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.

 

[Sammy]

Actually kinda stable now but KV is unpredictable as always. Spoke to CS and they said that a big part of their maintenance is done and that plans with higher speeds can be expected by the end of the year which I'm a little skeptical of but I'm stuck with them because they're the only provider in my area other than Asianets coax based network and Jio.

Just hoping that Asianet will roll out their gigafiber service in my area soon. Heard really good things

 

[varkey]

@Sammy I see. Which city/area? I mean based on my experience with KV, I'd say Jio is better than KV. Worth a try I suppose, you can recharge whenever you want too, would work as a backup.

Rs 1500 out of the Rs 2500 initial charge is refundable as well.

 

[philip]

Actually kinda stable now but KV is unpredictable as always. Spoke to CS and they said that a big part of their maintenance is done and that plans with higher speeds can be expected by the end of the year which I'm a little skeptical of but I'm stuck with them because they're the only provider in my area other than Asianets coax based network and Jio.

Just hoping that Asianet will roll out their gigafiber service in my area soon. Heard really good things

Yeah asianet is good pretty much their fiber service u will get 100mbps for 749 rs starting.routing and all better than bsnl.

 

[philip]

Am I the only person who suffers from slow international speeds with bsnl, because with bsnl only Netflix, primevideo,google etc works with full speeds . For instance I tried to stream a video from an application and its taking a hell lot of time for streaming ,buffering buffering and only buffering, then I thought it will be the application issue and i switched to airtel 4g and the instant it starts playing with no buffering and also the signal strength of airtel is not good even then I was able to stream without any buffering, but with bsnl I am fed up now.

 

[varkey]

I'm getting decent speeds on international speed tests. On which apps are you facing issues, maybe I can test the same? However, for my use cases, it seems to work okay. Office VPN works alright now.

 

[philip]

@varkey actually I do a lot.of streaming from the apps like cinema HD,which hosts lots of series with the servers across the world. From that app is the main one which I am facing the issue, be it buffering or slow downloads. I confirmed it by doing speedtests to locations like Singapore London etc and the speeds don't go above 10 mbps most of the times

 

[varkey]

I see. Is that a free app? Tests from Singapore London seem alright to me.

 

[philip]

@varkey Yeah it's a free one with ads , u can stream or download as much as u want from it.. what I feel suprising is that my backup airtel 4g connection has better connectivity and latencies than this bsnl ftth even with low signals . I mean even primevideo launches much faster on airtel 4g , but alas I cannot stream as I dont have much data left .so I guess then I am the only one with slow speeds except for @coolguyy666 .

 

[Sammy]

@varkey Based in Thrissur town itself. Jio seems a bit sketchy atm because the highest plan the guy said he offers here is 250mbps, the censorship issues and latency issues also irk me but the main thing is that I have to pay a little over the top since my house is 140m away from their node and they only give connections upto 100m away from it. It's just not out in full effect yet. Railwire is a good option but weirdly enough the LCO that provides my KV internet doesn't offer it anymore and the other LCO in my area only offers it upto the street behind my house so I'm in some sort of dead zone. Theres an asianet office near my office and they told me that fiber should be rolling out in my area in ~3 months. So I just have to wait it out for now.

 

[philip]

@Sammy u should wait for it because currently in kerala asianet has the best fiber plans available. Their plans starts with minimum 100mbps speeds .Customer care is good ,and the best thing is u can contact them by mail for any issues. I was their cable broadband customer for 5 years.