I took up Touchtel after I got totally frustrated with my previous internet provider and phone company. I was on Hathway for internet and Tata Indicom for phone, after experiencing really bad customer support from them, I decided to take Touchtel ( now Airtel ) for my phone and Internet connection.
- Installation & Wiring up
I got the connection with in 5 days after the application and payment of the advance. I was surprised with the professionalism of their people who came to install the line. Since they had to install the internet connection in one room and the phone in another which is quite a distance away.Online the BSNL people who literally throw the wiring into your house and provide no proper wiring and crude work, the Touchtel had to put up plastic panneling to conceal the wiring for the entire distance. Even though they had spent an entire day and using up more panelling than a usual installation, these guys didn’t charge a single paisa more, and they even refused to take a tip.
A few hours later the tech guy came over and installed the ADSL modem and drivers on the system and showed me how to get around connecting to the internet. Quite well done, though he didn’t have answers to some of the questions I posed. They need to train these people more on the tech aspects than just installation....
- Service
I didn’t and still don’t have much problems with the internet service. Over the past few months the only time the service was down was when their entire unit failed in Chennai, which caused the South Indian Grid to come down. They rectified the problem in around 2 or 3 hours. So downtime is never an issue with this provider.
- Speed
Initially I was on the 128K plan and I used to get an average of 12-14 Kilo Bits per second, which is the average expected on the line. Now I’m on the 256K plan, and I’m getting 25-28 kilo bits per second as the average line speed. There are a few days a month when the net seems to crawl even on these speeds.... but that doesn’t happen too often.
- Cost
I’m presently on a 256K line with a 1.25GB transfer limit/month with 200 voice calls thrown into the plan. I pay 995 (service rental) + 90 (modem rental) for the service. I find this price fits into my budget quite well.
- Customer Support
Customer Support is where these people need to gear up more. Most often when you call up, they have a ’’newbie’’ manning the call center, who has no clue on the tech aspects. Only after a while of raving and ranting, will they put you on to a senior person who can handle the issue. Once the senior person gets into the act, the required task gets handled quite fast.
Overall I feel I made the right choice in getting this provider and throwing out the older ones I was dealing with.