Timbl Broadband Review

I recently shifted from excitel to Timbl broadband. Excitel in my area does not offer FTTH and their transit speed chokes during evening time (9 pm-12 am).

I am on a 50mbps FTTH Unlimited connection paying about Rs 700/month (inclusive of taxes). Static IP if you need is another 400/month. ONU Security was Rs. 500. Running my own router with Unifi Access Point.

It's been 6 days since I shifted has till now there has been no downtime. Initially, I had to contact the customer care to get the admin password of the ONU which was given to me within a day or two.
Another great point about Timbl is that they offer dynamic public IPs to every user. No port blocked, you can run whatever you want and with a dynamic DNS service, you basically have a static IP equivalent domain name.
Timbl uses google DNS by default.

Below are a few speedtest results to UK, US, Singapore, Ind using on speedtest. Upload struggles a bit but I won't be uploading much to US/UK. Tested on a 5Ghz wifi.

I will keep updating the thread with my findings.

 

[a.c]

They seem to be blocking outgoing ports 19-24.
Traceroute with TCP to port 19-24 stop at the 3rd/4th internal hop which is the gateway 10.30.30.1 and another router with internal IP in the 172.18 range
Realised it today when i was unable to ssh into my server. I was not able to access SFTP on my seedbox and thought it was the seedbox provider's fault but it's not.

I filled a ticket let's see what they say.

 

[a.c]

Update: It took a few days (about 3 days) but they fixed the problem. I only had to call them once on Monday, then after a few hours got a call back from someone in the tech team, who did not understand my problem and told me someone with higher authority will call back. Got a call back told them the problem, they understood (they knew that the ports were being blocked).
Got a call on Tuesday asking if it was fixed (it wasn't). I got a call today afternoon (still wasn't fixed). Got a call now about 8:30 pm asking if it was fixed and this time it was.

 

[a.c]

Everything was working well for the past 2 days. But from today morning I am facing packet loss from and after the airtel router to almost every other site. Only peered services are working fine. Registered a complaint lets see.

Mtr results

EDIT: Seems fine now. Got fixed few minutes after posting this.

On a side note in order to fix the above outgoing port issue mentioned in the above post they had to give me a public static IP. Idk why but not complaining since I got it for free.

 

[a.c]

I also forgot to mention they don't hijack the DNS also. For some reason, I can't update the first post.

 

[a.c]

After recent issues with airtel routing. Timbl shifted people to TATA. But I noticed a strange thing. The traceroute to c007.del002.ix.nflxvideo.net goes till nyc and then comes back to Delhi.

Tested this with a VPN with TATA backend but the result was the same. Can others check this and report back.

 

---

[a.c]

The internet was working fine in the first few weeks but not it has started chocking around the 7 pm-11 pm time. The speeds with a single connection even to airtel Delhi servers are about 4-5 mbps. Whereas if I use a VPN its all fine. Its really sad that even with FTTH they can't fix this.

I guess I will be changing back to excitel (non-fiber) for the next month cause the wiring is already there. Just need to recharge.

 

[JB701]

Is it related to the shift to TATA routing? I have noticed that (in the sample size of 6) that TATA routed ISP perform much worse at peak times. Not sure if this is just because TATA transit ISPs oversell or if TATA transit is more expensive compared to Airtel? Not sure

Here is single connection test to Airtel Delhi on Tripleplay:

 

[a.c]

Sadly nope, they shifted me back to airtel as transit in a few days. Right now I am getting the following result on airtel Delhi server (getting full speeds on Timbl servers with a single connection (but it is pretty much useless as all peered services are fine)).

Airtel Delhi server, single connection on a 50mbps plan

EDIT: If I face the same issue with excitel also (I guess it happens with almost all Indian ISPs) I will most probably invest in a pfsense DIY Box and use a home-wide VPN. Currently, everything is seamless with NordVPN (even single connection downloads to US servers max out at 50mbps).

 

[dagasaheb]

Does Timbl provide a public dynamic ip?
Also, achaudhary997, Can u confirm it is Rs 700/month tax included

 

[a.c]

Yup public dynamic IP and it is included in the monthly price which is close to 710 with taxes.

 

[dagasaheb]

What about the stability of connection?? Is the uptime good? Other than the speed choking, any other issues............ Torrents, Frequent disconnections, etc
Would you recommend Timbl broadband connection for someone in New delhi?

Would you say Timbl is better than Excitel?

 

[a.c]

Well, I can say for sure that customer support was way better than excitel. If the normal customer care peeps don't understand what the problem is just tell them to open a ticket with a message and once someone from the technical department calls you back just explain the problem to them.

Uptime is good I tried timbl for a month before going back to excitel and in that one month there was a downtime of about 2 hrs which was due to a fiber cut. Speed choking was there although once I disconnected they ensured me that it has been fixed (can't verify this claim).

Airtel VoWIFI does not work with timbl. I have already informed them about this and they told me they are working on a fix.

Torrent are not throttled. You can seed to private/public trackers. I tried a linux iso which was seeding at almost 4-5MB/s so no issues there. Torrent sites are blocked (as they use airtel for their upstream).

I would suggest you to try timbl for a month (I would advise you to never pay for multi-month plans for any ISP). It was a good experience for me.

If they fix the WiFi calling I would jump over to timbl ASAP. The speed choking issue is same with both excitel and timbl and every other Local ISP (mostly) so that doesn't matter.

 

[dagasaheb]

Thanks a lot @achaudhary997 for your genuine & detailed reply

I already have 2 broadband connections – Airtel & Excitel. While I love Airtel’s uptime stability, I hate the FUP. Quarterly or every 3-5 months, I need to take back-up of my work drives & the data consumption is anywhere between 5-15 TB. Last month, Excitel nearly gave me a heart attack. The very purpose for which I opted for Excitel was betrayed by Excitel itself or may be, the LCO. The stability is just not there. Although both connections are paid by my employer, Excitel is No value for money. Not at least for me.

Even when money is not an issue, I can’t seem to find a stable broadband in Delhi, particularly in my area. I’m definitely going to try Timbl now. Do they provide multi-month plans? ..... 50Mbps is the highest they offer......????

 

[a.c]

50 Mbps is the highest they offer. They do have multi-month plans where the price goes down even further.
Nothing will beat AIrtel's uptime in terms of home broadband connection.