I remember my experience with BSNL since last 12 years. At that time(in year 2005) I had shifted from Mumbai to Sawantwadi a small town in Maharashtra. At that time I read a news in newspaper that, BSNL broadband was newly being installed in smaller cities and towns. The name of Sawantwadi was one of them. So I walked up to BSNL office to inquire none of the people in office(from top level to bottom) had the slightest idea what broadband is. They however forced me to buy modem with 14 kbps speed which was useless for me. Thinking they may not be aware of the newly launched technology, I visited the same office after 4 months. Still their knowledge about broadband was the same.
Broadband came to Sawantwadi around 2008. There were a lots of issues from configuring modem to gaining the then promised 1Mbps speed. However we being a group of share trading people we had to buy BSNL broadband(since there were no other ISPs providing broadband in and around Sawantwadi.
The broadband sometimes used to work, but lots of times the connectivity was lost. Also the consistency of the speed was questionable. Lots of times there used to be issues with the working of this broadband connection. Sometimes the connection was simply lost all of a sudden. Some times the modem showed connectivity but actually the connectivity was lost. These used to be day to day problems, for which we used to call customer support. Now was the real fun. We had to call at least 4 to 5 times before someone would answer our call. Unfortunately, it used to be no body related to customer support & we were put on hold after a few minutes of waiting we used to get vague answers like At 9.30 AM "Engineer is still sleeping at his house", "Since its only 10 AM so no engineer is available to attend your call" Around 12 PM the answer used to be that "Engineer is out on field", After 2 PM answers were like "LUNCH TIME". However sometimes we used to be lucky enough to meet a semi informed customer support person. He used used to experiment with our patience asking "Reset Modem", still no connectivity? "Reset all the browser windows & internet related applications", still no connectivity? "Restart your computer and also restart your modem". If we were still unlucky then the answer used to be "let me check"(don’t know what he used to check, but after a long wait he used to tell us "There MIGHT be a problem with the main line. So wait"
The problem with the main line used to be of many types like. Main line broken. Part of main line stolen. Rats have nibbled the wires coming from main line etc.
We had to bear this torture for atleast 5 years, after which Airtel and Vodafone launched 3G services in Sawantwadi.
A few years back BSNL launched 3G services along with Airtel, Vodafone, Idea etc. Even there, the service still is Kabhi Haa, Kabhi Naa.
Apart from all these things, I would like to put down a few good things about BSNL. That BSNL is the only service with last mile reach in a hilly area like Sawantwadi. Other operators might be good in Sawantwadi City, but in remote places and the rest of the district, only BSNL is present(service is still Kabhi Haa, Kabhi Naa). BSNL still is the cheapest solution available. BSNL broadband is still the choice of almost all Cyber cafes in Sawantwadi.