MTNL FTTH In Mumbai

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Am from Mumbai. Here is how my talk went. ( still in talks ) ( btw i did try to call 1505 and ask for FTTH info on the first day i saw the ad, but they said they don't know anything and only my exchange could help me )

Day 1 ( Monday ):
People at my exchange are clueless about FTTH, they redirected me to the their engineers/technicians. He still didn't know FTTH, after telling the Fibre connection newly launched. He understood and said ya its available in your location. The installation charges ( one time ) are 1500-2000 but need to confirm from seniors and call me back. I told him to explain me before i leave, he explained me what he knows, so here how it goes, they would hook a fibre cable till my telephone box ( junction ) and a new box would be fitted which takes in the fibre cable and would provide me a connection from that box. That box can connect 40-50 FTTH connections ( each with their own dedicated connection, no cable net sharing bs ) . Since I had read this review, I purposely asked,

A new wire would come in to my router or its the same telephone line? Please be specific.. He replied, no no its the same phone line you don't have to do anything. ( I was like...🙁 they don't know anything yet )
Do i need a new router? .... No your old wifi router would work fine.
I asked again, but i read somewhere new cable ( fibre ) would be connected and so the new router, Would you provide me a new one? What are the charges for that? .... He replied, sir let me ask my seniors about everything and get back to you.

He suggested me to get the installation done from my society as all the people in my society could them get FTTH if they want and so its better to share the installation charges. ( makes sense ). He once again told me, he would ask all details to his senior and get back to me. Till then he said he would tell me the exact charges so i could get a written permission from my society for installation.

No call back on that day.

Day 2 (Tuesday):
Called and asked him about the progress, he said i would need to buy a new connection as FTTH would come to me directly from Prabhadevi ( MTNL Server) and i would need a new router for fibre. The charges for that are ofcourse different.
For more details he said he would come visit me at my place on Saturday to clear all the details.
( As Wednesday was Ganpati, Thursday ( supposed to be bandh ) and Friday idk why not. )

I am hoping its not a new connection from Prabhadevi that i need to buy now. ( i am still not sure how that can be done or why would they do it )

P.S. : I am not from Prabhadevi or not even near Prabhadevi that they could extend a line or whatever. Totally different exchange, I'm atleast 20-30kms away from Prabhadevi.

------------

Anyone else went to their exchange and got any info or tried to get it installed ?
 
Am from Mumbai. Here is how my talk went. ( still in talks ) ( btw i did try to call 1505 and ask for FTTH info on the first day i saw the ad, but they said they don't know anything and only my exchange could help me )

Day 1 ( Monday ):
People at my exchange are clueless about FTTH, they redirected me to the their engineers/technicians. He still didn't know FTTH, after telling the Fibre connection newly launched. He understood and said ya its available in your location. The installation charges ( one time ) are 1500-2000 but need to confirm from seniors and call me back. I told him to explain me before i leave, he explained me what he knows, so here how it goes, they would hook a fibre cable till my telephone box ( junction ) and a new box would be fitted which takes in the fibre cable and would provide me a connection from that box. That box can connect 40-50 FTTH connections ( each with their own dedicated connection, no cable net sharing bs ) . Since I had read this review, I purposely asked,

A new wire would come in to my router or its the same telephone line? Please be specific.. He replied, no no its the same phone line you don't have to do anything. ( I was like...🙁 they don't know anything yet )
Do i need a new router? .... No your old wifi router would work fine.
I asked again, but i read somewhere new cable ( fibre ) would be connected and so the new router, Would you provide me a new one? What are the charges for that? .... He replied, sir let me ask my seniors about everything and get back to you.

He suggested me to get the installation done from my society as all the people in my society could them get FTTH if they want and so its better to share the installation charges. ( makes sense ). He once again told me, he would ask all details to his senior and get back to me. Till then he said he would tell me the exact charges so i could get a written permission from my society for installation.

No call back on that day.

