Asianet Dataline Cable Internet -Product Review

Review by: Govind Dutt

I am a cable internet user from Trivandrum in Kerala.

Asianet Dataline is the cable internet service made available by Asianet Satellite Communications, a big player in the Cable TV business with proprietary channels which are aired in many countries.

When this group made announcements about cable internet services way back in 1993, I was a middle school student not into the technical field at all. I hadn’t used the Internet before and was new to this.

But in reality, their cable internet service was rolled out only in mid 2000 :D

At first, the speeds were around 2 Mbit/s. Everyone was thrilled and people took the connection in large numbers. But now the speeds are capped at 64Kbit/s for home users.

Here are the connection details.

Asianet offers a tarrif plan called Homenet for home./residential users.
It has 64Kbit speeds, unlimited download , at Rs 900 /month.
There is also a plan called Nightbird for users who want to use internet only from 10PM to 8AM.

Nightbird users get full time internet only on Sundays and national holidays.
The cost of the cable modem came to about 5000 Rs and I had to initially pay 3 months of rent as post dated cheques. The installation charges came to around 800 Rs.

Asianet also offers cable modem rental @ Rs 1000 /year which is a good offer for students who stay in hostels.

Home users also get a POP3 mail account with 5 MB of space and SPAM filtering. This ISP also has many web hosting options.

After having used this service for 1 year, I must say that this ISP, being a monopoly, has not fleeced its users by setting download limits (like say 500 MB/ month) and charging extra for extra data transfer. I never expected Asianet to be this kind to its users especially when bigger players like Dishnet DSL have download caps.

Asianet’s customer service is also pretty good for lay users like me. But for technically
inclined questions, the service personnel are lacking and cannot give proper replies.
Even after calling them at times like 2 AM in the morning, I have gotten quick response from the support team.

Down time was pretty high when the service started out, but now the connection goes down only once a month or so for about half an hour max. This ISP mails all its users about any preplanned downtime for any maintenance activity, instead of flooding inboxes with offers the users never even care about :)

Download speeds are good, but one gets dissatisfied with only 64kbits speed after long time of usage.. (human nature :D ). Unlimited download for 900/month is a big bonus. I can easily download around 10 GB/ month without any fear getting billed extra.

Even though ADL( Asianet Dataline) has around 4000 users, speeds during peak hours are good enough for casual surfing.

One disadvantage of this ISP is that they are reluctant to increase the speed from the current 64Kbit even though they have the bandwidth to give users increased speed during off peak hours. Also the internal network is not uncapped (technical term), which means asianet users cannot transfer files between them at speeds higher than 64Kbits. There are better plans offering more speeds(Gold Connection/Corporate Connections), but they are very expensive for the home user.

Now that competition is here in form of BSNL DIAS and Zeenext Cable Internet, ADL subscribers can rejoice when our dear ISP gears up to face the competition. :)

With this I conclude my review.

Thank you 

Pros	:	Good speed, good support, UNLIMITED DOWNLOADS
Cons	:	No Internal Uncapped network. Reluctant to add features/improve speed
Purchase Price (INR)	:	5000/- for modem + 900/month
Speed of ISP connection	:	Average - Ok for normal surfing
Connection Reliability	:	Excellent - Always connects first time
Service and Support	:	Better than expected help

Courtesy: www.mouthshut.com

Caution: The material here is for the personal use and not for any commercial purpose.