All my life I was a humble follower of the dial up internet service which was provided by our govt affiliated firms…never in my school and college life did I feel the need for speed…A download rate of 3.5-4KBps was enough for me….This internet access I carried forward into my office life also where I got 1st hand exposure to the fast pace evolution of broadband…..Ah! the speed, the quick downloads, no more click-and-get-a-coffee-till-site-opens funda! I finally had a desire….a desire to promote my home internet use from dial up to broadband…
So my search began, I found that we had a variety of ways to get an efficient and affordable broadband connection. My searches were very intense and took around a month to zero down to the more reliable ISPs in the market….While my research was going on, I found a new ray of home….I came to know that there is a ISP in UK who provides broadband at home in 5 working days with installation completing in 3 days itself!!! My hope was magnified…I made plans….Since this is India and we are 3 times slower than other developed nation, I assumed that once ordered, broadband would be gracing my desktop in max 15 days!!!
I called up a number of ISPs for enquiring the amount of time it would take to get me on the information superhighway at a speed of a harley! But the fun was about to begin…
Each ISP wanted to do a “feasibility study” about providing me with a broadband connection…..I provided them with all the details that could help them in this RnD they wanted to do…The address was explained in such detail that that even a blind man would have been able to turn up at my house without any help..The address details had everything, right from BEST stop to the local paan wala and banana seller (including physical description)
However, the fun was about to start….each and every ISP person told me that the “in-depth” feasibility study would take atleast 15-21 days to complete and provided me with a reference number on which I had to call back on after some days!
I saw my dreams crash as my old Pentium 1 did…in a puff of smoke….My assumptions were thrown out an English window!!! I was dishearten….and I searched even more for getting the best and quickest internet connection…
Anyways, all ISPs took their own sweet time and the results of the feasibility were finally out….after a month for all….I failed the test miserably…My house seem to reside in an alien location…something like Area 51! No one knew where I resided…and if they did manage to trace the presence of my locality, they didn’t have the means to provide me with a broadband connection…I was depressed again…but then I saw an ad in the paper which gave me hope….”Briband” yes that’s what I want to have!!! Oh my god, why didn’t I think about this before!! It was always right in front of my eyes and I never noticed!!
“HELLO” Someone screamed into the phone…
”I am interested in Briband for my house”…
”Yes Yes, everyone is” came a crisp and delightful (NOT) reply…”Exchange ka naam toh bolo” (tell me exchange name)…
”Andheri”…
”Kaunse number be chahiyeeeeeee”(which number do you want it?”…
”123445678”…
”thik hai, time lagega, 2 mahine baad phone karma tab pata chalega ki kitna time lagega!” (Call after 2 months to know the amount of time taken)…and before I could respond, the phone came down at a speed which would have put Neo to shame….
2 months went by…I called again…
”hello kya chahiye” (what do you want)…Felt as if I called some second hand shop vendor…
”I had requested for broadband 2 months from andheri exchange” ….
”hahahahahahaha, aare yahape log 6 months se wait kar rahe hai..unka number nahi
laga..aapka toh time hai” (ppl are waiting here for 6 months, ur still in line)…CLUNK!
The phone came down but this time from me!! I cursed the location where I was residing….Then I took the decision which I didn’t want to…
Cable operator is the best…”broadband” connection in 2 hours at a cost very small service time and outages at the time when most unwanted!! And guess what….8.5 months have gone and I still call up “Briband” with a hope….”Mera Number kab aayega”!!!
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