Day 2 (Tuesday):
Called and asked him about the progress, he said i would need to buy a new connection as FTTH would come to me directly from Prabhadevi ( MTNL Server) and i would need a new router for fibre. The charges for that are ofcourse different.
For more details he said he would come visit me at my place on Saturday to clear all the details.
( As Wednesday was Ganpati, Thursday ( supposed to be bandh ) and Friday idk why not. )

I am hoping its not a new connection from Prabhadevi that i need to buy now. ( i am still not sure how that can be done or why would they do it )

P.S. : I am not from Prabhadevi or not even near Prabhadevi that they could extend a line or whatever. Totally different exchange, I'm atleast 20-30kms away from Prabhadevi.

------------

Anyone else went to their exchange and got any info or tried to get it installed ?

Well, I called the Worli CSC on Tuesday the guy there (a Mr. Bhojwani) seemed familiar with the service (I purposely used the term FTH and he corrected me saying FTTH - surprise surprise). Anyway victory was shortlived since he mentioned that everyone had left for the day on account of Ganesh Chaturti, after which he took down my name and number and said he'd have someone call back, but I have not heard back from anyone since then, and I'm fairly certain I'll have to call him back once festival is over. The good news is we have a name now.
 
@demonicult, Thank you for your update. I will be going across to my exchange early next week and find out details about this. Will post here.
 
@demonicult, Thank you for your update. I will be going across to my exchange early next week and find out details about this. Will post here.

I keep calling the Andheri exchange number and no one picks up. Might have to go in person. Any updates on your end?
 
Anyone from South Bombay??? FTTTTTTTTTTTH!!!!
 

While I'm still yet to go and find out from the exchange whether they'll provide connectivity to my building or not,I'm wondering why 5-10 Mbps cannot be provided on cable. Isn't that a cheaper infrastructure? Did Mumbai/India miss the cable era completely (By cable I do not mean a Cat5 cable running from the terrace into the house)
 
@Enkay
The present setup of our telephone system is based on copper wires. FTTH is based on the fibre optic cable.
Technically, copper wire has a very limited bandwidth. It was designed for voice signal for which it works. When internet service is added to it, the server plays a vital role. Only 2 digital systems work on copper wire and MTNL opts for ADSL2+ which is the fastest of the two. The problem with copper wire is they transmit electric currents, so as the distance increases weaker it could get. Since they have low frequency range it carries low bandwidth for shorter distance. Copper wires have reached its limitation. Thats why MTNL is opting for Fibre optics connection now.

Fibre on the other hand has higher frequency and instead of transmitting electric current they send pulses of light generated by led or laser along the fibres. Thats why they can carry higher bandwidth. It is very cheap compared to copper and won't have any data loss along its way.

Since our infrastructure in India had always been copper wires for our telephone, no one bothered to dig out and add in a fibre optics cable. Now MTNL wants to, lets make it happen.

------------
FTTH Update :

As i mentioned earlier, the MTNL officers were supposed to call and meet me on saturday. So some MTNL officers came by and explained everything to some people of my society at my place. The thing is, they still say i need to get a new phone line from Prabhadevi and they need at least 5 people from my building to get this service. As they say they would need to take permissions and dig up and install a fibre cable from Prabhadevi to my area ( 30-40kms away )

Installation is just 1500 INR. Few people from my building are ready but still not the number ( 5 ) they want.

This is how it works as he explained me ( i am highlighting the new instruments/upgrades which would be added )
A connection at Prabhadevi is initiated, the fibre cable would be carried from there to the junction box of my building. A new connection box (which is like a hub to give multiple connections) would be installed at the telephone junction box which would carry in the single fibre cable and can produce out 20-30 connections from it. One of those connections via a fibre cable would be pushed to my home which would be connected to another new connection box which looks just like over router but just has 4 connections out. These 4 connections are high speed fibre connections which can as they intended to be used for telephone, FTTH, VOIP ( ya! something like a dedicated skype phone) and IPTV. All working simultaneous on their own dedicated connection/speed. We can opt to only get one those services or all of them anything is fine. Or you can opt to get 4 dedicated connections ( 4 different FTTH plans ) or you can do anything you want. You cannot share connections from here, thats what your router does. So one connection goes out to either to your PC/laptop directly if you want or a wifi router if you want.

