It's been a pleasant experience so far. Review on Touchtel DSL

I switched to Touchtel for their Phone lines after being on BSNL for a long time. The experience of getting one was wonderful. I had a phone connection in my apartment within 48 hours of applying for one.

Though I have been eyeing a broadband connection for a long time, none of the offering really appealed to me. At that point of time, Bharti was offering only a 64 kbps connection for a monthly charge of Rs. 1000 and one was also required to buy a modem.

When Bharti changed their DSL plans and came out with better schemes, I decided to give it a try. Currently I am on a Combo 550 plan. That?s Rs. 550 as rental for voice and data services combined. This includes 100 free pulses per month for voice and 10 hours of browsing per month. Beyond that it becomes chargeable for both. (DSL was @ Rs. 30/hr at peak times and Rs.15/hr at non-peak hrs)

I have no problems with the speeds, the connectivity as well as the customer support of Bharti here in Bangalore. However, there are a few minor issues that have bothered me and I will elaborate on the same.

1. Parallel lines: All parallel lines to the main telephone line has to be taken after the POTS splitter. Any parallel connection taken before the splitter results in signal interference in the voice line. Since my apartment is pre-wired, this is a bit of an issue. The only way I can use the parallel line is by physically disconnecting the DSL modem or powering down the modem.

2. Billing: The billing is very complicated and non-transparent. The billing for the voice usage is indicated in mins. of use and no. of equivalent pulses. The pulses are then totaled, and the total voice calls price arrived at by putting in different slabs. The story for the DSL billing is different. They have the duration of the connection and the amount against it (apart from the time of connection) For example, my bill shows a connection of 576 secs at 5:47 AM and the amount against that is Rs.3:00. Another reads 690 secs. at 5:57 am and is also charges Rs.3:00. Now how this is arrived at is something that always confuses me because the scheme is for Rs.30/hr during daytime and Rs. 15/hr for nights. What is the unit measure for the time? Why can?t it be made similar to the voice billing where pulses? How is my 10 free hours accounted for?

3. Speeds: I am not sure how the browsing speeds rate against other similar service providers. I did a bandwidth test using https://pcpitstop.com. I was surprised to find that the downstream bandwidth was in the range of 62 kbps and the upstream bandwidth was about 104-105 kbps. What is stated is that we are given 128 kbps upstream as well as downstream. I am not really sure if this is how it will always be with any connection.

4. 128 kbps only: Bharti as of today offers only speeds upto 128 kbps for residential connections. SIFY broadband offers upto 256 kbps.

Otherwise it?s been a great experience so far. They have also introduced a new billing scheme where for an additional Rs. 50 per month, night browsing (10 PM to 8 AM) is completely free. I have signed up. Need to see how much will my bill come down by now.

I have a couple of tips for people evaluation or considering broadband.

1. Rent the modem instead of buying it. It makes economic sense considering that technology changes rapidly and one wouldn?t want to be stuck with outdated equipment.

   
   




2. The time based plan makes more sense to me as the calculations are transparent. Any data based plans have no transparency in how is the data usage calculated. Even if the computer is idle, there will be some data transfer.

   
   




3. The Sify Broad band plan makes a lot of sense if one sees the advantage in setting up of an apartment complex LAN. You can transfer data or videos to your neighbour without connecting to the internet.

   
   




4. Take a Sify broadband if your usage pattern is in bursts. Its the only broadband offering which is closest to ''pay for only what you only use''. If you are going abroad for a couple of months, the Touchtel rentals will still have to be paid.

   
   

Hope this review has been useful.

Update (10th Jan 2005):

I finally switched to Sify Broadband. It was a pain getting a connection initially but once up and running, it's been great.

Here's a quick comparison between Touchtel DSL (now Airtel Broadband) and Sify Broadband.

Setup : Sify Installation Charges is Rs.3000 + Rs. 500 for an Ethernet card if you need one. Airtel is Rs. 1000 + Rs.500 Modem Security deposit.

Speeds : Sify gives be a consistent 120+ kbps vis-a-vis a promised 128 kbps. Airtel on the other hand gave me anything between 40-80 kbps because they specify a 1:2 ratio even on their price lists.

OS Support : Sify seems to have support for all Operating systems starting for Linux to the Mac. Airtel on the other had supports only Windows if you are using their USB DSL modem. If you use Linux or Mac OS, you will have to opt for their DSL Router instead which will cost Rs. 300 PM rental.

Customer Support : Sify is ''really really Sad''. I put in a complaint, I am given a reference token number and nothing happens after that. Some of the Customer support personnel I have interacted with could even speak/understand English. Airtel Broadband on the other hand, the Customer Service is very very prompt for any kind of complaints. Luckily so far, I did not have too many problems with either Sify or Airtel for me to call up support.

Anti-Virus Software : Sify provides Free Anti-Virus with auto-updates which I think is good because anti-virus like Norton costs money otherwise. Airtel does not provide any as of now.

Payment Mode : Airtel is Post-paid only and the amount comes in the monthly bill. Sify on the other hand is prepaid packs only.

Value for Money : This is a little difficult to arrive at. Since I work, I have opted for the 128 kbps unlimited Night pack which works only from 9pm to 9am. A 1-month pack can be bought for Rs. 400 and I think for this is great value for money. I have the flexibility of not using the service for a few months when I am traveling.

Airtel on the other hand has a Rs. 999+99 (128 kbps, 1:2) unlimited pack. Personally, I find this expensive because I don't have the flexibility of not having this service for a few months when I don't need it plus I don't need to browse during the day. Additionally, I also have to pay a phone bill whether I use it of not. So I guess the price is subjective.

Final Take : Most people will not have the option of both Airtel and Sify. However, if you do have the option, I would recommend that you have a look at usage patterns and decide. For Airtel, it is mandatory that you take their phone connection too. If you are an existing Airtel Land line user, I guess, its just a matter of upgradation to DSL broadband. Getting a Sify connection on the other hand can be quite a pain since Sify has not got its act together in this regard. But once setup and running, I thing Sify offers one a lot more flexibility to suit your requirements in the packages they offer.

Cheers