I have been using Sify Broadband for close to 2 years now.
How Sify works for you depends majorly on your local cable operator(usually). Sify usually assigns the responsibility of last mile cable laying and maintenance upon the local cable operator, these are the poeple who sell the connection to you. These guys lay CAT-5(RJ-45) cable to your home from their Hub.
I use the 64KbPS(KiloBits Per Second) package, it works okay for basic browsing(checking emails, skype, yahoo messenger). I’ve noticed that the speeds tend to be more consistent after midnight(5.8-6.5 KiloBytes Per Second during day time and 7.1-7.3 KiloBytes Per Second after midnight).
Another thing with Sify is that apart from the monthly cost of the internet connection from Sify’s end the local cable operator will also charge a monthly maintenance fee, I pay Rs.50, I know guys who pay Rs.150, so this depends on the cable guy.
Some people also have issues with Sify’s broadband client, its a piece of software that you need to install for your computer to be able to connect to the Sify network. It does hang sometimes and that can be a pain. There are alternate clients available, but you’ll need to be a little computer savvy to be able to find and use these. Besides Sify keeps updating its Broadband Client and this sometimes causes the alternate client to stop working. The developers of these alternate clients usually update it reasonably fast, so you should be back up and running sooner than later.
Sify’s Tech Support isnt exactly world class, so you are pretty much on your on if you have any issues. The Cable Operators normally arent computer literate and they cant be of much help.
The only time I had a major downtime was when the CAT-5 cable broke due to the overhead electric wire falling onto it, it fried my LAN card, I had to pay for the CAT-5 and LAN Card.
In all Sify works best for light users, who spend about an 2-4 hours a day online. It is cheap and reliable . Before buying yourself a connection try and find out from folks in your locality who have Sify’s connection from the same cable operator about reliability. Try it out for a few months, if you feel that it is not good move on to another provider, : :Remember to claim all your CAT-5 cable: : Do remember to install a firewall once you install the connection, they keep you safe online.