Along with the excitement and joy of shifting to a new city comes the hassle and pain of finding everything again, right from mobile service provider to internet service provider. Recently I moved to Bangalore and had to go through the process. While picking the mobile service provider was easy, I learnt internet service provider would not be such an easy job.
Make Telecom Talk My Trusted Source
Task of choosing an Internet Service Provider (ISP) in Bangalore
I had numerous options and decisions to make ahead of me. Wireless Dongle or Wired broadband? Hathway or Airtel or YOU broadband or ACT Broadband or Tikona? After little thought I decided to go for wired broadband connection with unlimited internet usage. One decision made. Now which ISP to choose amongst the lot? My first choice was YOU broadband. I had used it earlier in a different city (Pune) and I liked it good. A couple of calls later I learnt that You Broadband did not provide serve in my area. My next choice was Tikona Broadband which was suggested by one of my friends. Unfortunately Tikona did not provide serve in my block. Before you start thinking which part of Bangalore I live in, let me clarify, I stay in Kormangala. From my earlier experiences I wanted to avoid Hathway. They had very bad connectivity, pathetic customer service and termination of connection was a nightmare. Finally I decided to go for ACT Broadband.
I checked with ACT Broadband and to my delight, they provided service in my area, block, street and home. I requested for a new connection and almost instantaneously ACT Broadband sales person came to collect my details and necessary documents. The next day, the ACT Installation team wanted to do installations at my house but since I was not at home they patiently waited for me until after my office hours to get the installation done. Sweet! The next day, the ACT Activation team came with the ACT WiFi modem to make the final set of activations and I was online again.
Note: 1) While filling the ACT forms, the sales person asked me for my PAN card number. I was very sceptical. I had not come across any other ISP who collected PAN card details. Upon further probing, the guy kept saying this is as per new TRAI regulation. I probed further and then learnt, ACT collects PAN details and uses it against defaulters. Beware!!
Note: 2) ACT WiFi modem is quiet expensive and costs much more than the modems of other ISPs available in market. It costs Rs. 2000/-. But the quality is much better. I would recommend going for it.
ACT Broadband speed Test Details
ACT has very nice assortment of plans to choose from and caters to all kinds of usage requirements. I picked an unlimited plan of 4Mbps speed throttled at 30GB, after which the speed reduces to 512Kbps. I pay Around Rs950/- inclusive of taxes per month. While I conducted the speed tests at various times, the speed is pretty constant at 4Mbps. So 10-on-10 there.
ACT Broadband Bangalore Plan Details
Plan Name
Tariff
Speed
FUP
Speed Post-FUP
ACT Swift
675
2 Mbps
20 GB
256 Kbps
ACT Flash
849
4 Mbps
30 GB
512 Kbps
ACT Blaze
1049
20 Mbps
50 GB
512 Kbps
ACT Storm
1149
20 Mbps
60 GB
512 Kbps
ACT Lightning
1399
40 Mbps
75 GB
512 Kbps
ACT Incredible
1999
60 Mbps
100 GB
1 Mbps
ACT Force
2849
60 Mbps
200 GB
2 Mbps
ACT BB SOHO Value
3349
80 Mbps
250 GB
2 Mbps
ACT BB SOHO Extra
4399
80 Mbps
350 GB
2 Mbps
ACT Broadband Bangalore issues we faced
But one issue is with connectivity. Sometimes, unannounced and unceremoniously the connection blacks out for a couple of minutes. This amounts to some frustration. May be this is an isolated incident. Need to check this issue with the ACT customer care, apart from this things was good. ACT recently launched 80Mbps broadband plans for home users in Bangalore .
Some people read for free. A few choose to support. If you found TelecomTalk useful, you can help keep us running.
Support Telecomtalk