Once you fill up a form for new connection and give them a cheque, they would initiate the process for FTTH. They said since they would take BMC permission and other stuff it would take at least a month till we get our connection. thats why if you want to get a connection soon, better start working on it now. The fibre infrastructure is not in place yet.

I highly recommended everyone to get this asap, I have had many past experiences they would scrap these plans and bring in new plans in less than 6 months which won't be this lucrative. The good thing, even if new plans come in, old plans work if they are active on your account. So better get this while its golden. I am a MTNL user since 2007 ish, and have only switched 2-3 times. All the plans i switched to were later removed. I am still running a plan which actually has been removed.

tl;dr - You need minimum 5 people ready from your building. You need to get a new line from Prabhadevi ( if you aren't from there ). Installation is 1500INR. No wait time, but installation time is almost a month.
 
@demonicult, thank you.Looks like I'm going to head over to the exchange as soon as I get time off during their work hours. I'm about 15-20 kms from Prabhadevi exchange.
 
@Demoni Nice of you to detail out the story. Helps with the insight. I called them and asked for it, they took my number etc info and I havent heard back as yet. In my building I can get permission and most of my cousins & family & friends to join up for FTTH. How do I get this communicated to the MTNL guys? Is there an "educated", "aware" / "responsive" contact that I can talk to and tell them that I have the Building, Society Permissions & People ready for it. Thoughts? Suggestions?PS: Road distance to Andheri Telephone Exchange = 1.7 kms - Map/ Straight Line distance even lesser
 
@crashnburn_inI suggest walk to your exchange and catch hold of someone. Thats the only way. None in our exchange knew, the chief officers ended up getting in touch with us.
 
I checked with the Worli Exchange, spoke to a Mr. Upadhyaya who told me that fibre has not yet rolled out to all locations in Worli. He asked me to check again in a week's time, but something tells me its better to wait a month before I call back.
 
I am 1/2 km from Prabhadevi Telephone exchange and yet they declined our society a connection. They want minimum of 15 members. This task of convincing 15 members is ridiculous. I am not Mtnl Salesman.
 
I am pulling this info from the main FTTH thread into the Mumbai FTTH thread.

Just got the MTNL FTTH connection at home ( Kandivali E, Mumbai ). Speed is pathetic to say the least.. I am getting abt 480 kbps. I hope this is some setup issue from MTNL side. Even Triband at half the price gives same speed. I have opted for 790 plan.

Kalpataru Towers in Kandivali is first complex to get FTTH connection in western suburbs. I happen to be the first customer also.
Got call from MTNL this morning to restart the hub and check the speed.. the speed is 10mbps download and 1.2 mbps upload now.. very good !!

Entire complex is wired for FTTH at present and anyone can opt for it, MTNL folks will just pass fibre optic cable from main junction box in the lobby to the flat requiring connection. The cable is concealed and the setup looks really neat. I am not able to post the pictures at present.. let me know your email address and I will mail it to you. Installation charges are Rs. 1000/- at present. I saw the banner at the entrance about complex being FTTH ready and called the number given.. last Sunday there was presentation from MTNL folks and gave an application for connection.

SneakyRanger - Wow! I am jealous 🙂 So this FTTH readiness for entire complex was done by MTNL? or Kalpataru/ Builders? before or after the complex was built?

If this was done after the complex was built how did they get it done? I am sure collaboration between the right people on your Building side and MTNL side must've happened? Would like to dig into that, understand it and REPLICATE for success in other areas in Mumbai.

imgur: the simple image sharer
 

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