[sourav9385]

Originally Posted by phamilyman

Agreed. These android updates are bandwidth hogs. Throw in a few HD Youtube videos (esp with children) / lot of FB browsing and 8GB will just fly by in a week

/we have 8 mbps50gb for 2100 nett from airtel - we easily consume a GB a day even when I'm traveling 80% of the time and the wife doesn't download many sitcoms. The kid's few Youtube videos / apps consume a lot of BW!

Sirjee, shift to ACT. Absolute bliss . Have sent you a PM with details of who to call.

Not trying to promote ACT here, just recommending a better ISP for the same price to my fellow Bhp-ians. Hope I don't get banned for this

[phamilyman]

Originally Posted by sourav9385

Sirjee, shift to ACT. Absolute bliss . Have sent you a PM with details of who to call.

Not trying to promote ACT here, just recommending a better ISP for the same price to my fellow Bhp-ians. Hope I don't get banned for this

No sirjee - thanks for a good idea but I'll pass for now!

I'm happy with the high price and peace of mind of Airtel. I use Skype often when WFH and its excellent & reliable. OTOH with my 80% travel schedule, the wife will get really pissed with any downtime.

I can count my downtime in last 1.5 years with Airtel in single digit hours (except once when it was down for 2 days because we were out of the city and had no time to get it repaired!!). The wife will simply not brook any unreliability!

/of course if she herself decides to get ACT - then I'll consider shifting. Till then, I won't even mention it!!

[sourav9385]

Originally Posted by phamilyman

...I can count my downtime in last 1.5 years with Airtel in single digit hours (except once when it was down for 2 days because we were out of the city and had no time to get it repaired!!). The wife will simply not brook any unreliability!...

I'm with you on that. Failtel is extremely reliable, and I do give them credit for that.

That being said, times have moved on. I just could not keep using a ruddy 2 Mbps line and pay nearly 3K a month just so I could have a FUP data ceiling of 150 GB. That's bloody daylight robbery, and unacceptable in this day and age.

And while we are on the subject of reliability, ACT has not gone down so far(knock on wood). Pings are ludicrously low, speed is bang on consistent, I dare say things are looking good. If ACT can keep this up, and increase their spread to all areas in Chennai, Failtel and the likes are going to be history. They seem pretty active on their social media presence, but customer support is a bit limited though, only available from 8 AM to 10 PM I think. It's something they could definitely improve on.

[Sheel]

Originally Posted by Simhi

I had similar doubts. But then I monitored the usage via BSNL website http://selfcare.wdc.bsnl.co.in/irj/portal

In my case, I am consuming 20GB within 10 to 12 days as children view rhymes and educational stuff a lot on Youtube. Of course with automatic updates ON in PC and Mobile, all application get automatically updated and consume bandwidth too.

What I am saying is, it would have been ok had this thing been in practice since inception. Why now...?

[phamilyman]

Originally Posted by Sheel

I too was about to post the same here.

In my house, we have 2 smartphones & one PC. How much data can they use? I mean I got BB unlimted for home purpose & despite paying, I am not getting promised speed. The speed dips on around 20th of every month.

I am not upgrading, instead I am writing to BSNL & PMO. Would urge you to do the same.

What does your bill exactly say?

My brother also had such a plan but hadnt read the fine print which stated since day 1 (we went back and checked) that it was unlimited in terms of data consumption, but not "unlimited data consumption at 2 mbps". This FUP has been around for 5-6 years min in most telcos. Did you really sign up for "unlimited data consumption at 2 mbps" or the equivalent?

Originally Posted by sourav9385

I'm with you on that. Failtel is extremely reliable, and I do give them credit for that.

That being said, times have moved on. I just could not keep using a ruddy 2 Mbps line and pay nearly 3K a month just so I could have a FUP data ceiling of 150 GB. That's bloody daylight robbery, and unacceptable in this day and age.

And while we are on the subject of reliability, ACT has not gone down so far(knock on wood). Pings are ludicrously low, speed is bang on consistent, I dare say things are looking good. If ACT can keep this up, and increase their spread to all areas in Chennai, Failtel and the likes are going to be history. They seem pretty active on their social media presence, but customer support is a bit limited though, only available from 8 AM to 10 PM I think. It's something they could definitely improve on.

Exactly. I'm platinum with Airtel (before I ported my mobile out last quarter) and I've had service personnel over at the house for repairs within an hour of tweeting at them (forget calling the customer care), including home calls at 8pm to resolve issues. ACT promised only a 72 hour turnaround when they came to sell to our apartment complex. The conversation ended right there.

Heck, Airtel replaced my DTH with the budget HD DTH within 90 min of my tweeting at them.

Its kinda like being used to Flipkart first - I can't get back to even the possibility of a single dealextreme / aliexpress delivery period, cost differential be damned.

[Sahil]

Just got MTNL Fibernet. 40mbps download 10mbps upload. 250gb for 3500rs per month.

[Mr_Bean]

Airtel Broadband - 649 plan + 12.5 % taxes.

Data limit - 7 GB
Speed - 2mbps

Speed post the limit - 512kbps.
Location - Bangalore.

Substantial savings when I compare this with my previous plan where I used to pay 1450/-. Thats a lot of money to pay for broadband, I started off with the 950 plan 2 years ago and Airtel silently increased the price of the plan during this period.

