Until last month, I was using Excitel’s 50 Mbps broadband plan and thought about trying out their 100 Mbps plan. It’s been almost a month now, and it is time for the review of Excitel 100 Mbps plan.
Cost
For Rs. 1144.25 (including taxes) and with no FUP or any other sort of limit, Excitel’s 100 Mbps plan seems really enticing. Even though you have to pay 43% (Rs. 345) more than their entry level 50 Mbps plan, priced at Rs. 799.25 (including taxes.)
These prices are pre-GST, post GST, they will likely go up.
However, that mouth watering price for a 100 Mbps connection is all but useless, if they cannot back it up with fast and reliable connectivity and speed. So let’s talk about the most important part of the review, connectivity.
Connectivity
I have been using Excitel since January and even though their connectivity and peering has improved and downtimes has reduced as well, they still have a long way to go.
As long as you’re trying to use this 100 Mbps connection to access something that has peering with Excitel eg. YouTube, Netflix etc. the speed is going to be blazing fast and the same also holds true in case of torrents and local speedtests. (Disclaimer: I am using a router which has a WAN and LAN port speed of 100 Mbps, so 100 Mbps or faster speed is never going to be achievable.)
However, the moment you try and download something from international servers eg. US servers, speed takes a major hit and you’re left with similar international download speed as their 50 Mbps plan.
This in my view is a major disappointment, especially for a user like me, who could have really used an increase in international speed, as I have to manage my servers and download backups on a daily basis.
However, for anyone streaming videos from YouTube, Hotstar, Netflix, Amazon Prime or downloading torrent, 100 Mbps connection would be a speed upgrade.
Equipment consideration for 100 Mbps connection
If you’re planning to use a 100 Mbps connection, then you need networking equipment, which can actually support high-speed connectivity. And a lot comes down to the router/switch you’re using along with access devices as well.
I have a Wi-Fi router with 100 Mbps WAN and LAN ports, this essentially means I can never actually see 100 Mbps speed. The max I have seen is around 94 Mbps on my desktop.
Wi-Fi speed is altogether a different ball game and a lot depends on the device you’re using as well.
For instance, on my Redmi Note 3 and Mi4i, I could never connect to my 2.4Ghz Wi-Fi N router at a speed faster than 72 Mbps. With encryption overhead, all I could achieve was a maximum speed of 48 Mbps. Now that I have an Honor 6x, it connects to the same router at 150 Mbps and I can actually get download speeds up to 80 Mbps and upload speed up to 90 Mbps. This is almost as fast as my wired connection to the desktop!
Downtime and customer service
Even though Excitel has improved their connectivity over time, it still goes down on a regular basis and phone support is a pain with 10-20 minute wait time and then the routine troubleshooting which yields no result. So as far as I am concerned, logging a complaint through their web portal remains the best bet.
Then there are routing issues on a regular basis as well and those can cause trouble with even websites like Facebook and Twitter, with their images not being displayed or their sites running extremely slowly or not opening at all.
If you need high availability and a reliable connection, Airtel would always be a better bet, even though it is a lot costlier and comes with the dreaded FUP.
Do you really need a 100 Mbps connection?
This is one question that has been playing in my mind, over the course of this month. Even though the cost of 100 Mbps internet connection from Excitel isn’t a lot. It is extremely tough to justify the requirement of it unless you have several devices in the home (read more than 6-7), streaming HD or 4k content simultaneously.
Of course, if you download torrents on a regular basis, then you might be able to justify the 100 Mbps connection as well.
Though the biggest justification for it is the bragging rights of owning a 100 Mbps connection, at least for now.
For me, it isn’t really worth it. Mainly because I get same international speed with it, that I used to get with my 50 Mbps connection and with just 2-3 devices consuming the internet simultaneously and no requirement for 4k content, 50 Mbps seems more than enough for now. And that is what I would be switching back to, at the end of this billing cycle.
6 Comments
Hey Yogesh,
I am moving to Chattapur New Delhi and I am planing to get their connection.
I am heavy user of Internet. I have multiple device and I need minimum 100 Mbps for connection. I play lot of online games on my xbox so I need a reliable connection.
I want to know if they have improved by now.
I don’t want downtime at all. Whats the situation right now.
Would you suggest any other provider my budget is some where between 1000-1500 but i need no limit connection.
If you’re into gaming, then my suggestion would be to go for Airtel. Excitel isn’t suitable for it.
I am using 50 Mbps plan, worst connection I have ever used. Initially the company doing good and I had no regular issues but that is the case 1 year back. but now it has gone disgusting and pathetic connectivity , area problem which continuously lasts for 2 hrs to even 2 days. I have been facing speed and connectivity issues both for last 7 days. The customer care which I called multiple times, only tell lies very smartly and nothing else. they will always say the problem will get resolved at the end of the day but that day has not come yet even after 6 days of network issue with speed by Okla 0.05 Mbps.
well now that i have an option for jio fiber to home, excitel feels like mtnl dial up :),but it served the purpose for past 2 years, a better option than airtel in my locality as with airtel i could only get speeds up to 1 mbps with a 16 mbps fup plan.and the airtel sales keeps promising speeds of 50 mbps not aware of the reality that the infrastructure to provide that speed needs to be validated in the said locality, MORONS “haan sir ho jayegaa” attitude , seems like airtel picks up street urchins to sell their booby plans.
the downtimes for excitel are still bearable than the third options i had like tikona 😀
Very Nicely explained… and true analysis.
Please rely on your Hotspot connections, Excitel Broadband is pathetic. I have opened several tickets and the team closes the tickets as resolved without any resolution. The seller will assure you of the best services and no technical issue being optical fibre connection however it is really difficult to find a continuous broadband connectivity.
After being smitten for 3 months from the pathetic services I researched on several websites and found that the customer service and after sales support is scathing and all customers have the worst experience with Excitel.
Their Mobile App for complaints, their customer service. their escalation paths are all farce and can’t operate professionally. Adding a snapshot of how long tickets are dealt and the pendency of tickets does not matter to the management.