June 2005:
One fine day I decide to get an internet connection at my home. So, the first obvious question was what are the options available in my area?
# Dial up by BSNL
# Dial up by Touchtel
# Broadband by Touchtel
# Broadband by Hotwire
# Broadband by Sify
I have BSNL land line and a modem. I tried to use their account free internet connection but the things were pathetic. I don’t know whether this is due to my old modem or poor line quality (I am not able to get clear voice over that line :-( ). Also the dial up was a totally no no . Previously I had used VSNL’s dial up around 5-6 yrs back. I don’t think I need to write about the dial up connections which have very popular characteristics of connection breaking and making your telephone bills go through the roof !!!!!.
So talking to Touchtel (well that happened last year) was not a good experience. They were very keen on selling me the phone line even though I only wanted the broadband connection. Well everyone knows that the voice is the milk cow for these carrier companies. There logic is that everyone in my neighborhood has got Touchtel line, so I should also get the same. The typical Indain mentality of blindly chasing the crowd.
Well I contact this friendly neighborhood TV cable operator who also advertises to provide internet connection by cable. We talk, negotiate and agree on the installation charges and other formalities to be carried out. Guys notice one thing, on our whole discussion, the name of the ISP never popped up and even this LCO does not advertise the ISP’s name. Wow what a confidence.
So, meanwhile I log a request with the customer care of Hotwire and Sify. I never got any response from the Hotwire guys but the Sify guys are quick to respond.
The details are discussed and Sify’s salesman promises to meet at my residence in the evening. Well as expected, no one turns up. Next day I telephone their LCO in my area and he again assures that someone will surely meet me at my residence the same day. Well when no one turns up at the appointed time, I visit there LCO office. The ’friendly’ guy there tells me that the have redone their feasibility study and it will take 2 months for them to provide me the connection. What a customer service and knowledge base these Sify guys have. They don’t even bother to update the customer.
Well no need to guess about their after sale service. And 2 months wait for an internet connection!!! Well even VSNL didn’t had that long waiting time 6 yrs back when it was a ’sarkari’ company and had total monopoly.
Then I ask this neighborhood LCO to install the net connection. He promises me to the same on Saturday. Well I never expected him to live up to his promise. So on coming Saturday while I am installing the LAN card my machine, his guys have ran the line to my house. But they fell short of the cable and assure me that the installation will be completed by evening. Another few hours more to wait till get online.
By Saturday evening, the cable is laid and my system set up and net is running on my machine. While this configuring my machine, I come to know that the ISP is HOTWIRE ha ha ha ha.
Now it has been 3 months since I am using the HOTWIRE cable connection, Here is my take on the quality and performance.
# My first take is that lot depends on the LCO, since he is the person to provide the last leg of connectivity and service. So far I rate this as above average.
# Downtime: When you talk about net by cable ideally there should be 24*7 connectivity. But other factors like power and rains play havoc. So, there have been times when the net was not available. Of course it is frustrating. Overall as per my calculation the uptime has been around 90%. Also the other problem that I noted is that you get automatically logged out and worse you are not even aware of this. So you keep waiting for the page to appear or the file to download. This is really disgusting.
# Speed: The most important part. So far I have tried 3 different packages with (48KBPS unlimited, 128 KBPS night plan and 128 KBPS limited volume). With the 48 KBPS package, the file download speed was around 2-3 kbps while with 128 KBPS the speed was 12-13 kbps. Till now I am not able to cross check this with other users. It would be great if any one can provide the feedback on the same.
# Service: The response from LCO has been average. Twice there was problem with connectivity: One due to heavy rainfall and other due to power failure. During both the net connection was restored next day only. Well during the first case, when I called the LCO office, the technicians had left for the day (it was around 2100-2200 hrs.). I contacted their call centre only once with a very minor query. The query though was resolved but the lady at the other end of the phone was not very pleasant to talk to. May be my bad luck that day. hahahaha :-)
So till date my overall experience has been satisfactory with Hotwire and the LCO but definitely there is more space for improvement. One obvious thing is that packages should be more flexible. Like most office goers I surf net only during nights or weekends/holidays. So there should be packages that can accommodate such surfing patterns.
Well from this month, the LCO has moved me to new ISP Hathway. So, I will write about that sometimes later.