Best ISP for online gaming in India?

[bippukt]

Which ISP in Delhi is likely to give me the best ping for online gaming on servers overseas. I am not looking for 50-150 ms pings, which seem impossible at present.

I am into MMOs (enjoying World of Warcraft at present ) and there I only need to have a ping of 150-300. Unfortunately, even that doesn't seem possible with Airtel. I am getting ping of 700-800 ms with my 1 Mbps Airtel, even though I can get a general ping of around 300 for servers in the US.

Of course, if I indulge in a bit of tunneling, I can get pings of around 300, but that is either:
-Not free OR
-Too risky for free service!

Any idea which ISP might satisy my lust for MMO gaming? Is MTNL upto it? Or maybe even Reliance?

And what about 3G? Will having a 3G 7 (or 21) Mbps connection help with the online gaming, or will it have no effect on the ping?

[ico]

MTNL is the best for me. Airtel sucks. Reliance might be good.

3G will be high latency and ping, no use.

I use MTNL. 100ms to Singapore, 130ms to Hong Kong, 160ms to West Australia (depends) and Europe pings varying from 170 to 240ms. Japan is 180ms. All Airtel guys from Delhi ping higher than me.

[bippukt]

Thanks a lot ico! I was thinking of going for MTNL simply because of the download limits on Airtel, but this gives me a much bigger reason to do so. Maybe I will keep both and downgrade my Airtel connection to a limited plan for use when MTNL is down.

Interesting point about 3G, though. Why are the companies advertising 3G for gaming if the ping is going to be worse than DSL and cable?

[vamsi_krishna]

Pings are pathetic in 3G. I'm using one now... and it lags if i play any Multiplayer game. Even if the host is close. Just stay away form 3G, Airtel Broadband, if you are serious about Online gaming.

[bippukt]

Yes, I just tested and my BSNL broadband 512kbps unlimited in Allahabad is giving better pings than the 1 mbps Airtel one in Delhi. I am going to get MTNL as soon as I can.

Tried to get Reliance as well, but they were offering me only Wimax, which I am quite sure will be bad for gaming, as everything unwired is.

[ico]

If you have a neighbour who has MTNL, please verify the pings through his machine first.

Originally Posted by bippukt

Interesting point about 3G, though. Why are the companies advertising 3G for gaming if the ping is going to be worse than DSL and cable?

Because they are idiots. It's like Airtel advertising "Unlimited Gaming Experience" on a limited plan.

[bippukt]

I doubt if anyone near me has MTNL; I will try to find someone.

As for the Unlimited gaming experience, well, you can have it on a limited bandwidth (say 6 GB), if you do almost nothing else