Bsnl high speed broadband – A review

Bsnl is also now providing high speed broadband connection on the telephone lines. Speeds are upto 4 MBPS. Benefits include maximum reach, low tariff, cheap hardware, low installation charges.

Details about the plans are available at Bsnl's new website bsnl.co.in

http://www.bsnl.co.in:9080/opencms/bsnl/BSNL/services/broadband/new_BB_postpaid.html

The 4 mpbs plans start from Rs. 900. I went with the BBG Combo ULD 1350 plan. It gives 4 Mbps upto 20 GB, 512 Kbps beyond 20 GB. One thing I must admit is that in this particular broadband plan, for the first time I saw youtube videos playing without a single interruption. Most of the time videos are preloaded upto 10 minutes in advance. The 1350ULD is an economic plan offering 4mbps speed at a price below Rs. 1500/-

However there are few more observations if you are planning to go for it.

Speed Problems

Many users complain about getting only upto max 2mbps speed on new connections. This happens because in many connections Bsnl applies speed cap. The speed wont rise to 4mbps unless the cap limit is lifted. For this to be done you need to fight with the customer support people at the Bsnl offices. This initial battle has to be fought but the end results are overall good.

Another problem that I noticed, is that the speed of 4mbps does not really persist all day. Between 11am - 5pm speed varies from 256kbps to 2mbps only. On some days it stays at 256kbps throughout the afternoon/daytime. This is a persistent problem. Nothing can be done about this.

Low upload speed

The max upload speed is only 768kbps and that too is not available without a big battle with the customer care people.
Initially the upload speed is capped to around 256kbps, after dealing with the customer care, the download speed would be increased but not the upload speed. However for most home users, freelancers and bloggers an upload speed of even 256kbps would suffice, unless a lot of realtime video conferencing is needed etc.

Extraordinary speeds

Some users have noticed super high speeds on bsnl broadband. speedtest.net would show 10MBPS download speed. I noticed the same on a broadband connection where torrent download speed peaked to 5mbps (600 kbps).

Speed on uncapped connections - Thats by mistake!! Ha Ha

This happens on many connection where the bsnl backend staff forget to apply any speed limits/caps to the connection and the connection attains the maximum speed. Hope you are lucky enough to get the same.

But there are other limiting factors. The ordinary telephone cable used by Bsnl is not capable of supporting such high speeds. Frequent disconnections would occur, eventually forcing the user to limit the speed all by himself.

Disconnection problems

The Bsnl high speed broadband plans are on NIB-2 (ip address starts with 117 instead of 59). And the connections suffer random disconnections. On somedays the disconnection happens every 10 minutes or so and on some days it is stable. This problem can be partially fixed by limiting the speed from the modem settings. Read this article to learn more about how to do that.

What else

Apart from all this, bsnl has launched a online portal where customers can manage various things. I must say that this is by far the best portal in terms of features and speed.

http://selfcare.edc.bsnl.co.in/
Its actually the Siebel CRM from Oracle.

Broadband usage details, call details, status of complaints, payment details, bill details etc and everything can be checked right from the portal. Its super easy to manage and super fast to handle.

Complains can be lodged directly from the portal, instead of calling the over busy customer care toll free numbers and waiting for someone to pickup.

Bills can be paid online at bsnl.co.in , and the payment portal accepts all major options like credit card, netbanking from all major banks etc.