Thread: Help with Indian Broadband Providers - for Calcutta / Kolkatta

So it seems my parents have decided they want to live in India for a while. I have decided that I would join them for a few months while they settle in. The issue I have right now is that I cant find a decent provider of broadband.

I am looking for a good broadband provider in Kolkata. The house is in the "Jodthpur park" area on prince anwarsha road near the lake. (just in case someone from calcutta is on here).

My requirements are:
I require the fastest connection around $50 roughly 2000-2500 rupees a month.
I will need a minimum of 256kb upstream, though 128 will do. Downstream the faster the better.
I plan to run a router behind the dsl/cable modem to split the connections. I am going to be sharing it with 2 laptops, a vonage VOIP modem, a video conference system, and a server (possible).

It is adamant that vonage and the video conference system (skype is an alternate to the video conference box) works. I need to these two cause I need to be in contact with my main office in the US. Therefore I need to make sure VOIP isnt blocked.

What are good providers? My uncle had a "so called" broadband when I got to India last year. It was through 24 online or something. I was getting download speeds of 2-6kb/s max! It was a prepaid thing and it wasnt even DSL, it had a ethernet dropped in the house, and i tracked it to a distance greater than 330 ft (Ethernet limitation is 100meters or 330 ft)

Needless to say I have a feeling that kolkata is like a technology village in comparison to other cities and I have a bad feeling that I would not get what I am looking for. However any solution is good.

Does the cellphone companies provide a 3G broadband cards? If so I can use that with our spare router that has a PC card slot. However it will need to be reliable and reasonably priced.

Thanks a lot..

TGG..

I suggest you go for airtel broadband if it is available or get a wimax connection.

Tata wimax 1mbps connection will cost you Rs2500 per month. I am right now on a 512kbps connection which is giving me 60Kb/sec + speed downstread and 32KB/sec Constant with no drop in speed at any time and I am paying 1600 something per month for this and mine is a prepaid one.

I have never used vonage so cant say anything about it but I use skype on a daily basis and it works well on all the connections I have... sify 256kbps Mtnl 256kbps, Reliance data card which is 144kbps and this new one tata wimax 512kbps connection and skype works fine on all of them even the 144kbps data card from reliance doesnt have a problem although I do get a bit of lag some times depending on the signal strength where I am.

Please note that I had a very tough time in the beginign with tata wimax and from day one I had 11 days of down time... If you work online or need to be online at all times I suggest you get two connections for back up as in India isp's are known for not attending to problems for days and I have had some fist hand experiences

hey thanks. I didnt realise WiMAX was in India. In the US we dont have WiMax, FCC regulations stuff.. WiMAX hasnt taken off (plus we have the infrastructure, WiMAX deployment is easier).

I will contact Tata for WiMax as well as AirTel. I will look into the data card.

How long do they take from start to finish to install WiMax and or DSL?

My tata wimax connection was installed within 5-6 days after I placed an order. Adsl might take a bit more time as you would need a cable comming into your place aswell which does take some time.