when compared to any part of US.
• There is still lots of international investment that is happening into Bangalore - not only in the tech sector but in other sectors like hotels, malls, hospitals etc. As far as new tech companies starting offshore setups, that is a TBD. However, I have seen many, many startups, which are setting up offices in Bangalore, which is a good sign for real estate as well.

I have seen places like Sarjapur, which are really outside of Bangalore and not at a commuting distance for work to high tech areas getting sold out when it comes to Villa/apartment projects. Unfortunately, nobody knows whether these are getting bought for investment and with a view of appreciation or they are folks really who are going to stay here when homes are ready. If you are from California, you might remember the story of city Stockton!

Overall, if you count the factors above, it seems like good times are there to stay for some time. If you buy the right property at the right location, you can still get good returns. However, to note, buying a finished apartment and keeping it for few years with a view to sell down the line won't get you much - they may go up a bit but start loosing value as the apartments start getting older. Will cover such scenarios in my next post ...

Bangalore real estate - should I invest for R2I ?

Looking at the traffic to the related posts, I can see that there is definitely lots of interest in the topic of real estate in Bangalore. This is very relevant if you are doing R2I to Bangalore as well. Hence, let me try to  add my 2 cents, with R2I as the focus ...

As a possible R2I, you have few choices:

• Buy an already built apartment
• Buy an upcoming apartment, which is not yet built.
• Buy a site and construct.
• Buy an already built home.

All of these have their own +ve and -ve sides.

Option #1 Buy an already built apartment: This is going to be bit of an expensive proposition. Once completed, price of such apartment goes up - it could be Rs. 3000 or so during initial launch and it could go up to Rs. 4000 or so once completed. However, you are avoiding the risk that builder may run into some legal issue and may not complete or delay. Also, in the already built apartment, many things are already established like swimming pool, STP etc.

Option #2 Buy in an upcoming apartment, which is not yet built: If you have strong R2I feeling or sure about it, this is the best option - if you plan to move to an apartment setting. Prices are lower and you can save anywhere from 10 lakhs to 30 lakhs. There is risk that builder may run into legal issues or may simply delay the handover. Also, if your job location is not fixed, this may become a challenge (whereas in the option #1, you can buy close to your work place). Note that builders take anywhere from 2 to 3 years to complete once they launch. Apartment communities do provide much more social exposure to you and kids but the space you get is much more limited. The problems of noise from neighbors(like in US apartments) is not there since walls are concrete. Also, noise from upper floors are relatively less (you definitely don't hear toilet flush on your head!).

Option #3 Buy a site and construct: This could work very well, given 2 constraints - a)you have some time to come over to India, look for a site, do all of the paper work b)willing to wait for few years before you can occupy. Remember - getting a good site in a good location with clean paper work is NOT easy. Also, getting a house constructed along with your work schedules is no joke. I haven't yet seen a single house owner who said he/she was able to get it done in-time. All of the advice we have gotten so far is to avoid this if you can. However, here you get the option to build your home the way you want. If you construct an independent house outside of a gated community, you need to worry about the security as well.

Option #4 Buy an already built home: This is still an good option. Normally, already built houses don't carry so much value. It is the land price that matters more. However, don't at all be surprised to see a price tag of anywhere from 2 to 5 crores (yes, that is crores for you!!!) in gated communities in high-tech areas like whitefield. You can get older houses within 1.5 crores or so (more like 2500-3000 sq ft area) in decent areas but search is going to be bit longer.

Looking from the investment perspective, I don't see any indication of the prices going down any time soon. Instead all indications are that they are heading upwards. In general, the land gets more appreciation and you can safely sell and invest somewhere else on R2I (say, you need to stay in a different location). So, if you have concrete R2I plans, planning ahead using one of the options could save you some $$$!

I will cover the optimistic and pessimistic parts of buying real estate in Bangalore in my next post ...

Wish all of the readers a very happy and prosperous new year 2013. 

If you have R2I plans for 2013, wish you all the success ...

Sunrise in Kanyakumari

Bangalore is the best city to live in India - really???

For those of who haven't seen this article, this was a result of the recent survey 'Quality of Living Survey - Worldwide Rankings, 2011' done by the global HR (human resources) consultancy major Mercer.

