Zylog Wi5 – the worst Internet Service Provider

The title might sound rude and mean. Have I got your attention?

UPDATE (16 Feb): Got a call from Zylog Wi5 head office. The officer has assured to resolve most of the below mentioned issues. Will soon update this section with more info. Hope I have only the best experience to share here!

I’m not going to write big paragraphs on what went wrong, nor am I good at that. I will provide you with a few points; you decide whether to call this an Internet Service Provider, and to have a long-term relationship comparable to Airtel or even BSNL! This feedback is for Wi5′s Broadband on Cable (BoC) service, aka, bullshit on cable. It was good for the first month; woes for the rest.

Looking at the banners on the Wi5 home page, you would really think that this company is quite promising. You have to pay Rs. 1000 as installation fees (non-refundable) to experience it. Extremely shabby installation! BSNL was/is light years ahead. As always, first impression is the best impression!

Tariff: 1-Mbps unlimited @ Rs 899 (taxes extra) and 2-Mbps unlimited (but 15GB limit) @ Rs 999 (taxes extra). Appears cheap when compared to unlimited plans from Airtel or BSNL? Nay! What is cheap (third-rate) is their quality of service (QoS, which they have never heard of). I had an 1-Mbps connection and below are the speeds that I used to get every other day:

So, with such speeds, it’s highly immaterial if you have an unlimited plan. Quite a hard task to cross even a 2GB limit in 30 days. My Airtel GPRS plan gives me 150 – 190 kbps @ Rs 98 per month! According to Zylog Wi5, this is Internet Freedom and truly unlimited! Also, I never knew that the backbone for Wi5 is Reliance Communications.

Customer support: Call the customer support number 9381999000 – someone will answer you if you happen to call between 10:00 a.m and 6:00 p.m (the website says 8am to 9pm). Excellent? Their turn-around-time (TAT) is 24-hours. They wouldn’t say that it’s 3-days (8-hours a day). Excellent, again?

Cable modem: Has two LAN ports, a LINK, QUALITY and power indicator. Internet will work only if the LINK and QUALITY indicators are ON. All the aforementioned tests were possible because these indicators were ON.

If the LINK and QUALITY indicators are OFF, it’s because of one or all of the following possibilities:

1. You didn’t turn ON the modem in the first place (you got to be bird-brained!)
2. The cable is cut or there is no signal on that particular length of cable laid to your house and into the modem
3. NO POWER at the Wi5 center and the server is down

Of all the aforementioned possibilities, no:3 happens every day; repeat, every day. Every day, when there’s a scheduled power cut in the locality where the Wi5 servers are situated, you will not have internet. Simple, ain’t it?

In case of NO LINK and QUALITY lights, the customer support responds with one or all of the following:

1. Sir, did you turn ON the modem?
2. Please turn OFF and turn it back ON
3. No UPS sir. You will have internet when the power comes back
4. We have ordered UPS sir. We will get it in 2-3 weeks
5. The UPS installed is faulty sir. We have ordered another which will come in 2-3 weeks

Unfortunately, 2-3 weeks is too long for me. I have been having this problem for the past 4 months. Have you ever heard of an Internet company that cannot provide service to their customers because of scheduled power cuts? The unforgivable part is they do this after collecting the month’s worth of tariff money from the subscribers. Shows their ‘taken for granted’ attitude towards their customers.

So, welcome to Zylog Wi5!

Are you hungry for high speed broadband? Are you a fan of online streaming video? Are you an online gaming addict? Relax. Your search for a superior high speed broadband ends right here. Presenting Wi5 BoC (Broadband on Cable). A fast emerging broadband technology that enables you to enjoy extraordinary internet speed at amazingly affordable cost – WTF!

With this as the scenario, how the heck do they expect the customers to go for 3-month/6-month/12-month subscription plans? May be some do, and that’s how a company like Zylog Wi5 can exist and do business!

However, this company has a lot of potential. They just need to address the following to provide good customer experience and stable speeds:

1. Switch to a different Internet backbone
2. Come out of the franchise model – won’t be successful with Internet companies that intend to provide good QoS
3. Fair pricing – the current one is definitely not cheap considering the aforementioned issues
4. Some communication from 2nd and 3rd level support when escalated – can’t expect Airtel-like support, but something via e-mail at the least?
5. Power backup for the servers – this is the most basic of all requirements; pathetic to see them ignoring this

If you have any good/bad experience with Wi5 (after using it for 4+ months), please provide your inputs in the comment section.

As usual, the Wi5 Link and Quality lights went off at 7:32 p.m – scheduled power cut and NO POWER BACKUP issue mentioned above. Publication of this post was possible only because I had enabled Airtel 3G services on my Android phone.

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