The Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) service is something that has penetrated the Indian wired broadband industry thoroughly. Courtesy of optical fibre deployment across the country, the subscribers, are now able to attain speeds of up to 1 Gbps. However, unlike the 4G data revolution led by Reliance Jio, the Mukesh Ambani led telecom company was not able to shock the market into submission like it did in the case of LTE. As such, there are multiple broadband providers in the country right now. However, when it comes to wired home services, there are some features that are present on some ISPs while being absent with others. Here are some of the features we think that all broadband plans should come with.
Over the Top Content Services
This one feature is an absolute no-brainer. While the more premium plans of broadband come with OTT services with major names, the lower rung plans should also ship services like EROS NOW, ALT Balaji, and others to the subscribers. The ISPs should also wrap their heads around the fact that bundling “habit-forming” and sticky subscriptions such as OTT is likely to make the subscribers use more data and hence stay on their network longer, thus driving up data demand. Besides, if not Netflix and Amazon Prime, the plethora of options of OTT content available in India right now can be bundled with the plans that ship under the price tag of Rs 1,000 per month.
IPTV Services Bundled With Broadband
This is something that Reliance Jio has done right, but unfortunately, others have missed out on. Currently, the subscribers of JioFiber are saving a lot on their DTH connections which remains a major expenditure of Indian households. If the ISPs manage to ship the IPTV services to their subscribers, they are bound to see a lot of traction from them. Besides, a single bill for broadband and cable TV services is going to be a luring offer for them, similar to what Airtel has done with their Black postpaid plans.
Wi-Fi Extenders
This is again something that Reliance Jio subscribers of JioFiber will rejoice about. While the broadband subscribers get a customary modem and router with their connection, sometimes in large households, the problem of Wi-Fi extension is very real. This is something that can be dealt with Wi-Fi extenders, which will avoid the use of third-party hardware by the subscribers and thus ruining the network experience for them and others.
Dedicated Customer Service for Broadband Customers
Dedicated customer service is something that almost all broadband service providers miss in the country. However, Bharti Airtel, with its Black postpaid plan, has attempted to do something here. Given that anyone can face downtime when it comes to broadband subscriptions, dedicated customer service will help the subscribers in keeping track of their grievance redressal instead of being frustrated after it. With the innovation of AI, ISPs can deploy chatbots and other services for a better consumer experience. Again, this is something that the other broadband providers can learn from Bharti Airtel.