Read the article here:
http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-11-29/bangalore/30453876_1_global-list-living-survey-cities

I can say only this - there might be some truth to this (when compared to other Indian cities) in-terms of climate, high-tech job opportunities, highly educated, mild tempered people etc but infrastructure-wise, Bangalore would loose all of the points. Roads are getting worse day by day with no fixes in sight, no footpaths, uncontrolled housing development etc. If you take all of those into account, Bangalore wouldn't fare much. Also, the 'quality' part can be really debatable - if you haven't seen cities outside of India, may be you can call this some quality but for most of us who have seen what quality is, this is a far cry!!!

Also, if Bangalore is called the 'best place to live', imagine the plight of other cities :-(

R2I in 2013? What you should be doing now?

I covered this topic around the same time last year. What you should be doing now for R2I in 2013 is not going to be much different from what summarized during last year.

If you have not read that post, here it is again:
http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4278261385449268301#editor/target=post;postID=7473379386101222317

If you have school going kids, you should have settled on a school by now. If not, there is still time - make sure you use the holiday time to pick a school, talk to the school admin and settle down.

If your kids are not yet school going, your priority would be to sell/rent your house there and pick a location and start filtering down where you would like to stay in the city of your choice. Commuting is not fun (not just long but not fun either) in most of the cities here. So, make some progress on that front.

Of course, there is no better time to cleanup the items. Now is the best time to start to selling unwanted stuff and accumulating what you are going to need once you R2I - this is the shopping season as well in US and other countries.

If you are still debating, settle the debate. Possibly my post on R2I decision assessment would be of help:
http://r2idiaries.blogspot.in/2011/12/r2i-or-nr2i-not-to-r2i-dilemma-take.html

Good luck with your R2I efforts ...

Kids coping with R2I - revisited ...

One of the readers asked about how kids are coping up after R2I here: http://r2idiaries.blogspot.in/2012/06/reflecting-year-of-r2i.html

I have covered this topic here before http://r2idiaries.blogspot.in/2012/01/kids-settling-down-in-india-after-r2i.html

But, let me recapture some of the latest updates on the kids front...

I guess I am the first one to make this up but guess it is worth the say - "You can take the kid out of US but you can't take US out of the kid" :-). Substitute your country of choice in-place of US! Not too surprising indeed since after looking at a much more sophisticated, well-behaved society, it is bit hard to adjust to a environment where things are set back by few years. If you grew up in India, it is hard to see thru' the eyes of the kids who are born outside of India. 

Here was one interesting note from our 6 year old - after coming back from school he said he doesn't like Bangalore. When asked why, he said 'people here drive thru' red light'!!! He was reflecting on the lack of orderliness which we miss as R2I as well but for them it is hard to understand why such things happen here and some sort of negative feeling develops. Unfortunately, you can't do much about it.

But, there are many, many positive things we have seen - my first one is asking about our family connection each time we meet one of our closer family members. 6 year old is 'surprised' to find out that he has '2 grandpas, 2 grandmas, 4 uncles, 3 aunts etc etc. Don't think that kind exposure would have happened being at US and with a month of visit every other year. They are happy to meet and play with their cousins, which happens at least couple of times a year now.

Choice of international school and selection of language definitely made a difference. They are doing very well in school (being in top 3 in the class, getting above 90% score, getting some medals in sports etc).  Older ones will complain a bit about the amount of writing required, which is bit more than what is expected in US. The crowd at school made a big difference since many of them are R2I kids as well. Also, many of the teachers in the school are much more used to dealing with such kids, which makes a difference as well. However, one catch - international schools are definitely on the expensive side. Unless your kid is very flexible and outgoing, plan of starting them at an international school and switching to another regular school in 1 or 2 years doesn't work - kids will have a good friend circle and will resist the move. 

Teaching approach wise, Indian schools are changing as well, even though they are not at par with US schools. There are many hands-on projects, reports to be done with pictures etc. Tests don't require too much of 'mugging' since many questions are objective type. At the end of the day, we haven't seen kids being depressed or in a 'not able to handle' type of situation. The environment is much more competitive since there is lot of parent time that is being put in from all of the parents.

Health is bit of challenge - they do fall sick bit more often. Hope that improves in bit of a time. They do eat much more fruits, drink more juice etc - guess it is the weather that helps. 

Hope I have answered some of the questions you folks have about kids. Pls feel free to drop a comment if you have questions/concerns...

R2I in 2013? Read this for choosing the schools ...

If you are planning for R2I in 2013, schools in India should be the top priority in your plan already - since the process starts pretty early here. 

