Wisetechie Blog : Ctrl your Tech Life

Before taking the leap and getting Tata Indicom Wimax Broadband, make sure to read the following :

The trail keeps getting murkier as I continue to press the Tata communications customer service for answers.  Here is stuff I have been able to uncover so far that should make you reconsider your decision to get Tata Indicom Broadband Wimax service , their more4sure offers are just bait to get customers for long term without the added constraint of having to keep them satisfied:

1. They don’t care about customer feedback. I have given them so much feedback on problems with their prepaid broadband policies but all I get are stupid answers regarding backend people and their engineering work (@Tata – please hire better engineers). I have been told not to complain about matters which are their policy. I asked if I could get in touch with anyone who can listen to and act upon feedback and someone who actually has power in the company, I was told the answers would be the same no matter who I call. So all customer feedback basically ends up at the same place.

2. Tata Indicom broadband prepaid wimax officially does not support VPN, so forget working on your office Network/RAS. This was confirmed by their customer service :

With reference to your mail, as per the resolution for the complaint number 1083xxxx regarding VPN Connection we would like to inform you that you account is Pre paid and we cannot provide the service without SIP .

Also notice the lovely English.

3. Tata Indicom Wimax will logout in 11 hours or 10 minutes : Here is another stupid feature implemented by an overzealous program manager at their company perhaps. The timeout for logging out your session is just 10 minutes of no activity. If your internet is not used for 10 minutes it will be logged out. Also there is an 11 hour full logout. Even if you keep using your account, you will be logged out in 11 hours no matter what.

Conclusion : Its imperative to consider the fact that all the above things are the result of only 1 stupid Tata Wimax feature i.e. the Javascript Login Page. If they could remove that and have automatic login for all users, things would be so much simpler for everyone. All the above problems will be solved. But the main problem is perhaps getting past the 1st level customer care to the people who actually have the power to take decisions.

If you know nothing about computers and just want to check your email etc., then this is probably the connection for you. but if you are a power user, give this a skip and get Airtel or MTNL.

If you have Tata Wimax and a postpaid/static IP account, please do not bother posting comments on this post, they will not be approved.

Tata Indicom clearly is the most idiotic company to have existed in the world. If disconnecting my wireline internet wasnt enough, if having a stupid login page for all prepaid customers wasn’t enough, their new Photon + service also gave away today.

These guys always pick the wrong guy to mess with, I break their incompetence publicly and that just embarrasses them.

I have been using the photon+ service for over a month now. Today suddenly my photon+ stopped working. I promptly emailed the customer care with the error I was getting. In the afternoon I get a call that some papers are missing in my application thats why the internet is now working. Sure enough I called the dealer with whom I had deposited everything, all papers had been sent to Tata Indicom.

Then later I got another call from these morons. They claim that I am on a 2GB plan and have accrued a bill of 8000 rupees and hence my Internet is disconnected. My current month’s usage is around 4277MB BTW. What the Tata Indicom billing system does is that is charges 2 rupees for every MB will your bill is generated. After that it deducts 10GB of usage from the chargeable amount and presents the bill. So the amount keeps on accumulating till the bill is generated. But their own customer care cant understand that. Moreover the number from which I had received the call is now switched off.

God Bless Them, sending them this link too.

Apparently to them 10240MB is equal to 2GB or 4277>10240 , either case maths lessons are needed by TATA.

I feel very guilty making this post while on a TATA Wimax (VSNL) connection. But the truth is that this service will eventually fail, I have almost half made up my mind to switch. Its not the the speed is bad or that connectivity is a problem. The biggest problem comes with the implementation of their network.

There is a serious issue with the login page, each user much go through a stupid login page to do anything. Moreover there is no port forwarding, therefore all torrent downloads are excruciatingly slow. For example, I was downloading a well seeded torrent at 6.5 kBps on my 256 kbps connection.

Another problem is no VPN, you cannot access your company’s VPN with the TATA Wimax account.

The point to be noted here is that none of these problems had existed with Tata Broadband’s original DSL.

I have been in touch with multiple engineers in TATA Communications over these issues, none were able to help me. All they would suggest was to purchase a static IP for 2000 rupees (am i nuts). MTNL gives one for free with its 256kbps plan. MTNL too has pathetic customer service though.

