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eVo Wingle is a wireless internet device sold by PTCL, the largest ISP in Pakistan. Its advertised speed is 9.3Mbps or 1.1MBps. That's quite fast (at least on paper) considering cellular networks are still stuck on 2G speeds in Pakistan. You can buy it either with a postpaid account or prepaid account. In prepaid there are five package plans to choose from, have a look here for more details about your options when it comes to monthly plans and pick a plan which suits your needs.
Build Quality & Durability:
Build quality of device is OK, nothing to complain about. I've been using the device for almost a year now and its still working just fine however one little problem i noticed is that after using it constantly it gets really hot and I mean burning hot not just warm. During the summer couple of times when I had to handle the device physically I couldn't hold it in my hands for more than one second because of heat. Not really an issue as long as device keeps working which it is but you get the idea.
Installation & Setup:
When you plug the device to a Windows 7 and 8 machine it automatically installs the required drivers and so but if it doesn't just click "Auto-Run" under My Computer > Removable device and it should install. Keep in mind that you may need to unplug the device and plug again after the first installation to make it work.
Under Linux, it works automatically on latest versions of Ubuntu and Linux Mint you just plug the device in and it works you don't do anything. It should also work on other major distros but I haven't tested so can't say for sure.
Speed:
During my first few months with just two signals I used to get around 5Mbps constantly and late night it'd even go as high as 8Mbps. Below is a screenshot showing download speed at 9pm last December.
That is during peak hours. However during March 2013 things started to get a bit problematic. Don't know the reason behind it, perhaps the user base increased or something went wrong on PTCL's end, I don't know. There was time it won't even connect and then it'd connect with dial-up like speeds. It all continued for 4 or 5 months and around August, 2013 it started to get better again. At the time of this review its performance is not as good as it used to be around late last year but its not as bad either as it was in middle 2013. During day time it averages around 2Mbps and at night its 8Mbps average.
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| Download in progress at 1AM. |
Usage Tracking:
If you are on a limited monthly plan, having an eye on your usage stats is a must. Go to 192.168.1.1 on your web browser and click "Statistics". Default username and password is "admin" (you can change that from settings page by the way). Here you can check your usage, its probably a good idea to "Clear History" on every billing cycle to avoid confusion.
Alternatively you can visit evo.com.pk and register your device there. It gives you option to check your prepaid balance, your billing date and data usage. Also you can recharge your wingle via scratch card from there but I did not try this so don't take my word for it.
Final Thoughts:
Do I recommend it? Well if you don't have any other option to get a decent connection then Wingle is great. But if you do have a primary connection and want to buy this as a backup its 'OK', however if you are planing to rely solely on Wingle for your work then I must say probably not a good idea. Because there are downtimes though not very often and then there are random disconnections which are quite often. But hey, its just my opinion, whatever floats your boat :)
Thank you for reading.
