Questions about LCO Model on BSNL Bharat Fiber

[ithehappy]

I have two questions:
1. I don't understand what all these LCO discussion going on here. What BSNL has to do with LCOs? Last time I used them (2016) their connection was given to me from their local exchange. There was no intermediary at all, none. Has the situation changed now or what?
2. Has their connection stability/ throughput deteriorated massively of late? Because from the time I knew BSNL, they literally had no downtime! But some comments here reflect a contrary!

Please keep me up to date with latest developments as I have been out of touch for long time.

 

[sloj]

1. Fiber to the home connections are mostly provided by LCOs/Franchisees now. The shortest path to my nearest exchange is about 1 km and the LCO/Franchisee office is about 4-5 km. I haven't asked exclusively but I guess they laid the fiber from the exchange.
2. I have been using it since a few months and haven't had any downtime yet except that one time when they had to replace fiber somewhere and it took 3 days. Experience may vary for others.

 

[Sudarshan61]

LCO model is good for public.
My City was having BSNL FTTH since last 2 years but the coverage was very limited.
Last 3/4 months BSNL has partnered with private vendors and suddenly they are expanding like crazy..(facing Modem shortages ).
Only downside for public is the pathetic customer care and support that BSNL provide

I was using BSNL ADSL for years before moving to BSNL FTTH(Via LCO). No complain with speed and pings.... Too early to comment on downtimes

 

[ithehappy]

Thanks both. This is a very bad news to me. I think a company should control everything themselves. That's how you keep delivering quality services. The moment you open door to more intermediaries the quality is bound to fall. One or two LCO might be good but the rest of them won't be. Speaking from experience. In any case, if the downtime is still like old BSNL as we used to know them, which was practically nothing, then no problem I suppose, but still I am completely against the LCO inclusive business model.

 

[Smh]

Clearly their old model didn't worked financially.
They don't have money to expand and need lco to stay alive.

 

[Tenet]

Most of the time LCO model works well as compared to actual company (BSNL). LCO are mostly reachable via phone and do try to solve issues on same day or next day , it issue is within their limits. Just to give an example , BSNL broadband (not ftth) (managed by BSNL) issue was resolved after a week for my cousin , that too after raising multiple complaints and follow ups. Also LCO support is available on most of the holidays as well.Only issue will be that installation cost will be high and most of the initial costs will be cash based (but this too is region specific) . And its not only with BSNL , even Airtel is following LCO model in most of the tier 2/3 cities.

 

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[sloj]

Yeah, had to wait a day minimum for fixing broken wire for ADSL many times. Registering a complaint and the lineman arriving the next day to fix it by noon. Sometimes had to use Twitter too in case of delays. Recent digging to lay water pipes damaged many underground cables (there is just no coordination or communication among various departments) and ADSL was never the same again (too many frequent disconnections). At least had proper 3G speeds to handle till I heard fiber cable was getting laid by a Franchisee. And I remember Fiber service being available since a few years ago but BSNL wasn't interested or their hands were tied. So, LCO/Franchisee model is definitely a welcome change. How effective it is, is yet to be experienced since I haven't had any issue yet.

 

[bk~]

those who have taken connection through LCO how are you paying the billls ? to the LCO or other modes? my LCO asking to pay to his Google Pay account every month

 

[Adithya]

LCOs are just on contract laying lines here. Bill payment, plans etc. all are done directly to BSNL LCO just lays the line and leaves that's it. Their only job is to maintain the line.

I don't know if there are places where LCO is the ISP? But if it isn't I'm smelling a scam.

 

[Sudarshan61]

those who have taken connection through LCO how are you paying the billls ? to the LCO or other modes? my LCO asking to pay to his Google Pay account every month

They get extra commission on it...
Personally I avoid them and pays directly to BSNL via PayZapp (5% discount + card rewards )