Broadband Services in Bangalore
After I moved house, I was informed by my Airtel Broadband folks that they didn’t have a port for me. And this, when I’d just moved around 2-3 lanes away from my earlier apartment!
This was naturally very disappointing since I’ve had Airtel for more than 2 years and was really happy with their service and speed they offered. And suddenly, they don’t have a port for me.
And sadly, the customer service folks didn’t even make much of an attempt to check my record and at least try and tell me that maybe I could wait for a month or two and they would try to renew my connection. All this, after being a loyal paying customer for 2 years!
Anyway, the search is now on for another broadband service and some options suggested are BSNL, SIFY and Reliance. It would be interesting to hear about what you use and if you’re happy with the service you’re using currently!
I have been using BSNL connection for 2 years now and I am quite happy with the speed and network up time.
My friends have had bad experiences with them but I find it satisfactory. I don’t trust the quality of modems they give; so I went on monthly rental. Sure enough the first modem failed after 7-8 months; but they replaced it w/o any extra charges with in 5 working days. The free replacement is mainly due to rental option (For once I was happy with my decision :-)).
But be aware that you have to run around to get the new connection and their engineers may not be well trained (main source of dissatisfaction for my friends). Also if there is any issue you may have to keep calling them until it is resolved. But once it is up; they don’t mess around with the network. (Probably only advantage of being lethargic :-))
Its truely said by Priety Zinta in the AD,
BSNL best hai mere liye….
Don’t think otherwise that since she is actress and has no office work to do, so it it might be good for her, but not good for people who always remain online, and are involved in continous internet usage.
Jokes apart, BSNL is best in terms of Value for mony, in the sense that, in Just 250/ you get upto 2Mbps Data rate with 2.5G free doenload, and if you go for Rs. 500 plan, you get ~5GB free download + free download in the night for 6 hours too.
Not only that they don’t give such excuses that port is not available, since it is Government run Organization, so they may take few more days than Airtel, but they will definatyl install anywhere in the planet.
See this link:
http://bsnl.co.in/service/dataone_tariff.htm
Airtel People are the most corrupt people in the world.They are not customer friendly company.
I concur with Lovebangalore on all points. Been using BSNL. If you are fairly comfortable tinkering with settings and the like and don;t require a techie to come running to troubleshoot then BSNL is ideal. Their service has been pretty uninterrupted for past 8 months even though my phone line itself has gone dead quite often! (I still don;t know how that happens!) And yes, unfortunately I bought my modem and the Wireless Lan port has conked off and I am stuck with it.
Anita,
I’ve been on DATAONE broadband for about 6 months now and I’ve had no problems with connectivity or speed. Yes, they do take time to act on requests. So I approached the GM & Div. Engineer office of my exchange and voila, things worked within a day! The thing is – they like to feel important. So pander them a bit and things work. And as ‘BSNL’ above remarked, you cant get a better deal – Rs 250 + Rs 60 as rental charges and boy, they give you 1 GB of bandwidth which is pretty good for home use! I know we’ve discussed this – try it out!
Regards,
Ravi
Anita,
BSNL – Noting beats it. It is the best. I have been using it for last 1 year and it has been real beautiful.
Regarding support : In my area (KRPuram Ext) the support is also much better than airtel or others. If I call up, they get the work done immediately and are also quite innovative in their thinking and prepared to do some R&D for customer.
I would go for them anytime.
Dear all,
I am also in the process to switching to BSNL from hathway(Bye! to their bad Service). In Bsnl application they hav mentioned abt type of modem to chose. Which is the Best type of modem.
Thanks in advance.
Am using a broadband service called SITY (Not SIFY). I pay 1200 per month for unlimited bandwidth. Its good :)
In BSNL this unlimited bandwidth is available with 900/ per month, with free telephone also
I am having the same airtel problem. all full up they say.
Under no circumstances subscibe to Tata. On several occasions I have been infuriated enough with their service to want to call Tata himself and give him a piece of my mind. I am thinking of taking Tata to the United Nations to complain that their service is a human rights violation.
I’ve actually been on Airtel for about 3+ years now and have been exceptionally satisfied. I was very specific on an unlimited plan – unlimited by time and downloads – I just cannot stand any cap on either. I also do download a L-O-T.
I’m on one of Airtel’s 256 kbps plans which is a flat Rs. 1,000 per month regardless of how much time I’m online or how many GBs I download/ upload.
And, more from the customer contact point of view, have had very very few problems and even they have been cleared as they promise – within 4 working hours. It works for me everytime I call them.
I do however have friends in areas like Jayanagar who have faced a lot of problems with even the installation.
