Good Speed but invariably faulty equipment. Review on Satyam Iway

I use a Satyam Online dial up connection when it was first introduced and for a while I used to get good download speeds then like all good things the temporary phase passed and I shifted onto a cable connection.

As I travel quite a lot and whenever my laptop cranks up and refuses to work I have to visit a Cyber Cafe or a Hub for ISP like DSL Dishnet, TATA Netzone & yes also Satyam I Way.

The thing about it is that Satyam have franchised it and from the furniture onwards to the computers nearly all hubs are similar in terms of lay out and configuration of computers being used. So uniformity is not a problem, in some towns the speed is quite good (Mumbai & Delhi certain areas only)

You have to buy a Satyam I Way card starting from Rs 50, 100,250 /- and the good thing is that you get bonus of 10% in terms of extra usage, so if you buy a Rs 250/- card (Which is now valid for 6 months) you get a free Rs. 25/- renewal. Also they give you a card( aplastic card with an access number) which is easier to carry then a piece of paper as TATA Netzone & OTHER ISP's provide.

You have to make sure that you get your card and register as a lot of the administrators will tell you to use their account and then charge you money per hour and invariably ovrer charge you and get the free time on their account.

If you register and have your own card you have a system timer which gives you the exact amount that you spend in a particular session, the remaining balance and balance in terms of minutes left in your account.

The ISP is pretty good and uniformity makes it familiar and easily recognizable in any city that you visit. The same cannot be said for the various Franchisee's who have got involved in this venture.

My only gripe with the I Way hubs has been that no Single Hub ( I have visited over 15) had all their equipment working, sometimes the floppy drives were just plain missing or the printer was on the blink, which was very frustrating, so now I make it a point as soon as I enter to ask them whether they have a computer with an operational floppy drive, MS Office & Acrobat Reader installed and their printer is operational, if not I go to another place as I don't wanna waste my time in such a place. In my line of work I have to have all these things working to churn out some fruitful work at the end of the day.

Sometimes I have revisited the same hub thinking that after 2-3 months their equipment problems would finally have been solved but have been disappointed several occassions.

In Fairness when compared to other ISP's that have similiar hubs only DSL have excellent machines (all Dell) and the reaon for this is that they haven't franchised it yet so are able to mantain a certain level of quality control..

All others like TATA Netzone,BSNL hubs etc either have poor euipment or JURASSIC equipment (386, 486) ETC..

Now Some Better Aspects:

A recent development that I have noticed is that they also are actively promoting eco - frienliness where in they have a drive to send 5 mails via ''sify mail'' and you get into a contest to go to Australia {not that you have a chance of winning, but atleast as an ISP they are doing their bit towards conservation of our overutislised natural resources and that in my view it is atleast a good step ahead in terms of raising awareness towards the evergrowing crisis of cutting down our trees for paper!

Also Internet Telephony too is being promoted (but again I'm not sure about the Head Phones that you may or maynot get!!). The rates are competitive to Phonewala.com and the connections are reasonably fast.

I hope Satyam applies some kind of quality control over it to make sure that their name is not sullied by these small time operators but then my opinion isnt going to make them change their company policy!!!

Overaall it is a better bet over others but nothing beats your own dial up or cable connection at home only in the direst of circumstances do I visit these places, but for those who dont have access at home this is one of the best options available in terms of speed, staff (who are gernerally helpful and the ambience is better then some seedy cafes located in some nook cranny!