India is one of the fastest developing countries in the world. After the advent of Jio’s game-changing launch, millions of more people have access to the internet today. In addition to cellular internet, broadband internet has also become a crucial part of many more homes recently.
As a result, many broadband internet service providers have come forward to cater to the growing demand. But while competition makes grounds for better services, it also increases confusion, especially for people who are new to the concept of broadband ISPs. If you’re someone who wants to install a broadband ISP in their home, keep reading for the steps to find a good ISP and a list of top 3 providers in India.
Factors to Consider while Choosing a Broadband ISP
1. Use Case
For this factor, ask yourself the reason you want the internet in the first place. There are four broad reasons why you might be considering a broadband ISP: light usage, heavy usage, working from home, and student use. Light use encompasses those users who simply use the internet to browse social media, keep up-to-date with news and scores, check Kerala lottery results online, or video call family and friends from time to time.
Heavy use is considered when the user plays online games or streams videos and movies online. Heavy use also covers people who want to provide internet to their workplace or have several family members on the same network. On the other hand, people who occasionally work from home are classified under, well, work from home. Finally, student use packages are geared toward students.
Light users should get a low usage package while heavy users should go for unlimited data packages. People who work from home can subscribe to a home broadband package while student packages have convenient contract periods that fit around term times rather than the fixed 12 or 18 months.
2. Connection Type
There are several connection types for broadband internet available in India. You could go for ADSL broadband that uses the landline infrastructure or the more common fibre broadband. ADSL broadband has two options, ADSL1 and ADSL2; the latter is the faster of the two. Fibre broadband also has two options, FTTC and FTTP where the latter is faster but more expensive.
3. Broadband Speed
Almost everyone tends to make wrong estimates when it comes to their required data speed; half overestimate and the other half underestimate. Here’s a fact: The minimum recommended broadband speed for Netflix is just 1.5 Mbps.
So if you’re just going to browse the internet, send emails, occasionally upload photos, check the statuses of your friends, or even watch web shows on Netflix, you don’t need a high internet speed. However, if multiple people are using the internet or if you intend to download movies and play games a lot, then you should opt for high-speed broadband internet.
4. Data Limit
The data limit on your broadband plan strictly depends on your usage. Start off your plan with a rough estimate of how much data you’ll need based on what your use case is. After one month, you could adjust your data limits and choose a data plan from the broadband ISP that suits you the most.
5. Contract Length
More often than not, broadband ISPs have contract lengths between 12 and 24 months. Moreover, you may have to pay hefty fees if you want to exit early. So pick an ISP that has flexible contract lengths and doesn’t incur unnecessary fees.
Best Broadband ISPs in India
As of now, there are over 15 ISPs in India. There’s strong competition between most of them in terms of technology, coverage, and pricing. So here are three of the best ones that you can shortlist from.
- Hathway
Hathway is one of the most well-known private-owned broadband internet providers in India. Owned by Reliance Industries Private Limited, it operates in over 13 cities in India. It delivers a rather low maximum network speed of 50 Mbps and offers plans starting from ₹800 per month.
- Airtel
Airtel is easily the most well-known telecom giant in the country. Apart from the telecom services, it also offers FTTH broadband connection to many cities in India. The ISP offers internet for 1-month, 6-month, and 12-month contract periods, each divided into five tiers starting from ₹499 all the way to ₹1999.
- ACT Fibernet
ACT Fibernet or Atria Convergence Technologies Pvt Ltd is garnering a huge userbase in South India. Available in 17 cities, it’s the biggest non-telecom internet-service provider in India. It provides internet a wide range of options starting from 100GB at 15 Mbps.
