Seeking Help Should I move to Railwire?

[Prithi Deb]

I am currently using MNet and it's been pretty reliable with rare downtimes. But the major issue is that they don't provide the promised speeds and the plans are on the expensive side. I used to recharge with 75mbps plan of ₹1003 per month and I used to get only 25-30mbps. Now I have recharged with 150mbps plan of ₹1593. But I got around 60-70mbps for initial few days and now it's back to same 25-30mbps. I contacted their customer support and they said that I need to get a better router to get better speed and to get that I need to pay ₹3,000. Our current router is TP-Link Archer C20, and it's supposed to support upto 750mbps. So I don't think it's an issue with the router.

The only other option available in our area is Railwire. While taking the MNet connection, they were charging ₹5000 for new connection and the plans were priced even higher than MNet. So we opted for MNet. But now I have come to know that they finally have the SATRANG plans available now. And I will only have to pay ₹1000 for a new connection (If I manage to keep the router given by MNet).

So, what should I do? Are there any problems with Railwire. I keep of reading about some blacklisted websites and Captcha problem. Also, we don't have Jio Fiber or Airtel Xstreme here. I tried contacting them, they said there's no ETA regarding when (or IF) it'll be available in our area. So my only option left is Railwire.

 

[Optimus_Prime]

Rail-wire option is very good and its actual behaviour whether its good or bad , completely depend on how your LCO manage it. So take review from your neighbouring user .

 

[Prithi Deb]

Rail-wire option is very good and its actual behaviour whether its good or bad , completely depend on how your LCO manage it. So take review from your neighbouring user .

The LCO guy is known to us. That's how I came to know about the availability of SATRANG plans. Will ask our neighbours about it.

 

[Bapun]

As @Optimus_Prime bro said, Railwire BB services depend on the LCO.

When I was using it, most of the time I used to get the promised speed - if speed is the primary concern.

However, I used to face some issues that were never solved until I shifted to JioFiber.

1. Multiple disconnections used to happen for a small period of time (the disconnection would last for 5-10 mins max.) almost every day.
2. Every time I visited some site, (e.g. Google Search) I used to get captchas everywhere due to blacklisted IPs assigned by Railwire. It was irritating to solve the captcha or click on the checkmark every day.
3. The latency/ping was not great.

Point #1 might be an area-specific issue due to LCO mismanagement. However, points #2 & #3 are an issue everywhere as I have read the same experience from other Railwire users.

 

[mmadhankumar]

I have installed railwire recently in my house and have a pretty much good impression until now.

Here is a fresh speed test of my 50mbps plan..

1. Multiple disconnections used to happen for a small period of time (the disconnection would last for 5-10 mins max.) almost every day.
2. Every time I visited some site, (e.g. Google Search) I used to get captchas everywhere due to blacklisted IPs assigned by Railwire. It was irritating to solve the captcha or click on the checkmark every day.
3. The latency/ping was not great.

All 3 points are true and i have heard such issues from users in the past. But i haven't faced any of these issues so far. Maybe 1 depends on the Location and LCO.. and the other 2 has been improved by railwire itself..

 

[Sparker0i]

the other 2 has been improved by railwire itself

Not sure about point 3, but my neighbours back home still face issue with point 2... Definitely not improved on that front..

 

[Siva]

Archer C20 does seem to have speed issues. Which band are you using? Did you try a different router, perhaps A6 or C6?

 

[Prithi Deb]

Archer C20 does seem to have speed issues. Which band are you using?

5GHz

Did you try a different router, perhaps A6 or C6?

No.
There's no guarantee that the speed will increase after I change the router. So I didn't buy another one. I was pretty sure that the ISP themselves were throttling the speed. Since my friend was also getting low speeds despite having a superior router.

Even if C20 has lower speeds, it should atleast be able to provide 75mbps. Right?

 

[Siva]

Even if C20 has lower speeds, it should atleast be able to provide 75mbps. Right?

It's port is throttled at 100 Mbps. That would be the maximum combined speed. If you are using 5 Ghz band on a single device, yes you should get up to 100 Mbps.

 

[mmadhankumar]

@Prithi Deb bro the speed depends on the bandwidth of the service provider.. if you go with a Tier-I provider who use their own bandwidth there won't be any speed issues. But if we are using a Tier-II provider which leases the bandwidth from any Tier-I provider then you will certainly have speed issues. For instance, in my area TIC fiber from TACTV is available but they lease the bandwidth from Airtel and my LCO says i will get 20-30mbps speed only in 50mbps plans because of the shared bandwidth.

I expect many would differ from my opinion but you can also try BSNL too, if available in your area. I have BSNL fiber at my shop with 60mbps connection and i constantly get around 75+ mbps. Usually in remote areas BSNL do well than many private operators. Only concern would be their support staff. If the connection is provided through LCO then it won't be an issue.