Probing the Provider : The DigiMouth ISP Review - Part 1

by Imran Mirza

Having used about almost all the ISPs in Mumbai, I thought it might be wise for me to share my experience with fellow netizens. No spoon feeding here. I won’t tell you “the best ISP in Mumbai”. Rather, just lay down the pros and cons of each, so that you’d know which ones to avoid. To make it easier for you to read, I will cover them in parts.

Here’s the first one:

MTNL

It is one of the oldest ISPs in Mumbai. I thank God that the days of dialup internet are over. I remember having to dial almost 5-10 times before getting through their servers. But that was earlier. Things have improved quite a bit for MTNL. The Triband connections were quite a hit. People had to wait for weeks or even months to get a connection in some areas. There are lot of tariff plans to choose from.

I tried the Night Unlimited plan (DSL NU 849) for two months and was utterly disappointed. The package guarantees a minimum speed of 256kbps and maximum of up to 2mbps. You can download unlimited from 12 midnight to 8.A.M in the morning. One has to shutdown the router and restart it at 12 midnight to get the free downloads. To my disappointment, I never got speeds of even close to 2mbps while downloading at night. The fact that you MUST restart the router to get the free access did not appeal to me. There’s every chance that one might forget to restart the router and get billed for the entire night. MTNL would just love that.

That wasn’t all. Come rains and we all know what happens to our MTNL landline. My landline was “dead” for a month and no one at MTNL seemed to bother, citing “some major line problem” as the excuse at every Babu level. So I was without an internet connection for almost a month, thanks to MTNL.

The only saving grace was the fact that they did not bill me for the period.

Pros:

Widest coverage all over Mumbai (Most of the ISP do not cover all the areas). You might have to use MTNL if you do not have any other ISP servicing your area.

A lot of tariff plans to choose from

Cons:

Very expensive. The cheapest truly unlimited package from MTNL puts you back by Rs.2500 per month. Other ISPs provide the same plan at almost 1/3rd the cost.

Poor customer service. (Just try speaking to a customer service agent and you’ll know what I am talking about)

Poor connectivity, especially during monsoons.

Tip:

As weird as it may sound, a friend of mine suggested that if your internet connection conks off all of a sudden, try restarting the router 6 times. I tried and to my surprise, it DID work! That’s Digital superstition for you!