BSNL broadband is now 64kbps!

Since yesterday morning, BSNL broadband seems to be experiencing some technical failure. A large number of BSNL broadband users are now experiencing poor speeds of only 64kbps on average, instead of 256kbps. The connected bandwidth is 256, but if the speed received is checked by downloading some file or using some online speed test, it is evident that the received bandwidth is only 64kbps or less. Rarely the speed varies between 64 and 128kbps, but not going anywhere near 256kbps.

A screenshot of a speed test taken from www.speakeasy.net on Dec 29, 2006 15:20 +0530 is posted below. You can notice the download speed is only 46kbps instead of the usual 250-270kbps values.

BSNL has announced an increase in its broadband speed from 256kbps to 2mbps this January 1st onwards, after having declared 2007 as the broadband year. Perhaps the reduced speed is due to technical upgrades or tests being conducted now, or is caused by a congesion in the network due to the damaged international submarine cables that transported the internet data across Asia. If latter the case, BSNL may have difficulty in providing 2mbps speed according to its plans.

Related articles can be read here:

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It seems that BSNL is still unaware of the situation and haven't confirmed anything like it yet. The news flash column on the home page of BSNL's site, www.bsnl.co.in, still mentions about the pre-paid tariffs and online payment discounts. Wondering if that column ever displays useful and important news.

Well, its not quite a thing to wonder about for a company that performs beta testing on the live server with a million users online. The DataOne account administration site promotes today the use of Microsoft Windows operating system, Internet Explorer browser and Chinese language packs by insisting the use of it! The site also seems to offer a lot of un-necessary and meaningless menu items and speed tests, which of course doesn't work at all!

Screenshot below shows the present day page of DataOne Account Administration site (http://10.240.16.195/webLogin.jsp), with two 'undocumented' offers, sachin and testcat01 respectively ;)