India Broadband Forum

India Broadband

Hi readers. I live in chennai, and of course, i use bsnl broadband. One reason why i didnt opt for other isp’s is that they simply dont operate in my area yet !!!

So i guess i really had no other choice. I dont regret my decision though. I have been using dataone since march 2005. Having opted for the home 500 plan, i am quite happy with the connection. In the earlier stages i did get some problems, it wud simply disconnect. And every alternate sunday i cudnt connect. Why? They wud say server maintenance !!!

Of course, the speed i get is not always 256 kbps, but u cant blame dataone for that. Maybe it gets better with time. The plans are also cost effective. They have come up with a home 250 plan for the same speed, but readers please note.the upload/download bandwidth is only 0.4 Gb which is approximately 410mb and u even pay a little extra than the home 500 plan for any additional usage. And yes u dont have the night unlimited option. If u plan on using the dataone for surfing image rich websites and ’’trying’’ to play online games, then opt for a higher plan like the home500 or the home1000. Keep in mind, that downloading games and songs from the net is not the only thing that will take up your bandwidth, even just surfing websites and checking ur mail will too. So be careful.

Setting up the dataone connection on ur pc is a breeze, enhanced further with a plug in modem. U dont need any installation software either. And one thing to wonder, the www.dataone.in website doesnt support firefox or opera if u use them, particularly when u want to check ur account usage, so stick with IE. But users who want a good browsing experience, please dont use IE. Firefox and Opera are very nice, try them.

Anywayz, back to dataone. Like I was saying, i live in Chennai and i think this issue relates to my city only. Dataone offers u a helpline 24/7, but the people who attend ur calls are not that technically trained. I cudnt get a single person who knew how to setup xp on windows xp properly. I was so frustated that i slammed the phone down and learnt it by myself. And they dont even speak good english.

Dataone is aimed for the masses, and tries to bring the web to everyone and it does a good job at that. But for geeks and other people who thrive on the net, i suggest u rethink ur decision.