It has been a month since I opted for Spectranet's 100mbps (no FUP) FTTH plan in Gurgaon, so I thought this will be a good time to write a review.
Registration and Installation
One word - smooth! The Spectranet guys had set up a counter at my apartment's lobby and I decided to take the connection. Their sales team was carrying the required forms and a handheld to take card payments. The entire process took 10 minutes. I did not have copies of any identification proof so was asked to scan/click a pic and mail it to them. Did that and one hour later got a call from their backend confirming receipt of the same.
I did this on a Saturday evening and the installation was fixed for Monday. Two guys came in first and did the wiring. Then two more guys who connected the wiring to the fibre. Finally another guy who brought along the modem and set up my account.
The total cost of the installation was ₹5,145 (including taxes) which includes an installation fee of ₹1,000 and a refundable security deposit of ₹4,000.
The modem provided is a 'Dasan Networks' H640GW model with no wi-fi connectivity option. I purchased a D-Link DIR-816 router and connected it to the modem.
User Experience and Service
In the past one month there has been only one downtime which started late in the evening. I received a message from Spectranet that their guys are working on it and that services should restore by morning without me having called to complain. And services did restore later in the night.
I must mention here that despite all the cuss words I throw at Airtel, I never faced a single downtime while using their ADSL services in the last one year. And in the last 6-7 years that I have been associated with them (in Delhi and Gurgaon) the combined downtime for all these years would not have been more than 2-3 days. But Airtel being airtel, they were swindling money out of people in our society. They never upgraded their network here and could only provide a maximum speed of 2 mbps. BSNL is another story for another day.
So far I have made one call to their customer service. The connection was prompt and the agent spoke coherently (which somehow agents of other ISPs barring Airtel can't seem to do).
The speeds on SpeedTest vary depending on the server and range from 70mbps-100mbps. Direct downloads using a download accelerator provide almost 100mbps speeds. Torrents do not appear to be throttled and a well seeded torrent easily touches 60-70mbps download speeds.
So what changed after I got a high speed internet connection
My data consumption. Might seem a no-brainer but over the past few years I had progressed from being a student and an active user at DT, What.Cd etc to a working guy with little time for anything besides basic media and reddit. Yet, my data consumption increased. Because now I was streaming everything in 1080p and 4K. I purchased a chromecast and have not connected my Den Digital STB in a month now. I don't think about buffering anymore, neither about purchasing smartbytes or struggling on post-FUP 512 kbps speeds. I have consumed more than 300 GB data in the month and there truly isn't any FUP. Not till now at least.
Monthly cost and other things
The monthly cost for the 100mbps (up and down) connection with no FUP is ₹1,199 (excluding taxes). My first three months are free as I was among the first few to apply for the connection in my society. I have placed my AirTel connection in safe custody and after trying Spectranet for a month more will get it disconencted for good.
They are available at very select locations in Gurgaon for the moment. If they are available at your location, migrate.
Here is a recent speedtest:
Speedtest.net by Ookla - My Results
Edit: How to login in to the supplied modem - Append ":8080" to the Default Gateway. So it was 192.168.1.100:8080 in my case. Default Username: admin, Default Password: vertex25
The modem is capable of being used as a router but the radio has been disabled and can not be re-enabled. Possibly because it is not capable of handling 100mbps speeds and Spectranet wants you to invest in a good router - which you should anyway. There is no option to update firmware either.
Registration and Installation
One word - smooth! The Spectranet guys had set up a counter at my apartment's lobby and I decided to take the connection. Their sales team was carrying the required forms and a handheld to take card payments. The entire process took 10 minutes. I did not have copies of any identification proof so was asked to scan/click a pic and mail it to them. Did that and one hour later got a call from their backend confirming receipt of the same.
I did this on a Saturday evening and the installation was fixed for Monday. Two guys came in first and did the wiring. Then two more guys who connected the wiring to the fibre. Finally another guy who brought along the modem and set up my account.
The total cost of the installation was ₹5,145 (including taxes) which includes an installation fee of ₹1,000 and a refundable security deposit of ₹4,000.
The modem provided is a 'Dasan Networks' H640GW model with no wi-fi connectivity option. I purchased a D-Link DIR-816 router and connected it to the modem.
User Experience and Service
In the past one month there has been only one downtime which started late in the evening. I received a message from Spectranet that their guys are working on it and that services should restore by morning without me having called to complain. And services did restore later in the night.
I must mention here that despite all the cuss words I throw at Airtel, I never faced a single downtime while using their ADSL services in the last one year. And in the last 6-7 years that I have been associated with them (in Delhi and Gurgaon) the combined downtime for all these years would not have been more than 2-3 days. But Airtel being airtel, they were swindling money out of people in our society. They never upgraded their network here and could only provide a maximum speed of 2 mbps. BSNL is another story for another day.
So far I have made one call to their customer service. The connection was prompt and the agent spoke coherently (which somehow agents of other ISPs barring Airtel can't seem to do).
The speeds on SpeedTest vary depending on the server and range from 70mbps-100mbps. Direct downloads using a download accelerator provide almost 100mbps speeds. Torrents do not appear to be throttled and a well seeded torrent easily touches 60-70mbps download speeds.
So what changed after I got a high speed internet connection
My data consumption. Might seem a no-brainer but over the past few years I had progressed from being a student and an active user at DT, What.Cd etc to a working guy with little time for anything besides basic media and reddit. Yet, my data consumption increased. Because now I was streaming everything in 1080p and 4K. I purchased a chromecast and have not connected my Den Digital STB in a month now. I don't think about buffering anymore, neither about purchasing smartbytes or struggling on post-FUP 512 kbps speeds. I have consumed more than 300 GB data in the month and there truly isn't any FUP. Not till now at least.
Monthly cost and other things
The monthly cost for the 100mbps (up and down) connection with no FUP is ₹1,199 (excluding taxes). My first three months are free as I was among the first few to apply for the connection in my society. I have placed my AirTel connection in safe custody and after trying Spectranet for a month more will get it disconencted for good.
They are available at very select locations in Gurgaon for the moment. If they are available at your location, migrate.
Here is a recent speedtest:
Speedtest.net by Ookla - My Results
Edit: How to login in to the supplied modem - Append ":8080" to the Default Gateway. So it was 192.168.1.100:8080 in my case. Default Username: admin, Default Password: vertex25
The modem is capable of being used as a router but the radio has been disabled and can not be re-enabled. Possibly because it is not capable of handling 100mbps speeds and Spectranet wants you to invest in a good router - which you should anyway. There is no option to update firmware either.
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