Hathway Kolkata
- Thread starter bhojv74
- Start date
- Replies 23
- Views 19,547
UPDATE 17/1/2017: Just renewed my subscription for a further 3 months after using for 6 months. Up-times still at 100%. Packet losses have reduced, pings have gotten better as well, though not by much. Speeds continue to remain as promised. 
UPDATE 30/12/2016: Experienced the first downtime after using the service extensively for over five months. Turns out they upgraded their system and made a server-side change that required a re-configuration of my router. A quick chat with the call-center earlier today was all that was needed, and everything's back to normal.
However, they should have informed customers about the impending change beforehand and send emails to us detailing the changes that needed to be made to the router config. Annoying, but forgiven.
UPDATE 25/8/2016: Having used the connection for five weeks, my observations remain the same. Speeds exactly as promised, 100% uptime, but packet loss is annoying, though.
UPDATE 10/8/2016: Now that I've used the connection for almost a month, I can say that most my review below still holds true, but packet loss is a bit of an issue. However, it's something that you just have to overlook if you want a half-decent broadband connection without having to sell your kidney in our God forsaken country. /
Earlier ****************
TL;DR - Speeds are as advertised, 100% uptime after 10 days. The router range is alright but not great. The usage-checking site works and is fairly accurate for the most part. Overall, so far so good. Read the details if you're looking to switch from Alliance, Wishnet, Airtel, BSNL, Tikona or any other ISP for that matter. Speeds are definitely better than any other ISP in the city at any given price-point, but since I've just subscribed, I can't really vouch for reliability just as yet.
My experience with Hathway Broadband - I was looking for reviews of Hathway Broadband in Kolkata and stumbled onto this thread here. I'm in Salt Lake (Sector 1) and was a longtime BSNL subscriber. My plan was 'BBG FN 630' - a 2 Mbps connection with 2.5 GB daytime usage and unlimited nighttime usage. I was largely happy with the speeds (Between 1.5-2.5 Mbps depending on the time of day) and problems with connectivity were few and far between. Shockingly for a public sector company, even service wasn't half bad even though the guys still carried around that annoying sarkari Babu attitude.
Unfortunately, BSNL got rid of the 'Night Unlimited' bit in mid-2014 without any intimation and sent me a Rs. 7,000 bill (WTF!). That was sadly the end of our almost 40-year old BSNL phone line that was originally subscribed to by my late grandfather long before I was born.
Since then, I got myself an online job, and obviously, 2.5 GB during daytime wouldn't have been enough for that anyways. I was making do with BSNL 3G which has a 5-day 1GB pack for Rs. 78 and that suited me just fine. The only annoyance was the regular recharge. Again, speeds were generally pretty good (always around 2-4 Mbps depending on the time of day) and uptime even better, but about three weeks ago, the tower near our house started malfunctioning and it's yet to be repaired! (WTF BSNL!) So there's no signal in our block even though City Center, PNB More, Karunamoyee and everywhere around Salt Lake, the signal continues to remain strong as ever.
I needed a new connection if I were to keep my job, and saw a leaflet advertizing Hathway Broadband pasted on an electricity distribution box near our local market. So I called up the number on that leaflet that evening itself (July 14th). The guy at the other end of the line was a Hathway agent and he came as promised the next morning (Friday, 15th). I signed the KYC (Know Your Customer) form and paid him three-months' advance for free modem, router and installation. My plan's the cheapest one available in the city AFAIK - 10Mbps for 20 GB and then unlimited thereafter at 1Mbps. The connection will cost me Rs. 650 per month (plus taxes). In total, I paid Rs. 2243 (Rs. 1950 for 3-months plus taxes) and he duly gave me a receipt and promised installation within a couple of days.
The next evening (Saturday, 16th), the linemen brought in the fiber optic and promised next day delivery, but stuttered when I asked if their men would work on a Sunday. I realized I'll have to wait till Monday, though that wasn't an issue as Sundays are holidays for me. The guy who came to install on Monday evening (July 18th) was a bit of a dummy, although he was very courteous and sincere about his job. They had a little problem with a 'cable cut' somewhere, so he left after waiting for about an hour for the line to be back up. Once the link was back up, I did my own configuration using the username and password provided by the installation guy, but no sooner had I started surfing the net on my new connection than he came back to complete his unfinished business. +1 for customer service.
