I was just amazed when a friend of mine got the tikona connection, the rates was really superb compared to other internet providers. I live in Chennai. In my area airtel was not able to provide telephone lines since Councillor is looking for some money as bribery from these internet providers, so it is on hold for the past 5 years.This is the condition in India. In US we get 24mbps unlimited connection for 45$ which comes to 2000 to 2500rs. In India airtel is providing 8mbps with a download limit with huge monthly bills, these providers are really cheating the Indian customers.
Ultimately there is no one to breakthrough these issues. So I planned to go for tikona wireless broad band. I thought going wireless will be a good idea compared to wire lines since it is hassle free from rain and other disturbance. But me decision was wrong. The wireless internet the speed varies enormously. I opted for 600kbps unlimited plan for 799 + taxes. I never got this 600kbps.I usually receive most of the time around 300Kbps and they charge for 600Kbps connection. There is a huge down time in connection.
Wireless setup for tikona.
Tikona guys usually choose a telephone tower around 5 km radius and transmit signal from there....and they install a device named AP in tall building around this 5 km radius. They say the technology is 4G.When we opt for connection they look for the nearest AP(Access point) and they install a wireless modem/router in our place. This wireless router/modem will pick up the signal from the nearby tallest building where they have installed the AP. So the connection is something like telephone tower->tallestbuilding having AP->Our home.
I will not get any signal if I keep the modem/router in ground floor. I use to keep in my first floor and access from it.
One another annoying thing is their dialer where I have to dial for the connection each time. You need to get a separate USB modem device if you going to use desktop. Whenever I do the speed test it does not go beyond 300kbps whereas my connection is 600kbps.They have the demo id where one the first day it worked at 1.5mbps although they claimed the demo id is 2mbps speed.They said something like 10% there will be variation in speed, but it was around 50% variation now. The ping test shows tikona connection in F grade which is not useful for dealing with real time application. Overall I will say better opt for a wired line like airtel, bsnl, etc where the speed is going to constant, instead going wireless in tikona. Many of the time i’m not able to get signal.Half of the assured speed and complete waste of money.
Update:Feb 12, 2010.
The guys who give me the connection is no more picking up my call.Whereas before giving the connection they use to call me many times.I called the customer support and he give a ticket number that my problem will be solved in 24 hrs ...but already one week is gone.For trouble shooting these customer support guys will tell to disable fire wall, windows update, etc, etc but nothing seems to work. I also noted that after you dial to connect to internet using the dialer the speed was usually high ..but gradually in 20 to 25 minutes it reduces there is some technical issues which these guys are not able to solve.They say 4G...It seems to be a complete failure.
I’m looking to terminate my connection as soon as possible before they generate the bill for first month.
If you are really looking for wireless connection then go for BSNL EVDO service. Its far cheaper where you get 3mbps connection unlimited for 550rs.
Update:feb 14th, 2010
Still not able to receive any calls from service engineer, they have kept a doom device which is used to observe signal, i took the doom and went to the third floor and connected the doom which is not connected earlier. Today I’m surprised to see that i’m getting 2MBPS speed where my connection speed is only 600kbps. I have seen this speed today for continuously 5 hrs till now without any issues. Let us see they are giving some tweaks to there servers. Let us see the speed and signal are retained good for next days.