Location : Poona, Kothrud area.
Plan: Hathway 64 kbps unlimited data, 24 hours.
Connection type: Direct connection of cable using RJ45 plugged to LAN card (no modem).
Tariff: Rs. 500 per month plus tax. Six months rental in advance to avoid installation charges.
Email: 1 POP3 id promised.
I was using BSNL’s plan 499 (monthly rental Rs. 499, unlimited calls to 17xxxx series numbers; ie. ISPs) and was using VSNL and Sancharnet as ISPs.
Due to high ISP cost for accessing the net in the daytime (before 11), Hathway’s scheme of unlimited 24/7 connection at 64 kbps sounded very attractive.
Moreover the cable is connected directly to the LAN card, so no modem is required. A “dialer” software still needs to be installed to connect your account …I wasn’t happy with this because I don’t believe in using ISP’s software …its better to set it up yourself. But in this case I guess its not possible.
Applying for a connection was quite easy as a phone call brought the sales guy to my residence. I had to pay them 6 months advance in order to avoid the installation charges. Well, that will be amongst the biggest mistakes I’v made…
It was promised that the connection would become functional in exactly a weeks time. No such luck. After twice that long; the cable was installed …but no connectivity! The actual connectivity started after another week or so. Meanwhile, I was at a loss on whether to surrender my BSNL internet-only line …as accessing the net as much as I do on the normal BSNL line is QUITE expensive.
Once the connection came alive; it has not given a single day of satisfactory use …in fact it is a disaster! And its been more than 2 months now. In the first month; the connection was simply non functional (could not log in) for a full 15 days …can you beat that?
After repeated complaints to the helpdesk and manager; they started telling me that it wasn’t their fault and the problem was that my computer was virus infected …which is creating problems on their network! Wow …that was simply amazing!! I wasn’t sure how to prove to these people that I’m far from being a novice at computers.
They sent somebody at my place to check and in a nutshell, the guy seemed to know almost zilch about anything… just wasted my time and his…
Whenever this connection does work; its EXTREMELY erratic …like there is data transfer for say about a minute and the next minute there its zero! This makes it almost useless as just a few moments after you start to download any file, the connection simply breaks. And many sites do not support d/l resumption, so you can’t use download managers. You have to start all over again ….and you get a repeat of the same thing!
And just imagine chatting with someone on Yahoo! Messenger and MSN only to find that the connection either disconnects every couple minutes or what you typed either does not reach the other party or reaches after a lag of 5 minutes or so. Sigh…
One POP3 mail id is promised but was not activated for more than 2 months from the date of activation of the connection! The ISPs POP3 email account has advantages over all other email ids, as its supposed to be the fastest to access ...even for uploading files. Im not yet aware of the mailbox size, as its been activated very recently.
I could go on …but in a nutshell let me reiterate that this connection is the PITS. Please avoid Hathway at any cost! Even if its free, its no use, because a connection that simply does not work and when it works, it disconnects like 100 times in an hour is not worth any price.
If there are any other unfortunate souls like me who have been swindled by Hathway, with this kind of connection, in this area (ie. Pune, Kothrud, Ideal Colony) I’d appreciate if they get in touch with me (by messaging me using the ’’Email this member’’ link on the left).