Here is one article that might help you greatly for school selection...

http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Scripting/ArchiveView.asp?Daily=TOIBG&AppName=1&login=default&pub=TOI&Skin=TOINEW&Enter=true&BaseHref=TOIBG%2F2012%2F11%2F22&Page=27

Hope this helps...

The toughy - how much money I need to have before R2I? (as of 2012)

This is a tough question to answer but let me give this a try. The usual response would be - that depends on a person's lifestyle but let me try with the current cost of living in a city like Bangalore.

Main cost (like in Western countries) is the housing. Next comes the transportation, kids education, food etc. Let me break those up further with some specific numbers...

Housing: Assuming a decent locality and closer to IT hubs,
- If you are going to rent, it can vary from 15,000 to 30,000/pm. 
- If you are going to buy a site and construct, estimate would be atleast from 60lakhs to 1 Crore (assuming a 1500 sq ft apartment or 30x40 site)
- If you are going to buy an apartment, estimate would be from 70lakhs to 90 lakhs

Transportation:
Using public transportation like usual buses wouldn't be an option. These days lots of techies use the A/C Volvo buses in Bangalore that BMTC has provided and that works nicely if you are staying closer to the bus connection.
- If you are going to buy a car, it would cost you from 7 lakhs to 12 lakhs.
- If you are going to take an auto, daily cost would be anywhere from Rs 100 to Rs 200

Kids education:
- If the kids have grown up in US, don't consider regular schools at least for first few years. Any good international school costs at least 1 lakh/kid (this is normally including the transportation). It can go up as high as 3 lakhs/year.

Food etc:
- Here it depends on lifestyle, i.e, how many times you eat out, what type of resturant is considered decent etc - note any average buffet in a decent resturant starts around Rs. 200 these days and can go upto Rs. 800! (and I am NOT talking about Leela palace here!). With two kids, your normal grocery bill would be in the range of Rs. 2000 to Rs. 3000/week.

Household expenses:
- This would be for house maid, driver etc. You can budget Rs. 1000-2000(based on the home size) for the maid and Rs. 7000-8000 for the driver, if you keep one. Add an extra Rs. 3000 or so, if you are going to have a cook(part time).

So, all in all, assuming you are renting, your monthly expenditure would be something like this:
Rent: 20,000
Car:   5,000 (petrol only)
Kid(1):   10,000
Kid(2): 10,000
Food etc: 10,000
Household:10,000
Misc:  5,000
---------------------------
Total:    70,000
---------------------------
Head spinning already looking at the numbers? No kidding, that's right, Bangalore is an expensive place to live! Assuming your after-tax take home is @ Rs. 1 lakh, you would have a bit of savings for those yearly travel plans! (I am conservatively assuming 1 lakh but based on your experience and whether single person or two people are working, it could be much higher). However, the numbers here are assuming 2 kids - you can subtract around Rs. 20,000 if you have one kid.

Now, back to the topic of how much R2I savings you need before you head back. As you can see, the earnings you do here can comfortably take care of expenses with some left as savings. So, the funds you need to consider is the amount needed to buy/construct a home once you are back here + the savings you need to keep back there (say, for kids higher education, assuming they will be back for studies or some funds for you re-start if you return back). After returning as R2I, it makese sense to own your home rather than rent or have a home loan. As I said earlier, the own home would need anywhere from 60 lakhs to 1 crore at the minimum. Assuming current rate of Rs. 55 for a Dollar, that would be $150,000. You will need some funds for initial expenditure like buying a car, home appliance etc, which could total upto Rs. 15 lakhs or so. So, add another $25,000 for that. So, your total R2I needs are $175,000.

If you are keeping back another $125,000, that would total up to a savings of $300,000. Of course, you can do R2I with much less, if you are going to take a home loan here (which will reduce your savings here) or don't plan to keep savings back where ever you are. Also, the investments you do in India(like real estate, life insurance etc) can be done based on your earning potential here and normally there isn't a need to account for that.

In summary, you can start R2I with a savings of $300,000 or so. This is just a guidance figure, your mileages may vary significantly :-)

Internet connectivity options

Back after few days of break or has it been more than a month! 

Thanks to all the readers for provided feedback aksed questions or gave comments - very much appreciated. If you have questions/doubts, pls don't hesitate to ask - I have been in the same boat a year ago and have made it so far here :-)

One topic that I had questions/doubts and didn't get clear answer was about Internet connectivity once I reach here and afterwards. For techies like us, Internet is like water, can't live without. Also, gives the option of working from home, which is valuable when whole family is trying to settle down. Have tried couple of options so far and listing down some feedback that could be useful...

