Exatt steals bandwidth from paying subscribers. That’s what I learned the hard way.
Here is a transcript of my letter to exatt
Hi, I’m a subscriber of Exatt broadband( My User name is Oracle(Franchisee:Saianand, Sundervan park, Thane))and I have a 512 kbps unlimited package.
For the past week, the connection has been only giving 230->240 kbps(about 29 kBps; a 512 line should practically yield about 56->60kBps;refer to screengrabs).
These measurements were taken
with single file multi part HTTP downloads from both a Microsoft
public distribution server and a Google public distribution
server, (with a firewall blacklist on all programs other than the
download manager and system processes).(https://msft-dnl.digitalrivercontent.net/01/53504301-3203819-O12PROTR-NOA/msoffice/pub/X12-30196/X12-30196.exe and https://dl.google.com/earth/client/branded/redirect/Google_Earth_BZXV.exe), giving exactly the same result.
Thus it is indisputable that the line is yielding only 256 kbps AT MAX.
This is where it gets interesting.
*I
contacted the exatt call center, and received assurances that something
must most certainly be wrong and the incident would be looked into. I
asked for a docket number, and didn’t receive one.(this is a direct contravention of TRAI norms,
but we’ll see more of that later.) That was five days ago. Repeated
calls to my zone provider(Saianand Thane, who has provided excellent
POP level service, by the way) yielded that there was indeed a
problem.’probably at the Exatt level, contact them’. Okay, fair
enough I say, and call up the call center again, with exactly the same
results. and again every day until yesterday. with no progress
whatsoever.
Finally, frustrated, I pressured the call center exec into yielding two
names and phone numbers(Mohan, at 9223464955 and Nitish at
9223418325).
They
both claimed that it is "unreasonable to expect 100% throughput on a
broadband connection"(which is quite true, allowing for a max of 10%
TCP overhead).
I pointed out that I was getting half the speed I was paying for. "50%
is good enough.why do you need more? Sometimes it goes more
sometimes it goes less.It is a shared connection, no?"
Now really angry, I pointed out that it is illegal under the TRAI directive "No. 304-6/ 2004-QoS" AKA "Quality of Service of Broadband Service Regulations 2006’(11 of 2006)."
Under clause 3.5.b Subscribed Broadband Connection Speed to be met >80% from ISP Node to User.I
promise you this.I will not only take this to the consumer courts, but
I will publish this all over the internet and local papers until
googling’Exatt’ only yields articles centered around this incident. I
am shocked that a company as prestigious as exatt would stoop to
stealing bandwidth from paying subscribers.And then brazenly claiming
that’it is the industry norm. everyone does it.’.
Either this will be rectified, or I will make sure this is the most expensive Rs 1200 exatt has ever cheated anyone out of.
Yours sincerely,
Satish Mallya