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.

 

[vignesh_venkatesan]

I actually seen power level improve to -17 or -18 in the night - early hours and power level go back to -20 in the day.
It happens everyday for me, but after lockdown the fluctuations has stopped at power is settled at -18 or -19 dBm.

 

[Sammy]

@iAnvin What model ONT is your operator using?

 

[varkey]

It looks like any ZTE based ONT. I have the Syrotech stickered one with the same UI.

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[Sammy]

I wonder why KV doesn't set a standard ONT for all LCO's like almost all other ISP's. I have this tiny little ONT by 'Dasan'. Never was able to access the gateway for it. Technician plugged it to my router and it just worked like that. Never really questioned it either.

 

[Morty]

@iAnvin What model ONT is your operator using?

It's a Netlink N2801SG ONU by Current Optronics and obviously ZTE based as @varkey said.

 

[Morty]

Wouldn't that be too much of an overkill? Presently customer can use any ONU/ONT of his choice on KV provided that LCOs OLT supports it.

 

[varkey]

I wonder why KV doesn't set a standard ONT for all LCO's like almost all other ISP's. I have this tiny little ONT by 'Dasan'. Never was able to access the gateway for it. Technician plugged it to my router and it just worked like that. Never really questioned it either.

Btw you can access the ONT UI if you want, you just need to configure an alias interface with an IP address in the same subnet as of that of the ONTs management UI. If you are on a custom firmware (OpenWRT or anything of that type) you can easily do it.

But it is good that the LCO gave an ONT in bridge mode by default.

 

[eriek_halenx]

I wonder why KV doesn't set a standard ONT for all LCO's like almost all other ISP's. I have this tiny little ONT by 'Dasan'. Never was able to access the gateway for it. Technician plugged it to my router and it just worked like that. Never really questioned it either.

I suspect it's because k.v is more like a 'collective' than a single uniform company. They were initially a group of smaller cable operators who bunched up together to take on asianet, the then dominant player in cable tv...

 

[varkey]

Yeah, same with BSNL also if you look at it. When a LCO takes care of entire last mile, they'd sell an ONT which is cheaper for them to procure.

Unless, BSNL comes with more stricter agreements and also bundle BSNL branded customer premises equipment as well and set a standard pricing etc.

Maybe it would evolve over time.

 

[philip]

What backend is used by keralavision for international transits and all,I mean it's a local operator isn't it only present in kerala,so I am kind of curious about their peering and all