India Broadband

India Broadband

I went in for Sify 40 hrs package (with 64kbps) at home when I shifted to Mumbai. It worked OK for 10 days, and then the woes started piling up.

Often I couldn’t connect to the Sify Login Page, indicating a local loop problem. Raising this with Sify, they referred it to the Local Cable Operator (LCO) who provides the actual physical copper line. The LCO folks are unreachable outside business hours (meaning I have to take time off from office to check the connection). So I had to chase the LCO to agree on a time (am wondering who is the seller here and who the buyer, as it ended up me chasing the LCO for sending a technician). The reacahability issue got resolved in a couple of days, only to recur at frequent intervals. Now we (LCO and myself) regularly have a nice cat-and-mouse chase.

In addition, the speed of the connection when it is reachable is usually S..L..O..W, slower than dialup. Sometimes it does work fine (for me it was around 30% of the time).

Also, there’s this irritating problem of a browser needing frequent reloading to reach a site. This happens sometimes. I use MS Explorer and when I type the URL, within a blink I get ’’Site not reachable’’. It is amazing how the response can come so soon that the site is unreachable (maybe there is a DNS resolution issue). I have raised these issues with some senior folks in Sify Broadband (apart from the sterile Call Center) with no avail.

So the takeaways-
- Sify is at the mercy of the Local Cable Operator
- Connection speed much much slower than advertized
- Frequent reloading of browser needed to reach a web site

Wonder why Sify allows its globally stamped NASDAQ brand to tarnished by such a poor service.