Monday, July 30, 2007

Surfing on a WiMAX Connection

Ah.... Finally I have a 1Mbps WiMAX broadband internet connection at home. Dialog Broadband installed the connection within few days after applying for the same. Installation was a pain due to multiple reasons and took almost a full day. Reasons been:

1. The WiMAX antenna requires a direct line of sight with a base station for proper communication and that can be a difficult task depending on where you live in Colombo. (With all the tall buildings and what not)

2. The installation crew was a bit inexperienced and thats sort of understandable given the service is not even officially launched yet.

Once the hard part was over (installation of the antenna and testing the link with base station) it was as easy as setting up a dialup connection. Dialog provides with you with a username and a password and all you have to do is create an internet connection on your computer using the username /password details.

I opted for the 1Mbps package which is called 'Speed' and from what I have seen during the last couple of days usage, it really gives you download speeds of 1Mbps (128 kilobytes per second) consistently.

I hope dialog will maintain the high level of service as more and more subscribers get onboard since as with ADSL, WiMAX is a shared technology and bandwidth can deteriorate with more subscribers. Good thing about the technology is it is capable of delivering lot more bandwidth than 1Mbps and Dialog already has a package with 4 Mbps down link.

Overall it's really good (No disruptions and blazing fast, compared with other internet options in Sri Lanka) and well worth the additional 2000 bucks you pay over what you would have paid for a crappy ADSL connection from SLT :).

8 comments:

nirudha said...

You manage to get 128 KBps throughout? That's good! I get 55 KBps maximum on my 2 mbps package. I sent a complaint so perhaps they'll do something about it.

Anonymous said...

Yes I had a similar problem all through out last week. First the connection speed went down to about 40 KBps and I called the customer support. They told me the whole story about connection been shared and the speed going down on peak times etc... so i decided to give it another couple of days and then it went down to less than 20KBps . I called up the support line again and then they admitted they were having a problem in the Colombo area and told me they would fix it within a couple of days. I don't know they fixed the issue or not but I'm getting around 120 KBps from last Sunday and all seems to be back to normal.

nirudha said...

Any more speed problems for you? I am still getting worse speeds on my 2mbps link than what you mention.

I've actually asked them to drop me to the 1mbps connection via email just to see if that improves things. Also I just found out a friend of mine has got a connection close by so I'll try and do some tests over the weekend from there.

Anonymous said...

I'm not having any problems now and consistently get around 120 KBps. I downloaded some anti virus programs last night and download rate never dropped below 110 KBps. The fact is 55 KBps (440 kbps) is really crappy on a 2 Mbps link and you might have better luck solving the issue by calling customer care line than sending emails :)

nirudha said...

Dude, I definitely called them (more than once) before I emailed and even considered writing a letter or fax. At each point I was told there was nothing wrong with my connection and that is what I should expect.

But today I got a call from their techs and we agreed to do some tests after I got home from work. I can very happily state that now the link is back to normal whith link speeds not seeming to hit an "invisible" barrier at <55KBps.

They said nothing has changed though they got 2 more complaints. Not sure about that but I am happy at the moment!

nouhad said...

I'm a bit confused.. I'm on the ADSL 'Office' connection (2mb down and 512kb up quoted) and i get maximum of 210kb/s download rates.. how much is it on the 1mb line? Isn't it more cheaper if you get the ADSL Office one ?

Anonymous said...

nouhad,

The quoted speeds are in mega bits per second so on a 2 Mbps line getting 210 kilobytes / second download rate is fine. I get about 120 kilobytes on my 1 Mbps line.

On the other hand if you are getting 210 kilobits / second then there is something seriously wrong with your connection and I doubt that is the case.

As for the cost, ADSL office connection rental is 6750/= per month. On dialog the 2 Mbps is 4900/= if you pay the connection fee of 15000/= else it's 5500/= per month.

Anonymous said...

well.. i've been using the 2Mbps line for around 6 months now after upgrading from the ridiculous 512kbps one.. its been working perfect for me.. i always get download rates of 250KBps.. except for the day time, when it hits around 50KBps.. had a fair share of issues such as dropping lines, etc.. but the techs came over and replaced their line cos the signal was weak.. its all running fine for me now.. slt really needs to reduce their tarrif on the adsl lines though! wonder how wimax will stack up after more users get on board..