As for the tech specs, the cable is an optic fiber that comes right onto your desk (FTTH) and the connection is through an RJ45 (ethernet) connector. The modem is a ZTE GPON ONT (Model: ZXHN F601) and the router is a D-Link N300 (Model: DIR 615) that costs Rs. 1,349 on Amazon. Download speeds are almost always in the 8-10 Mbps range, but upload speeds are way below 1 Mbps (WTF Hathway)! Also, ping times are higher than I'd like 'em to be. There’s also a dedicated site to check usage (Hathway > Broadband > Log In > Check Usage), and from my experience, it is fairly accurate, although, it takes a long time to update unlike BSNL. You'll have to wait for hours for your usage to show up on the site. Overall, though, I'll have to say so far so good, but the real test will come if and when there's a downtime. How quickly they react to it and how good their customer service is remains to be seen.
BTW, torrent files are blocked. You'll get a 'Torrent is not valid bencoding' message in utorrent and other clients. Magnet links work fine and from my experience downloading the two Mockingjay films (Hunger Games series), peering will be at full speeds, so no issue there. However, isn't it against net neutrality norms to block any single protocol selectively?
Finally, Pirate Bay and a whole host of other alleged piracy sites are blocked. Fortunately, though, its apparently just a DNS block that you can easily bypass by configuring Open DNS or Google DNS. It's Open DNS for me in case you're wondering hehe.
Disclosure - I'm not a Hathway employee nor do I have any relation with anybody from the company in any way, shape or form. I'm just a regular customer who's (thus far) happy with the company's service. I'm also a longtime (generally satisfied) Hathway Digital Cable TV customer and subscribe to the top-tier SD pack available in Kolkata. Costs me Rs. 384 per month including taxes.
UPDATE 30/12/2016: Experienced the first downtime after using the service extensively for over five months. Turns out they upgraded their system and made a server-side change that required a re-configuration of my router. A quick chat with the call-center earlier today was all that was needed, and everything's back to normal.
However, they should have informed customers about the impending change beforehand and send emails to us detailing the changes that needed to be made to the router config. Annoying, but forgiven.
UPDATE 25/8/2016: Having used the connection for five weeks, my observations remain the same. Speeds exactly as promised, 100% uptime, but packet loss is annoying, though.
UPDATE 10/8/2016: Now that I've used the connection for almost a month, I can say that most my review below still holds true, but packet loss is a bit of an issue. However, it's something that you just have to overlook if you want a half-decent broadband connection without having to sell your kidney in our God forsaken country. /
Earlier ****************
TL;DR - Speeds are as advertised, 100% uptime after 10 days. The router range is alright but not great. The usage-checking site works and is fairly accurate for the most part. Overall, so far so good. Read the details if you're looking to switch from Alliance, Wishnet, Airtel, BSNL, Tikona or any other ISP for that matter. Speeds are definitely better than any other ISP in the city at any given price-point, but since I've just subscribed, I can't really vouch for reliability just as yet.
My experience with Hathway Broadband - I was looking for reviews of Hathway Broadband in Kolkata and stumbled onto this thread here. I'm in Salt Lake (Sector 1) and was a longtime BSNL subscriber. My plan was 'BBG FN 630' - a 2 Mbps connection with 2.5 GB daytime usage and unlimited nighttime usage. I was largely happy with the speeds (Between 1.5-2.5 Mbps depending on the time of day) and problems with connectivity were few and far between. Shockingly for a public sector company, even service wasn't half bad even though the guys still carried around that annoying sarkari Babu attitude.
Unfortunately, BSNL got rid of the 'Night Unlimited' bit in mid-2014 without any intimation and sent me a Rs. 7,000 bill (WTF!). That was sadly the end of our almost 40-year old BSNL phone line that was originally subscribed to by my late grandfather long before I was born.
Since then, I got myself an online job, and obviously, 2.5 GB during daytime wouldn't have been enough for that anyways. I was making do with BSNL 3G which has a 5-day 1GB pack for Rs. 78 and that suited me just fine. The only annoyance was the regular recharge. Again, speeds were generally pretty good (always around 2-4 Mbps depending on the time of day) and uptime even better, but about three weeks ago, the tower near our house started malfunctioning and it's yet to be repaired! (WTF BSNL!) So there's no signal in our block even though City Center, PNB More, Karunamoyee and everywhere around Salt Lake, the signal continues to remain strong as ever.
I needed a new connection if I were to keep my job, and saw a leaflet advertizing Hathway Broadband pasted on an electricity distribution box near our local market. So I called up the number on that leaflet that evening itself (July 14th). The guy at the other end of the line was a Hathway agent and he came as promised the next morning (Friday, 15th). I signed the KYC (Know Your Customer) form and paid him three-months' advance for free modem, router and installation. My plan's the cheapest one available in the city AFAIK - 10Mbps for 20 GB and then unlimited thereafter at 1Mbps. The connection will cost me Rs. 650 per month (plus taxes). In total, I paid Rs. 2243 (Rs. 1950 for 3-months plus taxes) and he duly gave me a receipt and promised installation within a couple of days.
