Quick look at BSNL 8MBPS – India’s Fastest domestic broadband connection

In just 5 years we have climbed a long way up in the Internet speed ladder. I can remember my self back in 2001, seating in the same chair, typing on the same keyboard, and accessing the Internet via BSNL landline (PSTN) with Satyam (Sify) dial up connection on my P-II 400 MHz with 128 MB of RAM .

Rs. 450/- which I used to pay for 1 month of Dial up pack (20 hours of access) to Sify and Rs. 1.26/- per call (near about Rs. 24 per hour) to BSNL for their PSTN access charge !!!

There were too much thinking for the bill, calculating every single second of connection to make sure I don’t cross the day’s budget for telephone bill !!!

As I still can remember from 10 PM onwards I would start preparing my self and my PC to get access to the Internet, and at 11.10PM would get connected to open all the email accounts I have, waiting eagerly to see inbox opening in Hotmail / Yahoo and keeping my mouse pointer up on the disconnection button of the connection icon. As soon as I see the page is displayed I would disconnect and read the emails to prepare my reply offline !!!

Speeds were too slow, therefore no online activity whats so ever, apart from Emailing / some form-prospectus download, thats it !!!

Used to have a really good night of sleep if by chance can download Norton updates using DAP at around 5 kbps speed

Then in 2003 comes the CDMA player Reliance under WLL license with speeds up to 144 KBPS at rate of Rs. 0.50/- per minute at day time and Rs. 0.25/- per minute at night time !!

Still the calculation for telephone bill stays in head but speed jumped from 25 kilo bits / second (download 2-3kbps) to 90-100 kilobits / second (download 9 to 12 kbps) which allowed some extra online activity and plenty of chance to learn via Internet. No downloads yet but it allowed Foruming and participating in online discussion boards, the ID Choto Cheeta, started its journey !!

Used to have a good nights of sleep if can continue a download at above 10-12 kbps of speed !!!

Within next 6 months a big improvement and Reliance as ISP offered unlimited access at speeds upto 144 kbps at Rs. 1500/- per month ! Though beyond our affording capabilities but still went with it.

Got a big relief within 3 months as Local Cable came to rescue !!

With partner ship of Weble ISP, our local cable guy became my ISP by providing 32kbps unlimited at Rs. 750/- pen month. Though the rate was high but still felt happy to have an unlimited and stable connection in my AMD Athlon 2600+ XP with 512MB of RAM.

Though DAP never managed to get the download speeds over 4.5 KBPS but unlimited connection allowed Choto Cheeta to grow and gain so much knowledge. Yahoo became a good friend as Choto Cheeta found him self to be a regular member of Calcutta Global Chat – 1 / 2 / 3.

It was early 2004 and Internet boards were flooded with screen shot and news of BSNL getting in to action in Pune and Bangalore with their DATA-ONE service. Unimaginable speeds could be seen and read at online boards, speeds touching wooping 30kbps.

I can still remember my joy as when I opened the door at 3.30PM of after noon to find BSNL service person standing out side with lots of cable and that piece of device (ADSL Modem) for which I fought so hard at local BSNL exchange to just submit the form and get the work order for my very own Data-One broadband connection !!!

It was mid 2004 when Choto Cheeta tested his 1st 30 kbps download !!!

I can still remember the burning feeling in my eyes which I used to have with countless sleepless nights to enjoy the free downloads at wooping 30KBPS at night hours unlimited plan Home 500.

The real downloading fun started on late 2006 / early 2007 with BSNL upgrading all connections to upto 2mbps speed as that allowed to download around 1 GB of DATA each hour with average speed of 205-220 kbps with both BiTTorrent and under FTP / HTTP file transfer !!!

Yes, we have come a long way, as today at mid 2008, I am using India’s fastest broadband connection at 8MBPS speed seating on this same chair and typing on this same keyboard in which I have started accessing internet with BSNL dial up at 20-25kbps !!!

Let’s take a Quick look at BSNL 8MBPS connection – The Fastest Home broadband connection of India

BSNL has started its broadband service with the name of DATA-One in mid 2004.

It is ADSL technology which they are using to provide the service on their wired land line (PSTN) network. BSNL has the largest PSTN network in India thus they have the best coverage for broadband.

Since December 2007, BSNL have launched its 8MBPS ADSL service. There are no unlimited plans, all comes with data limit.

I have upgraded one of our plans to Business 4000 to test the capability of this service !!!

Today I would be taking a quick look at their service with Business 4000.

The very 1st thing which you may notice is, the ADSL router’s / modem’s DSL values to change, as compare to normal 2048 downstream and 512 / 256 upstream, it is now 8196 downstream, allowing faster communication between DSLAM and your router.

With this plan, Business 4000 or Business 15000, you are given a Free Wifi Type-II modem, in my case BSNL provided a Type-IV model SL2_141 !!

Immediate difference ?

Infact if you are shifting from a 2mbps connection to this 8mbp plan, then you will not notice any effect in case of normal browsing. Email applications such Google / Yahoo / Hotmail would load as just like they do in 2mbps connections.

Where as big difference to be seen in case of flicker slide show and off course video streaming services like Joost or YouTube.

How about the real stuff, the downloads ?

In Indian domestic connection, we are not used to see this type of speed, immediate surprise is that most of the FTP / HTTP server wont go beyond 250 or 300 kbps for a single file transfer session !!

This is what I am getting while downloading from Acer global FTP under DAP.

Where as the real speed which I can find is with BitTorrent services. From an external tracker I could download a 700 MB Linux distro within 12 mins.

No doubt that speeds are awesome compare to any other domestic connection available in India however one cant actually enjoy this as for the price tag it comes with. Rs. 4000/- + 12.36% TAX for 27GB of data cap or Rs. 15000/- + 12.36% TAX for 125GB Data Cap is quite beyond the affording power of most of the Indian users !!

Having said that, just reviewing my own Internet experience in last 5 years, I could rest assure that, it is not far within which we may find upto 8MBPS under affordable Home plans also !!