Booking and Installation:
After I got vexed trying to get Airtel Broadband in my area(reasons given:port not available, landline connection available but not internet etc) I went for Tikona BB. There was posters all over the place regarding Tikona and so I knew that atleast this is available.
Requested for a BB connection through their site. The installation guy came on the day I gave them permission but not at the time that was promised. He got a few others also along with him, don’t know why. They showed me a demo with 64kbps whereas I wanted 512kbps. But the guy who comes for installation has his own internet subscription which is generally 64 kbps so thats what they can show a demo.Another guy in that batch had a personal 2mbps connection so he used his personal subscription credentials and showed me the speed.
64kbps always got~60+kbps speed. The 2mbps connection got around 1.2mbps speed. I went for the UL599 plan(512 kbps unlimited).
The wireless connection is actually a wired connection from your desktop. There is device which is installed on the top of your building pointing towards Tikona router and a wire runs down from that device to inside your house. I and my wife constantly fight about the wire because she likes dongle kind of internet. If you dont have proper place in your house for wiring, you will end up like me - keeping a window open for the wire.
There were two routers in 180 degress angle. So they selected one among them which they liked. They took a check which was for 1213 rupees(500 for installation charges+ 599 one month advance rental+?). After that they started browsing for some personal work for another 10-20 min and they were also trying to update status of some other guy who had also a new subscriber like me. One good thing about this whole installation process is that they took the check only after they could test the feasibility and I liked the speed.
Got sms witin next day regarding the userid and password. Got these details on mail as well.
Speed and Reliability:
I use generally between 8AM-9AM or after 8PM on weekdays and some random timings on weekends. Speed is kind of ok. Reliability is also sort of ok. In the last 2.5 months of usage, on one occasion I couldnt get any internet and the speed was around 30 kbps on a few occasions. Once I got close to 2mbps speed and I dont know why:) On torrents I see the download speed coming to equivalent of 512 kbps quite often. I use VPN and connect to my office desktop through remote desktop. This is pretty slow sometimes and is irritating.
When I was using reliance dongle 2G, I never fel the remote desktop was slow.
Back-end/service:
Get calls from Mumbai or some other place once in a month or fortnight asking for the service and if I have any complaints. They start in Hindi and I am not very comfortable speaking Hindi. They try to speak in English later. Those guys are not technically very intelligent as per my conversations. On one occasion my name was changed in their database and he was asking me as to how that happened:O How would I know how my name got changed in their data base?
Bill delivery:
I opted for both physical bill and e-mail. I get the email promptly and I even get a call from their customer care regarding payment of bill i.e, reminder to pay the bill before due date.
The physical bill though reaches one or two days before due date.
Payment Mechanisms:
Drop a check at any of the icici drop boxes(i havent used this till date)
Pay online from their site(their site is down 99% fo the time but I managed to raise a complaint and then try at night beyond 11PM to pay the bill). use credit card or pay through net banking). There is a 2.5% discount if you pay through online. This will reflect in the next bill. On one occasion the customer care guy told me that they will try to address the issue in 48 hours and its better for me to pay through check so that I avoid late payment fee of 25+taxes. :) Suggestion accepted but since the online payment was successful at 12AM that day, I didnt implement that suggestion.
Misc:
There is another plan which is 2Mbps for 8GB and 512 kbps after the 8GB usage. I am planning to move to this plan. 8GB is very less if you are interested in downloading movies/songs or you use torrents a lot. But all these ISPs in India stil feel 8GB/10GB is the max they can afford at the max speed. Unless some ISP decides on increasing the limit, others wont follow. All we can do is wait till that day comes.
I think I have covered all the aspects of using Tikona BB. I dont use the router and so I cant comment on it. I am sort of neutral opinion overall. From my friends I came to know that airtel’s broadband is good overall in Bangalore. But like me, if you dont have any other option you can go for Tikona.