Sunday 27 January 2013

Internet speed test

I got the fastest internet connection (12Mbps) available in the city and upgraded to 8 Gb of RAM which i consider is a decent amount  for ordinary people.  I switched on the PC in great style and browsed all the sites which earlier used to take a noticeable time to load.  I expected a great deal of improvement as my earlier connection was only 2 Mbps but there wasn't a significant improvement!! There was a difference in speed no doubt but the price of the 12 Mbps line didn't justify the speeds achieved.  The video downloads weren't much better either.

No doubt disappointed, I called up customer service representative whom i managed to speak to after clicking many buttons on the IVRS.  He heard me patiently (small mercies), repeated every line that i have told (probably using that time gained to check his manuals) and then gave a complicated complaint number (which starts with year, month, day and the ref number all in reverse order either to confuse the complainant or for some genuine reason!!!).  As there was no response for a day, and on contacting the local office, I was told that the speed that i have opted for is "upto 12 Mbps" and not "12 Mbps".  So the speed that i would get is variable.  Though they did not say it, technically it means that i can get any speed from 0 to 12 Mbps.

Anyway i was aware that i had subscribed to "upto 12 Mbps" and not "12 Mbps".  So i asked him as to what speed can i expect on the average for which the individual concerned was non committal.

At this point, i must say that there would be a lot of technical experts who would side with the ISP and mention that it would not be possible to arrive at a minimum figure.  But if you ask me - I am a consumer paying almost 3 times the cost of a 2 or 4 Mbps connection for a 12 Mbps connection.  So what I ask is a simple common sense question - If I am paying 3 times extra cost shouldn't I get 3 times extra speed?  Unfortunately common sense is not very "common" and I had different persons from the ISP explaining to me what is bandwidth, speed etc!!!  

my speed test return upload 0.27 Mbps and download 0.33 Mbps
                                        27 January 12

Though I personally am not an internet expert, I know enough to understand what I should get for my money and I could plainly see that these guys were bluffing. I ran a speed test several times with the average download speed(during the ping) being about 300-400 kbps. That might seem to be a lot but one must remember that it is the speed returned for the ping only and not normal data transfer for audio/video files(typically more than 10 Mb).  Ideally a ping test on a 12 Mb should have given atleast 7-8 Mbps speed!!!! 

Now the question is - What we can do in such situations? Are these guys ripping us off? If I am not assured of a btter performance by using a 12 Mbps connection, then why bother taking that? Any suggestions from the readers apart from going to consumer court (as that would sap a lot of my time also)?
BLAZING FAST INTERNET!!! HOW DO WE GET THERE IN INDIA?

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