Lets hope some senior TATA Communications guy reads this and drills some sense into the stupid policy makers.

Ok, its been 4 days since i got this connection installed, and i have gotten the pros and cons ready for quick analysis. I got the connection installed this Sunday (much to the dislike of my neighbours), and it hasnt had significant downtime since then.

Pros :

• Good Speeds, they deliver what they promise and a little extra.
• No hassles of wires and wirecuts.

These are the only 2 pros I can think of over a normal DSL connection, the list of cons is much longer, but these cons are very specific. I am still using the connection inspite of all these cons since they dont affect me a lot (except for the 1st con). Really hope the antenna doesn’t ever need service.

Cons :

• You need to have access to your roof,  installing the antenna can be a sour experience if you have un co-operative neighbours.
• The connection goes down just like that for 1-2 minutes every now and then.
• There is a stupid login page which normal Tata DSL login did not have. Prepaid users are forced to have this login page since they cant get a static IP for free. Idiots have the audacity to ask me to spend Rs. 2000 extra for removing the login page. Also the connection just logs itself out for no reason.
• Pathetic customer support especially from billing department. The engineers who visit your place are usually good enough.
• No port forwarding without Static IP.

Turns out all that shouting I had done on the Tata Indicom broadband guys finally gave some result. The installation guys were here on a Sunday.  After asking the neighbours to let us use the roof for the antenna it was smooth sailing all along. Although they did try to play spoilsport by asking us to install the antenna below etc. Later on they asked us to try and install the Tata sky dish in front of our house also. Anyway, will handle that later. Need to get a copy of our house agreement.

The photos below show the sleek antenna in its full glory after the installation. Its a Telisma model Antenna. Will show the indoor photos of the antenna which I had taken later on. The last photo shows the clamp used to secure the antenna.

Sorry for the ugly watermarks, but these are sort of personal photos and hence marked.

A review on the installation, usage and performance plus pros and cons will follow. There is a slight problem with DNS settings and all as I have a dynamic IP address, it sometimes hangs and i need to change the DNS, dunno what that is about.

Its ironical that all this is happening to me. I was perhaps the only person on the Internet who used to praise the services of Tata Indicom VSNL Broadband. The truth was that it was reliable and my last level engineers were good pals with me so I could get faults corrected easily and fast. Infact I think I contributed to the promotion of one of the engineers in my area by giving good feedback about him ( TATA people must have been shocked, what is this guy doing in our company ?).

Anyway, continuing from my previous post. Tata Indicom broadband illegally disconnected my prepaid broadband connection on 21st May in the evening.They are discontinuing Wireline services in my area, so only wireless services via Wimax will be provided.

Checkout the letter below, I should mention I received the letter on 21st May, one day after the date mentioned on it. I wonder what the person drafting the letter was thinking, why the hell would I even think of using dial-up in this era. Maybe he is living 10 years in the past.

I have been in touch with their nodal officer and countless employees. Despite requesting politely for priority reconnection, I haven’t been given any. Infact, in all their emails they will mention that my complaint is being handled on priority, but on the phone everyone is quick to point out that preferential treatment is out of question. “Sir, it takes 7 days on minimum to get the Wimax installed” is what i hear most often. Its been 3 days since I got my network disconnected. Tomorrow being a Sunday is a holiday, so the focus shifts to Monday. I am hellbent on ensuring that the person who got my connection disconnected faces the music for all my woes. Looking at legal options and precedents also. Apparently I have a good case due to the fact that the letter seems to be predated. Someone probably forgot to mail them on time or probably the letters were an afterthought. Also looking at MTNL Triband as an alternative to this connection.

Moreover to get my internet on again, I have to get this Wimax Antenna installed on my house’s roof which is owned by someone else but according to our sale agreement, we are allowed to place stuff on the roof including antennae and water tanks . More stuff to take care of then. Mr. Ratan Tata, had i not purchased shares and FDs in your company, I would be praying for their failures , I wonder which broadband you use for your home ? BSNL , best hai ! And thanks for starting TISCO, the rally in its shares was great for my budget.