Sushubh said...
unfortunately sify broadband. the only other option i have in my area is dialup or gprs (max 40kbps). as for limits i believe airtel is giving 128kbps unlimited for 900-1000 bucks... isn't it true?
Of the evils choose the least, eh? Yes, touchtel's (airtel) does offer unlimited 128kbps for Rs.900, but the problem with airtel's is that its 128kbps comes only to around 13.5kBytes/sec rather than the expected 16KBytes/sec (128 divided by 8). On inquiring, they responded that the ATM backbone's header combined with the IP and TCP's headers take up almost 10% of the total bandwidth. And infact, they said I was lucky enough to get 13.5KBytes/sec.
[For knowing my bandwidth, I used download accelerator's read-out, DslReports.com (excellent) and a lot of other sources (streaming servers, ftp, etc)]
What's the loss? Well, some streaming sites detect my connection as 128kbps and send data AT 128kbps. The result? No streaming songs/movies appear continously for more than some 5 seconds. And the next best bandwidth available to me is at 56kbps, which is totally horrific to see or hear.
Though some sites with wmv optimised videos (msdn blog videos) stream at 103kbps "intelligently", which is fine with my connection, I still see stuttering sometimes. So, the decision is made. I am opting for Reliance Broadband, if available in my area, or BSNL's DataOne.
Download caps suck. I really hate DataOne. And all services that are like DataOne too. I mean, what's the use in providing broadband and setting a download cap of 250MBytes? Clearly, people are not paying for broadband just to check their mails faster, or are they?
"Fabulous offer! 1GBytes/second* Internet access for Rs.1000/month!"
Anyone interested?
*maximum 250MBytes/month. Rs.500 for every extra Megabyte
Reliance Broadband too has a download cap, but at a reasonable 10GBytes. I am still unable to get any information from their customer service on whether I will be behind a NAT based network or a DHCP based one. The type of network is not that critical with current P2P networks able to operate transparently in both the environments, but my friend sriram krishnan has problems accessing the Shareaza network from his Net4India network.
I was concerned that with the high data rate that I am about to get, my download habits may change and the 10GByes/month download cap will seem unrealistic too soon. But a distant memory of a economic model (or something) which said something in the lines of "After a few months of the introduction of a hike, the initial interest will subside and become a uniform line below the hike", comforted me. (Don't stone me for such a badly formed statement, but the statement was in the one page that I saw in a library book.)
Oh, and I appologize for confusing Reliance Netway with Reliance Broadband service. Both are different. My bad.
1 comment:
then don't read what sify broadband does. limits are 75megs a day. after which 48 and 64 are slowed down to 16-24kbps. the other package 96kbps is for 6hrs a day usage.
the incredible part? they forget to mention these 'special features' on the website. customer support would tell you these on phone, but take real good care that it does not get to the customer in writing on email.
sify broadband beats anything that comes as a competition in being the craziest service in india.
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