Tochtel DSL in Chennai. Review on Dishnet DSL

I was using VSNL for dial-up connection for a long time. But ever since TATAs took over the management of VSNL the internet facility (at least in Chennai) seems to be neglected and the quality of service has got deteriorated. Most of the time, it was difficult to get the connection, and even if one succeeds in getting it, the speed was practically zero.

Then I tried BSNL ?No-account? internet connection facility. The speed and availability were far better than TATA?s, but they were not same all the time.

Then I migrated to Satyam (Sify). Of course the availability, speed etc were better than TATA and BSNL. But their method of billing proved to be costlier than the others.

In the meanwhile with the Dial-up connection I found that one was not only paying the IPs for their service but also simultaneously paying an exorbitant telephone bill.

At this juncture one of my friends suggested that t should go for a DSL connection to avoid the sky rocketing telephone bill. He gave me a telephone contact number to get BSNL DSL connection. We telephoned. But in spite of some promises, no one from BSNL paid me a visit and nothing happened for weeks.

During my routine evening walk I saw banner advertising for a Touchtel?s DSL service. Being frustrated with the snail speed internet connections and heavy telephone bill, I made a call to Touchtel. To my great surprise within twelve hours a sales representative of Bharti Infotel paid me a visit. The young soft spoken gentleman took no time in convincing me that Tochtel DSL connection is the best, will solve all my problems and will answer all my wishes. In a weak moment I agreed and paid the advance amount by cheque. He promised to provide a free telephone, DSL modem (on rent) and start the service within 3 days.

Only now it struck me that I have made a hasty decision and should have contacted some existing users of Tochtel DSL connection before paying the advance. But it was too late. At this moment I remembered your Mothshut web site. On reading a couple disparaging reviews by Touchtel users in your web pages, I was convinced of the mistake. But it was too late, already some contract workers of Touchtel were digging in front of our house during the middle of the night to lay the cable.

But fortunately my experience with Touchtel proved to be entirely different form what was earlier reported in your web pages. Probably in Chennai Touchtel services are better than elsewhere. Or may be the management has taken the right corrective action.

During the next day forenoon the workers completed the external cabling and fixed the cable terminal junction box. During the afternoon two other contract workers arrived to lay the conduit pipes for the internal wiring in the house. When I informed them that I would like to have the telephone and computer in two different rooms in the house, they obliged without much hesitation to comply with the odd request. They worked late till about 8 PM to finish all the internal wiring. Late in the night when I was preparing to go to bed, an official from Touchtel arrived with a brand new telephone to make the connection and test the line.

Though I had half a mind to ask him to come back tomorrow, his sincerity and enthusiasm prevented me from doing it. He completed his job in no time and we had the new telephone connection within 48 hours of placing the order. The whole night my wife; who remembered the days we had to wait three years to get our first telephone; enthusiastically started calling all her friends and relatives to inform our new number.

Next day morning an engineer from Touchtel arrived to install the DSL modem and test the new internet connection. That is within less than 3 days we had the connection.

Now it is almost two weeks have elapsed. The connection speed and availability are consistently fast and good like the first day. We are waiting for the first bill. I will try to report my experience with their billing at a later date.

VSJUSTIN