[GeekSrik]

Hey all,

todays newspaper says all connections will be upgraded to 2MBPS by 1st january. i checked my connection today and i got 756kbps on an average for a Rs.250, 400MB connection !! holy cow i cant believe it!!

whatever it is BSNL rocks and its gonna give some players the run for their money. the speed is averaging over 550 and 750 now since maybe its new year but once things settle down I m gonna enjoy a sizzling new browsing experience with a 2mbps, 1gig connection. 1MB file in 11.2 seconds, now how many times have you heard of this in india !!??

[sreenivass]

Seems like BSNL is doing a good job, but the volume limit is still a pain. Hopefully soon they'll bring the prices down for 1 or 2 Mbps unlimited packages within reach for most of the folks. The volume limit is a pain.

[Tool]

i hate download limits... i had a 30 MBPS connect in newyork .. this sucks...
international bandwidth prices are soo cheap.. and the govt is still screwing with us ...
check out Optimum
30 MBPS connects for 40 $ a month.. now this should put things into perspective.. i am just praying for the internet connectivity in this country to get better.. cant handle this suffring !!

[ns_jughead]

hey..i've got the mtnl 590 NU plan...n i'm gettin a 1.6 mbps connection...only problem is untill a little while ago things were bein downloaded at 100kbps but suddenly speeds hav returned to their normal values...this,inspite of the fact that a speed test at speakeasy.com and bol.net.in reveals a speed og 1.6 mbps..!!

[sAP]

Doesnt seem to work for me though. I have an unlimited download home plan. I am still getting the same old speed.. which averages about 299 to 350kbps.

(Though its officially only supposed to be 256kbps, BSNL provides a 384kbps uplink. I am not sure if this is the case in other cities)

What is BSNL offering its unlimited download home plan users? Does the same 2MBPS upgrade at the same cost apply to them as well?

sAP

[johy]

Originally Posted by sAP

What is BSNL offering its unlimited download home plan users? Does the same 2MBPS upgrade at the same cost apply to them as well?

sAP

- Nothing new. The unlimited connections get the same old speeds. The ones with caps have the increased speeds (whereever feasable, i.e., wherever they have the new-fangled cables laid out) - BSNL is banking on people using more of the Internet (mega downloads), overshooting the caps, and paying more

The Link

And the fine print.

"The data rates for Unlimited Home 900 and 900 Plus shall continue @256 Kbps and no up gradation of bandwidth is proposed for the same."

[nispatel]

Limits on download is double edge sward. If there is no limites, a miniscule number of P2P users will hog the network and since most mass broadband provider including BSNL uses shared link, even with this high bandwidth, an average user will have difficulty getting it's share in presence of few P2P nodes.

On the contrarary, having a limit with very high speed like 2 MBPS is a good work around. It will be deterrent to P2P zombies as it will cost bomb to these evils at the same time legitimate users will get their fair share.

Only thing one can ask for is further discount in rates per MB over permissible free download ( ie. data transfer limit).

This strategy is evident from BSNL fine print that users having UNLIMITED plans will continue having a cap of 256 KBPS speed. I would call it a good move even though I'm one of this plan holder.

[sAP]

Thanks Johi for the link. And nispatel for the insight.

I hope BSNL has thought of an important aspect -- which is buyer behavior. I'd foresee some unlimited Rs.900 per month users like myself shift over to say, a limited Rs.500 plan (2.5GB) to avail the higher speed experience.

On an average, I use about 7GB a month over my unlimited connection. Most of these are entire topgear episodes, business motoring videos or similar large files (each about 700MB in size). Else, my average usage would drop to say 800MB or so.

As far as these large files are concerned, I can easily schedule downloads to start at 2am, which is unlimited till 8am. Besides, within that 6-hour window, I can download far more files than during an entire 24-hour period over a 256kbps link. I hope BSNL is smart enough *NOT* to ignore some of their high paying home customers.

Out of the 0.6 million (6 lakh) broadband customers BSNL has, even if a mere 10% were unlimited home users (60,000 users) and out of that, even if just a quarter of them chose to change over to a Rs.500 plan, that would mean a loss of Rs.60 lakhs to BSNL per month (Rs.7.2 crores a year).

I reckon that is a sizable figure, even for BSNL.

sAP

[fordperfect]

Any indications of Airtel doing the same?
IMHO 2Mbps with a small bandwidth cap like 400MB is meaningless. Maybe it will be useful for watching videos on YouTube without buffering, but you cant even do a decent sized download without hitting the limit.
Now if they increased the bandwidth of the unlimited offering to 512kbps that would be nice.

[GeekSrik]

Originally Posted by dceite

whats the use of so much speed, when there is a download limit attached and you cant also watch too much online video streaming and online gaming, because that will also consume the limited download/upload limit very quickly.

the download limit now is 1GB instead of 400MB

Originally Posted by aZa

2Mbps with a 2GB cap, thats like having a sports car with 5liters of fuel !!!

i have a Airtel BB 256/512 and my downloads are around 30-35GB mark per month. Now only If i had 2mbps unlimited

that would be nice but it would also clog all lines at that kind of download traffic!! and 2mbps is with 1gig limit not 2gig

[Rodeo]

Is it must to take a new phone to go for BSNL broadband?

[nispatel]

Originally Posted by Rodeo

Is it must to take a new phone to go for BSNL broadband?

You mean phone connection, right. Then yes, BSNL Dataone is available only on BSNL landline connection.

[sAP]

Originally Posted by Rodeo

Is it must to take a new phone to go for BSNL broadband?

If you already have a BSNL phone, you can apply for broadband over the same line (provided they have service in your area). But if you don't already have a BSNL phone connection, you need to first get one.

sAP

[abhibh]

I will still stick to my BSNL UL plan as my download varies from month to month. Some times its 5- 10 GB and sometimes 40 - 50 GB... Though check this screen shot i was getting 1MBPS today on UL900

[ece2k2]

guys,

i have a home 500 broadband connection from BSNL Bangalore. I just called up the Indiranagar telephone exchange (Bangalore) and I was told that the speed upgrade will happen only in March 2007. Is this true ...

- karthik.