Kerala Vision Broadband FTTH - User Experience

Now that I am evaluating Kerala Vision broadband, thought I would create a thread to share my experience. My LCO provides broadband services from BSNL and Kerala Vision, so thought would be good to evaluate Kerala Vision as well.

Getting the account setup was pretty easy, cause there was no need for additional cabling or ONT etc. I shared a photo and ID/address proof doc to the LCO, and the same day evening he setup my account and shared the credentials. The LCO shares the same OLT for all services, so on my end, I just needed to configure my OpenWRT device appropriately.

Initially I didn't get the Kerala Vision VLAN, so I had to reach out to the LCO's tech guy who shared the id. I added the VLAN to the switch (my ONT is a transparent bridge, so I needed no change on the ONT) which created an interface and all I needed to do was add the necessary interface configuration with the PPPoE credentials.

As you can see, they use CG-NAT which is disappointing but other than BSNL and few others nobody else gives public IP addresses. Also I liked the fact that things just worked on first try (the above screenshot is from my first try to connect)

Will add more details as I explore more.

 

[Thanos]

View attachment 1109
why the IP classified as "Unknown" ? At times a dynamic IP range starts with 43. has got good performance though...

Maybe a bug or timeout resolving IP whois. I can see it belongs to Harisree cables announced by Kerala Vision from my end.

 

[varkey]

This month KV has some issues. But from today onwards Keralavision back to full speed @varkey Please test your KV again

That is great. Does Kerala Vision still allow online renewals for you?

For me, clicking the recharge now link just refreshes the page. Is it the same for you?

 

[vu3knb]

@varkey , For me , online recharge is enabled. I just checked. It was not enabled very first time , then called their helpdesk to enable that.

 

[varkey]

@vu3knb Just called Kerala Vision helpline and they said online recharge need to be enabled by the operator and not KV.

 

[vu3knb]

@varkey , needless to say , their helpdesk guys are really hopeless. For me , they helped to enable it.

Just before the lockdown period start , I was on 30 Mbps plan and the expiry date was after 10 days. Since my office was insisting WFH , I decided to upgrade the plan to 60 Mbps and paid online. That upgraded plan will come as Future plan and won';t get activate immediately. I called their helpdesk to activate the future plan as current one , but they asked me to contact LCO. As usual my LCO guy ( the same adamant guy , who still not giving me the BSNL FTTH) told he don't know how to do that.

I called the helpdesk again and raised a bit. They told , they will in touch my LCO and get back to me. After few hours , new plan came into force.

After few days I met with the LCO guy , he told that the plan change was executed by the helpdesk itself , not by him.

I am not getting a clue , why the helpdesk ask to contact with LCO for such small things ? I would say KV is really pathetic team to deal with. Earlier I had DWAN Internet , their customer care was far far better than these guys.

 

[varkey]

Yeah, not sure why they can't do it from the helpdesk. I will give a call after some time and maybe get another agent who might be able to help.

 

[arunkadambanattu]

@varkey ..You need to call KV customer care to activate the online recharge feature. That is available on my account page

That is great. Does Kerala Vision still allow online renewals for you?

View attachment 1112

For me, clicking the recharge now link just refreshes the page. Is it the same for you?

 

[varkey]

I opened a support ticket as well using the myaccount portal, they closed the ticket saying contact cable operator. However I think it was handled by the same lady who answered my call from earlier.

 

[Sammy]

I'm currently subscribed to Kerala Vision and there are a bunch of things that annoy me:

• CG NAT
• Consistent packet loss during day time. Pretty much only usable at night for gaming when network isn't congested
• Terrible ping at most times
• Consistent dropouts throughout the day where network just DC's for a minute or 2 every 30-90 mins

Jio started offering their services in my town recently but I've just been seeing terrible things about their services so I'm staying away from that, although my neighbors who were on the welcome plan have been saying its alright. Been considering switching to RailWire's 200mbps plan for 1949 with 2TB FUP since I watch a lot of 4k content and have a big family. Been reading bout it on reddit and this forum, seems like if I request a gaming IP from their CS most problems will be alleviated. Just wanted to know about the ping to international servers since I like to play on other servers for some games, routing for international services like twitch and their dropout rates/outages if any.

 

[varkey]

@Sammy Yep, I see the same issues. The packet loss is crazy, during the day I see at times 25-50% packet loss at times for a continuous ping. You could try BSNL, it's relatively much better.