I don't have a habit of watching movies or videos on the net. My VPN doesn't consume a lot of bandwidth either, so 649 plan is apt for my usage.

[bnzjon]

Originally Posted by sourav9385

Sirjee, shift to ACT. Absolute bliss . Have sent you a PM with details of who to call.

Not trying to promote ACT here, just recommending a better ISP for the same price to my fellow Bhp-ians. Hope I don't get banned for this

ACT is available only in certain pockets of chennai (Adyar, Tambaram, vechery belt). It is not available in Anna Nagar, Kilpauk areas.

[Sheel]

Originally Posted by phamilyman

What does your bill exactly say?

My brother also had such a plan but hadnt read the fine print which stated since day 1 (we went back and checked) that it was unlimited in terms of data consumption, but not "unlimited data consumption at 2 mbps". This FUP has been around for 5-6 years min in most telcos. Did you really sign up for "unlimited data consumption at 2 mbps" or the equivalent?

No, I did not read any fine print. Unawares if there was one. But there should be one just like you mention.

I am getting irked because there was nothing like this for the past 5+ years.

We do watch videos on You Tube, but not really download stuff (save for upgrading of applications)

My usage per month is erratic, some months, I might not need over 8 GB, at other times I do. So, will have to stick with this 8 GB plan @ Rs. 10xx (Telephone rent + BB plan + Taxes) But I think Government should provide us domestic users some subsidy for our entertainment (We have gotten used to subsidized products )

I just wish there were more players here. Some Rail-Tel has come up, but unsure as to how reliable would it be in the long run.

[kablu]

Originally Posted by Reisender

I switched to V2Networks recently after Wifi ditched their customer like how Fiat did few year ago.

V2 Networks works on fixed wireless (receiver modem on your building and from there LAN cable to PC) plans. 1MBS unlimited , I pay 849 /PM.

So far so good on speed and availability

Thanks
Kottee

Reisender,
What is your feedback on V2Networks in terms of service, Actual connection speed, etc? I believe you reside in Mudichur road and I'm from the same locality. Your feedback could help me take a clear decision. As of now, I user Aircel data connection and it SUCKS

[kbk_75]

Originally Posted by im_srini

I have been using the 4G LTE service from Airtel too, for the past year or so.
The experience has been less than spectacular !
Where I reside, the Airtel signal is quite weak, only 2 out of 5 bars.
Initially there were a lot of signal issues & it was so bad that it was practically useless.
I had to dowse around the apartment holding the CPE like a diving rod, looking for signal strength.
When signal strength is low, you face frequent "drops", each disconnect lasting up to 15 minutes or so.



Yes, when it works, it works quite well - bandwidth is impressive, but latency is quite high.
My Mac-Mini especially has a lot of trouble with Airtel's 4G.
As I understand it, the 4G service here in India is over 2.3 GHz, which is not the Global standard.
As more & more connections are made to a "Cell", quality for all will suffer.
The 4G "device", or CPE as they call it, installed at my home ( model ALR-W192 ) is from a Chinese firm called Asia-Telco.
Like NimbleGuru has mentioned, all you need, other than a power outlet nearby, is a SIM card.
The best part is that the device comes with an internal battery, which means you can move it about quite easily & tide over short interruptions in power.





Yes, the 40 GB plan is Rs. 2K, if I remember right, the tax is 12.5 % ( so total of ~ Rs. 2,250 per month ).
After 40 GB, the speed decreases to 256 Kbps.

My advice is, get the 4G LTE device & test the signal strength & quality ( just like with DTH ) before opting for it.
You need to pay for the device, which last year was Rs. 4 K.
You'll also need a regular post-paid SIM, which is as per the regular process.
.

Any idea how to get a custom firmware for the Asiatelco router? Airtel has disabled setting a custom DNS on the router in their firmware and their DNS servers are frequently down, at least in Pune, which is a real nuisance. Also have you tweaked your TCP stack to get full bandwidth on your PC? My Mac gets way better bandwidth than my PC does on the same connection.

[im_srini]

Originally Posted by kbk_75

Any idea how to get a custom firmware for the Asiatelco router ? Airtel has disabled setting a custom DNS on the router in their firmware and their DNS servers are frequently down, at least in Pune, which is a real nuisance.

I finally chose a simpler way, just canceled the 4G connection & got myself a traditional broadband connection

Originally Posted by kbk_75

Also have you tweaked your TCP stack to get full bandwidth on your PC ? My Mac gets way better bandwidth than my PC does on the same connection.

For me it was the other way around ( at least with Airtel's 4G CPE ) ! My Windows desktops had noticeably better bandwidth utilization compared to my Macs & iPhones.

[ishotmydog]

Guys please suggest high speed broadband plans from BSNL. Location: Pune

[msdivy]

Went from BSNL

to

ACT 20Mbps, Rs 1010, 50GB FUP per month.
(actually have both connections)

[rohan_iitr]

Originally Posted by Mr_Bean

Airtel Broadband - 649 plan + 12.5 % taxes.

Substantial savings when I compare this with my previous plan where I used to pay 1450/-. Thats a lot of money to pay for broadband, I started off with the 950 plan 2 years ago and Airtel silently increased the price of the plan during this period.

How did you manage to downgrade from 1450 plan to 649 plan ?

Generally Airtel doesn't allow customers to downgrade to a cheaper plan.

649 plan is not even mentioned on Airtel website.

Rohan