The next evening (Saturday, 16th), the linemen brought in the fiber optic and promised next day delivery, but stuttered when I asked if their men would work on a Sunday. I realized I'll have to wait till Monday, though that wasn't an issue as Sundays are holidays for me. The guy who came to install on Monday evening (July 18th) was a bit of a dummy, although he was very courteous and sincere about his job. They had a little problem with a 'cable cut' somewhere, so he left after waiting for about an hour for the line to be back up. Once the link was back up, I did my own configuration using the username and password provided by the installation guy, but no sooner had I started surfing the net on my new connection than he came back to complete his unfinished business. +1 for customer service.
As for the tech specs, the cable is an optic fiber that comes right onto your desk (FTTH) and the connection is through an RJ45 (ethernet) connector. The modem is a ZTE GPON ONT (Model: ZXHN F601) and the router is a D-Link N300 (Model: DIR 615) that costs Rs. 1,349 on Amazon. Download speeds are almost always in the 8-10 Mbps range, but upload speeds are way below 1 Mbps (WTF Hathway)! Also, ping times are higher than I'd like 'em to be. There’s also a dedicated site to check usage (Hathway > Broadband > Log In > Check Usage), and from my experience, it is fairly accurate, although, it takes a long time to update unlike BSNL. You'll have to wait for hours for your usage to show up on the site. Overall, though, I'll have to say so far so good, but the real test will come if and when there's a downtime. How quickly they react to it and how good their customer service is remains to be seen.
BTW, torrent files are blocked. You'll get a 'Torrent is not valid bencoding' message in utorrent and other clients. Magnet links work fine and from my experience downloading the two Mockingjay films (Hunger Games series), peering will be at full speeds, so no issue there. However, isn't it against net neutrality norms to block any single protocol selectively?
Finally, Pirate Bay and a whole host of other alleged piracy sites are blocked. Fortunately, though, its apparently just a DNS block that you can easily bypass by configuring Open DNS or Google DNS. It's Open DNS for me in case you're wondering hehe.
Disclosure - I'm not a Hathway employee nor do I have any relation with anybody from the company in any way, shape or form. I'm just a regular customer who's (thus far) happy with the company's service. I'm also a longtime (generally satisfied) Hathway Digital Cable TV customer and subscribe to the top-tier SD pack available in Kolkata. Costs me Rs. 384 per month including taxes.
Last edited:
Nope. At least here in Kolkata (Salt Lake) they're using FTTH. They took way too long to splice those damn things with their ancient fusion splicers from the 1900s LOL. :rofl:
Deep Saha - Not sure about availability in Barrackpore. You can call customer care and see if they can shed any light on this. As for your FUP question, you get unlimited usage at 1Mbps after the initial 20GB @10Mbps with the Rs. 650 plan. To the best of my understanding, you can't add extra after exhausting FUP. Budget permitting, you can always subscribe to the 25Mbps 40GB plan that costs Rs. 900 plus taxes.
Hathway All-India Toll-Free number - 1800221119
Hathway Kolkata Customer Care
Address: Ecostation, 2nd Floor, Plot - 7, Block - BP, Sector - V, Salt Lake, Kolkata - 700091
Call Center No: 03340302444, 03340302417, 03340316800
Hathway Broadband Nodal Officer, Kolkata
Somnath Pal. Unit no 202, WH.No 12, 2nd Floor, KILC, Kona Expressway, P.S. Jagacha, Howrah, West Bengal. Pin -711302. Phone: 033-40302350. (Only if unhappy with the response of toll-free number and customer care reps). Good Luck.
Hathway All-India Toll-Free number - 1800221119
Hathway Kolkata Customer Care
Address: Ecostation, 2nd Floor, Plot - 7, Block - BP, Sector - V, Salt Lake, Kolkata - 700091
Call Center No: 03340302444, 03340302417, 03340316800
Hathway Broadband Nodal Officer, Kolkata
Somnath Pal. Unit no 202, WH.No 12, 2nd Floor, KILC, Kona Expressway, P.S. Jagacha, Howrah, West Bengal. Pin -711302. Phone: 033-40302350. (Only if unhappy with the response of toll-free number and customer care reps). Good Luck.
Last edited:
Not entirely sure, but I think that's not possible. What connection (and plan) do you have currently, may I ask?
