Anybody looking for a broadband service will be interested in knowing the following:
1. Cost: As far as the BSNL broadband pricing is concerned, its spot on. Thereare schemes, to cater for people who want decent speed internet connectivityfor just checking mails and casual browsing once in a while to the computerjunky who wants unlimited downloads at an affordable price. Also there are no Fine Print related issues, BSNL makes its adverts pretty clear.
2. Time to install (Application to Activation): On this fronttoo BSNL has done well, they took 5 working days to get the modem installed andthe ADSL line activated. Much above and beyond my expectations.
3. Bandwidth (Advertised to Actual) : Here too BSNL comes uptrumps, I have consistently received the promised 256Kbps (26-30 KBpsconsidering the transmission overheads et. al.).
4. Availability and Reliability: BSNL is by far the omnipresent of theservice providers. As for reliability, I have never seen an outage which lastedover 5 hours ever. The frequency of the outages are also less than one or two in a month.
5. Technical Support: This is the only sore point. If youhave any support request which is out of the ordinary (like NATing issues forP2P Software or VPN not working), then I would recommend you keep yourtech-guru friend’s number handy.
So to sum it all up, BSNL Rocks if you are somewhat techie orgood with google search ;)
My Connectivity details:
Home 500 – At my parents place
Home 900 Plus – At my place
I stay in Bangalore and I have been using BSNL since Feb ’05.