Two main options here: DSL based versus Data Cards(also called USB Dongle here).

DSL based: 
Airtel and BSNL are the two main players in Bangalore. Airtel may not be available in all of the areas and apartments unless they are wired but most of the places have BSNL connectivity. Once we were in the apartment, getting AirTel enabled was easy - called them and the service man came in a day or two, gave the DSL modem(I had to buy that from them), configured it (he even offered to configure the wireless router but didn't have a 110V supply for that one yet). Internet was enabled in few minutes.

It is a pain to work with BSNL though like any public sector - and BSNL is known to be one of the 'better working' public company! Haven't seen that 'better' part yet. BSNL has to deal with pretty low skilled labour (like linemen) and that is where the problem lies - most of the tech people are good and can resolve issues, configure your modem etc) but these linemen who has to enable the line to your home or put a new line are pretty 'old' fashioned. Only option is to physically load them to your vehicle and get them to your place. Otherwise, they simply won't show up. And after 2 months of usage, our DSL bill is not yet generated! So far, the connectivity has been ok - not much dropped connections, eventhough the DSL modem(which worked fine with AirTel DSL) sometimes gets hung when used along with the wireless router and VOIP phone. Hasn't been consistent enough to start debugging yet. AirTel was pretty solid when it came to connectivity and consistent speed. BSNL speed is ok as well and I can work pretty smoothly with remote servers.

Data cards: 
Many choices here with varying degree of speed and consistency. Have tried Tata Photon, MTS and AirTel and AirTel has been the best so far. Getting them is not too difficult but once you have some type of address proof. When we relocated last year, got the Tata Photon - government mandates photos and address proof documents and they do a address verification as well. If you have started renting, this is one of the reasons to have a rental agreement - it will come in handy in many places like driving license, electricity, gas connection etc. Some renters may not be too keen in providing this but you MUST and SHOULD get the rental agreement with address mentioned. If you don't have a rental agreement, passport works as well(you might be surprised but even a expired, cancelled passport copy can work as well in some cases!). The first card I got was Tata Photon - speed wasn't that great at all but gave me connectivity at e-mail level.

Since we moved after a year, wanted the data card again when we establish the Internet at new place - this time only BSNL was the option. Tried to get the old Tata Photon activated again. I was asked to visit their retail shop in Koramangala, visited them in the evening and what a horrendous experience it was. They made me wait 2 hours (all the while 5 support people where crowding around a desk and chatting) - just to tell that it will take few days for them to re-activate it. There were lots of people waiting and frustation level was pretty high - really surprised to see a Tata owned high tech setup working in such an inefficient way. Droped the idea of renewing that card. Gave them a piece of mind before heading out.

Next was AirTel - got the card from office since they had a corporate deal. It was suppossed to get enabled in a day but took 2 days - for some reason, the card was marked as 'inactive' and had to wait until that was resolved. Address verification happens later on. Once the connectivity was enabled, it was easy to connect and speed was very good. They promised 7 MBPS but was consistently getting 1.5 to 2MBPS, which was good enough for our usage. There is a data limit of 6GB or so per month and with full family using internet, you would reach that limit easily. After the limit, speed drops to 512KBPS, which is useless anyway. If you are on the pre-paid plan, you could possibly recharge as and when you need but the cost will add up to be more.

Parallelly tried MTS as well - once of the worst so far. They offer to come and check the speed in the area before you buy. Was in a hurry and bought it as-is. I don't think I ever saw more than 0.5MBPS on that one. Connectivity was consistent but speed was not something we could work with. Stopped it after using for 2 months.

Only issue with data card is - multiple people using it at the same time. I am sure there are wireless modems that can handle a USB card as well but you need to run an application before you can connect. My wireless modem has a USB slot but haven't yet figured out how to connect. If you have some experience, pls drop a comment. I am sure that will come in handy for many folks.

There are other options like Wi-MAX from AirTel (where an antenna is placed in the home itself) but haven't explored those yet.

Also, another word of advice - if you are moving, get the new data cards at least 2 weeks before the move - this is so that the companies have time to do address verification. If the verification doesn't happen because you have moved, card will get disconnected and you will be left dealing with customer support reps!