Netplus FTTH : User Experience

Ever since I kept seeing ISP experience of many FTTH users here, i was very eager to try out the same but living in a small town has its own perks! Before this FTTH connection I had BSNL broadband (which was not very stable but kept as a backup for my buisness) and a local isp who provided wireless internet via 5Ghz unlicensed spectrum using AS134042(Maha Mediacom LLP). So they had a ubiquiti air grid m5 installed and the plan provided was 32Mbps Up and Down with no FUP @Rs.2000/- per month. The speed and service were all great but it wasn't FTTH😁.

Installation:-
One day got a call from my cable tv provider that they have started Netplus FTTH (AS133661) in my area, so after discussing i selected 1299 Plan which provided 150Mbps Unlimited and was told installation will be done in 2 days. But it took them 3 weeks for the installation (already a bad sign) and the reason for the same was that the LCO is only allowed to do the wiring part of the installation and the rest i.e. modem configuration will be done by the netplus engineer himself who 3 weeks to visit my place. Installation charges were Rs.3000/- and they gave a zte f660 GPON ont but as i knew the LCO i told him i wont be paying the installation until i test the service for around 1 week or so which he agreed.

IP Addresses:-
Netplus doesn't provide public IP addresses and hence its CGNAT but the main IP address keeps changing every day or two. I was not used to this as in my previous wireless connection i had static ip address without any extra charges. Also no IPv6 here.

Speeds:-
This is where I didnt like this ISP much. Speeds on local servers is okay okay but as soon as I download or test speed on international servers there is a big dip in speeds and pings are also not that great,even my wireless isp gives better pings and consistent speeds all around according to the plan. I get 100-120Mbps on local servers which is not that great as i have a 150Mbps connection (or am I asking too much). The netplus engineer also told that de have removed their servers from speedtest.net hence low speeds and they recommend speedtest.net.in to test speeds.

On Speedtest.net

Servers- Netplus Ludhiana, Airtel Delhi, Tata Sky Broadband Mumbai, ACT Chennai.

Now some international Servers

Servers- Singtel Singapore, GTT London, New York AT&T

Fast.com


Netplus (AS133661) uses TATA, Airtel and Vodafone as their IP transit.

Service:-
The service is ought to be poor because the lco don't have the authority to change or alter ont or olt settings, all technical work is restricted to the netplus engineer (who didn't even knew how to change the LAN IP addresses of the ONT😅). Even while installation i was the only one on that main fiber but was still getting -29dBm optical signal and the engineer didn't cared about it and after few days the LOS light started blinking 10-15 times a day. After complaining the engineer came after 3 days(knowing that the connection is being used for my business) and changed my connection to some other line and the signal was around -6dBm, but today its back to -27dBm. Also the downtime is very frequent (optical LOS). While writing this user experience the connection went down again!😠

The thing is i need help to decide whether to keep this connection or switch to Bsnl Fiber (launched here yesterday and the lco is very knowledgeable), ill be keeping my wireless connection active which soon will be upgraded to fiber but i need another connection for backup so either it will be netplus or Bsnl fiber.

 

[vignesh_venkatesan]

Seeing BSNL Ftth crapping out for last few weeks I'd suggest you to wait for sometime.
BSNL has to overhaul their network after this botnet attack.

 

[Realme]

Pretyy much small LCO based ISPs are no good if your usage goes beyond the sphere of Netflix,Youtube and some social media.

Anyplan over 50 Mbps are not worth subscribing from small ISPs( better look for data usage based plans from small guys)

 

[anubhav11]

Seeing BSNL Ftth crapping out for last few weeks I'd suggest you to wait for sometime.
BSNL has to overhaul their network after this botnet attack.

Yes the bsnl lco was telling about the attack and that is why he had to delay the launch of the service for 2 weeks. He also told that he will be having airtel as a backup on the second fiber strand but it will be a slow one as its a DIA connection.

 

[anubhav11]

Pretyy much small LCO based ISPs are no good if your usage goes beyond the sphere of Netflix,Youtube and some social media.