Have had Tata earlier and even Hathway for some time. Both were terrible in every possible way. In fact, with Tata, I literally threatened to disconnect the phone that came with the connection and throw it out of my window and asked them to forget anything called a bill…I was so annoyed with their service.
Its the extreme opposite with Airtel. In fact I also did a small study on how unlimited plans are drawn up and priced and found Airtel’s to be truly unlimited in all aspects and the best rate in terms of value. Reliance and BSNL did not have an unlimited plan for home users at that time. Not sure if they do, now.
Sorry, forgot the most important part. While one of my neighbors (near my office) was looking for an Airtel Broadband connection, he was told that there were no ports too. He just managed to call some senior guy at Airtel and sorted it out – in fact the senior guy said that there’s no such thing as lack of ports (that’s strange!) and the person he was dealing with may not be fully aware of such details!
You could perhaps fish around for a slightly senior contact at Airtel.
@Kathik: This is exactly what happened to me. I was told there were no “ports” available. However, approach the nearest Airtel office, the salespeople are more than eager to make a sale and they’ll solve this mystery problem of “ports”. At least they did for me.
As for me, Airtel is the best damn service provider I’ve used. You can’t go wrong.
Hi Anita,
We are in the same boat. Airtel does not cover our area (and covers till a couple of streets up the road).
BSNL is good. But the biggest problem for is to get the damn connection. It’s been 4 months and still no sight of us getting the same. So – be prepared to *waaaaiiitttt* for a long time.
The cable interent is usually tolerable – but the service will suck – guranteed. This is ‘coz the guys who run these services are your neighbourhood cable guys. If you can stomach that – then this is not a bad option. Typically tehse guys also charge a steep setup charge.
Since there were no other options – we have finally resorted to going wireless. You got couple of options in this:
o) Airtel has a good plan – 140 bucks per week – and unilmited usage. Agreed it’s no broadband but at least it lets you stay connected.
o) If you are a heavy duty user then you can go for wireless broadband. Got to cough up about 3-4K for the wireless (3G/CDMA) card. The service itself is about 1.5K. But the speed is pretty good.
Hope this helps
-Ramkumar
@BSNL: Please don’t be under the illusion that BSNL will provide connectivity anywhere in the planet. I have been waiting for my BSNL connection to arrive since last 8 months because of lack of “port”.
@Anita: I too am in the same boat. Unfortunately, neither BSNL nor Airtel seem to having a “port” for my area. Check for your area – you might not be having that many options anyway.
And to think of, they keep talking of IT revolution and what not when they can’t provide a basic internet connection in a place like Bangalore.
I am using BSNL broadband whose monthly rental is 1000/-Rs with unlimited downloads, so i can download a lot of movies and their service is pretty good. If you are looking for heavy downloads then go for 1000/-Rs plan instead of 250/-Rs or 500/-Rs because if you go for them (250/-Rs or 500/-Rs), then your montly rental would come more than 1000/-Rs since they charge you extra for additional downloads. But for 1000/-Rs PM, you can download unlimited and I download upto 6GB PM (because I download lot of movies). And also if you go for BSNL then you have to wait for their connection for months together.
@Raag
If you don’t initiate and just wait thinking that they will come to your place like Santaclause then you might have to wait for another 8 years you will not get conection from BSNL.
Just start escalating your Request starting from calling 1500, to the higher authorities, till it reaches the General Manager.
All the Babu once given thrashing then only they work.
And you have the power to in-directly provide them their due dose,
so go ahead and call 1500 ask who is Area Manager of the Exchaneg talk to him, ask him how much time it will take, if he says 10 days, ask him if I don’t get connection in 10 days I will complain to your Manager, who is He give me his no.
I am sure by then he himself will come to your home and install connection not only for you, but also for your neighbours.
TIP to save Bandwidth:
Internet bandwidth is being used unnecessarily by some sites which do auto refresh; which can be stopped from the browser as mentioned below:
Open IE -> Tools -> Internet Options -> Security -> Custom Level -> Under Miscellaneous Disable “META REFRESH”
Hello..
Just wanted to share my experiences with Hathway. Well it sucks. Torrents don’t work properly, no IRC, if connection goes dead, u will have to call then up many times. I got a 512kbps connection and I get that speed only during early mornings. So don’t go for it. Wanna take BSNL now. Hope they got a ‘free PORT’ at my place, BrookeField..
So enjoy your broadband..
Hello..
Just wanted to share my experiences with Hathway. Well it sucks. Torrents don’t work properly, no IRC, if connection goes dead, u will have to call then up many times. I got a 512kbps connection and I get that speed only during early mornings. So don’t go for it. Wanna take BSNL now. Hope they got a ‘free PORT’ at my place, BrookeField..
So enjoy your broadband..