[Review] Tata Indicom Broadband

Akshay · 20-04-2009, 08:35 PM

Location: Mumbai

After lots of research (airtel, mtnl, tata, photon, reliance, etc.), I finally selected Tata Indicom Broadband service in Mumbai (no specific reason for selection even though Tata has lots of negative reviews - just a risk).

After I send an inquiry to Tata Indicom for a broadband connection and after fixing up an appointment with their representative, this is how the process was:

Day1:

I filled up the requisite forms for the new connection and the representative was quite helpful. I chose the Power On and On 6-384 i.e. I will get speed of 384kbps with unlimited downloads for six months.

Cost: Rs.8340 all inclusive (no installation charges, etc.)

With the Fair Usage Policy (FUP) doing rounds of every forum and being a major cause of concern for the heavy downloaders, to be on safer side, I added to the application form and the terms and conditions form that I have selected the plan only on the representation that FUP does not apply to this plan and that there will be no restrictions / limit on the downloads.

Day 2:

I get a call from Tata for fixing a time for the cabling work (no modem or router required). The installation time is fixed for the next day at 10.30 a.m.

Day 3:

The representative arrives on time, finishes off his work in 30 minutes and my connection is already working! No charges for the extra cable that I asked for...

After installation, I checked the speed at speedtest.net and got result of 0.43 mbps for downloads and 0.38 mbps for uploads. Downloading from torrents was also speedy.

Day 5:

The connection goes kaput. I cant login to broadband dialer, ping the gateway, nothing can be done though the LAN cable is showing some activity.

Reaching the customer care was easy - 020- 60607070. Complaint was lodged, complaint no. was given and solution within 24 hours was assured.

Day 6:

No call from customer care or engineers of tata. I again call up customer care and they assure solution asap and that engineers are looking into the complaint.

No solution - broadband still not working.

The representative and the engineer who came for installation have suddenly disappeared from the face of the earth. Their mobiles are "switched off"

Day 7:

Finally the engineer arrives and gets the problem solved and net is working again. There was some issue from Tata's end.

The connection is at its best again .....

Over a period of next 4-5 days I have totally downloaded over 21 GB (with almost 2.5 days downtime). There seems to be no restrictions on the torrents as well.

Pros:

1. It is really easy to connect to the customer care no. within seconds you are already talking to the representative. With the complaint no., it is really easy to follow up the status. Tata totally beats BSNL here.

2. Speed is no issue at all - even at night.

3. I have been told that Tata will be launching WiMax in Mumbai in next two months and I will be automatically upgraded to WiMax at no extra cost (this can be negative if I dont get desired speed - places where tata already has WiMax has got some bad reviews).

Cons:

1. Somehow one of the leading forums on broadband and net connections in India is inaccessible with my connection.. Negative reviews of Tata may be the cause.... (proxy helps here)

2. Once the net goes kaput (twice in 10 days), customer care is the only solution (fiddling with the settings somehow doesnt help).

3. I havent found a way to reconnect automatically in case it disconnects automatically (though this is rare, automatic disconnection definitely means you will have to contact the customer care - atleast in my case). To connect, I need to login thru - https://loginbom.tataindicombroadband.in

Having used BSNL in Pune, Tata isnt bad after all (though a little expensive).

Rating: 8/10.

comp@ddict · 20-04-2009, 08:47 PM

Let's compare it to AIRTEL, I would give AIRTEL 0.5/10

Reason-They made my 512KBPS connection to 256KBPS, w/o notice, and they are charging the same rate as 512KBPS.