Anyplan over 50 Mbps are not worth subscribing from small ISPs( better look for data usage based plans from small guys)

Totally agree with you, even i feel 50Mbps is max one should opt for from these type of isp. As for me the difference seems more from a 150Mbps plan perspective, as im getting common speeds around 50Mbps even now, hence its a wastage of money to get higher plan. The netplus engineer also told that the OLT is having a bandwidth of 1Stm and you have opted for a higher plan which might not give you desired speeds even locally.

 

[Rickysin]

Before disconnecting my netplus ftth, i changed my plan from 50mbps to 150mbps and i was getting more than 160mbps speed both upload and download @anubhav11

even on international servers it was having full speed. The only issue was the random huge packet loss which was causing issue with surfing and streaming due to which I disconnected the connection as lco was not helping .

the real problem as per friend was the low voltage issue for few seconds and then getting back to normal which caused packet loss

 

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[Rickysin]

In your case it is surely the bandwidth issue in your area and number of users. As i was also using same ont

 

[anubhav11]

I think they don't have the bandwidth here for providing connections with more than 50-100Mbps speeds. And now i remember when the engineer asked for which plan to activate he was shocked to see me opting for 150 one. He was indirectly forcing me to choose between 50-100 uld plans but i didn't. And if it is the issue of bandwidth then he should have atleast informed before. Only after i complained he came and told me.

 

[vignesh_venkatesan]

If STM-1 is the available bandwidth then they're useless.
STM-1 is just 155Mbits dedicated bandwidth.My local bsnl exchange which only has ADSL connections get chocked on STM-1 backhaul.

 

[anubhav11]

Meaning that at a given time 155Mbps is the maximum bandwidth that it can carry?

 

[vignesh_venkatesan]

Yes..
STM-1 is transmission standard which can carry 155Mbits.
Supported levels are STM-4,STM-16,STM-64 on backbone.
Where STM-4 = 4x155Mbits.
STM-256 is generally used in submarine cabling.

 

[anubhav11]

so until now the thing saving them was that all the customers of my LCO (around 35 according to him) are not using their full bandwidth at any given time simultaneously. but when i got my connection the maximum bandwidth is reached and hence low speeds for me most of the time. Also even if minimum plan of 50 Mbps is to be taken for 30 customers so the total maximum bandwidth will be 1500Mbps at a given time which then due to limitation speeds will be reduced accordingly, but not all customers will ever be using full speeds as the same time, right?

 

[Realme]

"
but not all customers will ever be using full speeds as the same time, right?"

--Nope, it used to be that way but I am observing that people are becoming habitual users with well define usage times throughout the day, everybody streams days even children(age 6-9( use youtube to watch shitty cartoon and youtube will use anywhere between 2-10Mbps )) , mobile apps be it fb/insta/snapchat has tendency to sycn a lot of data (fb loads enough data that you can survive 6 hours without internet 😛)

So throughout the day I expect their bandwidth is quite saturated.(Even if avg joe uses 10mbps on 50 mbps plan it is still 300 mbps, so you get the picture)

 

[JB701]

Fortunately most of that traffic (Insta,Youtube,FB etc) is peered so its very cheap for the ISP and the OP is getting very good speeds to local servers which are likely peered as well. ISPs (especially smaller ones) tend to skimp on international bandwidth as most people other than nerds like us dont notice it and transit is much more expensive.

 

[Realme]

This is what I am scared of as LCO are moving away from TV stuff and flooding the internet market, availability of cheap peering at IX has made it feasible to jump into the market but thewy are being dishonest with consumers in a way they don't disclose or notify the customers of their overall capability which includes TRANSITS too, in the end even without net neutrality stuff we will end up defacing the net neutrality indirectly where good speed are offered for eye-ball providers which is sufficient for avg joe but behind the scene everything else is hacky.

They should have atleast 60% of their Peering bandwith in TRANSITS if the are new entrants.