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| Sunday, February 25, 2007 |
| Sify Launches WiMAX Solution With Mobility Features |
Sify is working in partnership with Proxim Wireless and the two companies have now launched WiMAX solution with mobility features. The company claims that this service is the first of its kind. The companies have deployed Proxim Wireless’s Tsunami MP.11 WiMAX product line as the core communications platform. The last mile access would be provided using the 5.8 GHz frequency band. Sify is claiming that they have deployed over 700 Tsunami MP.11 base stations in addition to 3,500 subscriber units to provide Internet access, voice, and video broadband services. They aim to provide this facility to enterprise, residential, and cyber cafe subscribers in over 200 cities. Lionel Chmilewsky, Senior Vice President- International, Proxim Wireless spoke on this initiative: “Sify’s deployment is certainly a strong endorsement of our WiMAX technology and product line. As India’s premier provider of broadband access services, Sify is setting the standard for delivering ‘triple play’ of voice, data, and video to subscribers wherever they are located throughout the country. We are pleased and honored to be their partner in this effort.” Bhaskar S, Chief Technology Officer, Sify added: “After testing and evaluating products from a number of manufacturers over a period of eight months, we chose Proxim’s product line because the company met all our criteria, and its point-to-multipoint products offer the best packet processing capacity for last mile access.” Labels: sify, wimax |
posted by DesiBaba @ 10:45 PM  |
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| Tuesday, February 06, 2007 |
| Sify Broadband Still Great??? |
Mail From A Friend:
Hi,
First of all, I must straightaway say that I’m not saying most of the other reviewers are wrong.. but I definitely feel that Sify is copping the blame for the faults of the local providers, the guys who run the network in your area, do the installations etc.
Im in Navi Mumbai, Koparkhairane, and got my connection from SSV cable. Previously I used Iqara from Aashish cable. Theirs was the best service, 128kbps, 500 mb a month at 550 rupees. But I used use 2 packages per month usually, and couldnt download much stuff. The speed was great, and 99.99% uptime, but the mb cap was limiting.
So I switched to Sifys unlimited plan, 64kbps at 400/month. Its great!
SSV did take 3 weeks to make the connection, but that was because no one in my area had a sify connection already, hence they had to draw all the lines from scratch.
Once installed, its worked very well. Speeds are 64, less compared to my previous 128 from iqara, but its UNLIMITED !! So, not a problem 
Its been down just twice for 2 hours each at night in 3 weeks of usage so far.
So, what I really feel is that if any people have had bad experiences, its because of the provider (cable operator, telecom provider etc), and not sify themselves. I’ve downloaded shitloads of stuff so far, and no hiccups. They even provide free licensed trend Micro AV if you dont have an AV installed.
Only thing I have a problem with is download speeds not crossing 12-14 kbps.
Also, you can upgrade the unlimited package to 128kbps, 256kbps etc for more monthly charges, which is a great benefit !Labels: broadband, sify |
| posted by DesiBaba @ 5:12 AM |
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| Saturday, January 06, 2007 |
| BEWARE OF SIFY INTERNET BROADBAND SERVICE PROVIDER |
BEWARE OF SIFY INTERNET BROADBAND SERVICE PROVIDER I have a Sifybroadband 256 kbps and have found mostly good speeds. I renewed every month package ( 256Kbps 500MB download) which according to the price list was Rs 380/- all inclusive for Taxes. However, the Local Cable Operator charged me Rs 471/-claiming Rs 90/- as maintenance charges per month for last 03 months. The bill never mentions nor gives details breakup of items. This additional collection was not mentioned nor updated anywhere by SIFY. Also, prices vary from location to location with multiple cable vendor/francise within same region. Other cable operator in my region does not charge for Maintainence charges. If I pay with my credit cards the charges are not taken into account. SIFY IS “CHEATING CUSTOMERS” FOR HIDDDEN COST INVOLVED NOT MENTIONED DURING RENEWALS ON MONTHLY BASIS. The charges for providing internet services are to be borne by the service provider and not by the Customer One solution is by providing profit margins to cable operator rather billing valuable customer for repair cost There is no communication nor information available from sify for changes in operation/maintanence cost policy for all broadband internet subscribers. I mailed customer care at Sify - and they replied that the cable operator could charge whatever he wants over and above the rate mentioned by Sify.. which means that Sify leaves us at the mercy of the cable operator, and leaves us to be fleeced by him! Naturally, these maintenance charges problem came up only at renewal, and there were no maintenance charges initially! Whatever relationship for cable operator with sify, the service and charges needs to be fixed by sify as Internet service provider mentioning all details for the cost involved I believe sify should prescribe cable maintenance charges upfront and not wash their hands off, and the charges must be mentioned in their rate list. All Broadband users should be aware of hidden cost by SIFY broadband which is unjustified as compare to bandwidth usage charge on a daily basis. I am rather disappointed and feel cheated, but naturally I am stuck, especially after having paid the initial connection charges of Rs 3000/. excluding NIC cost. There are other broadband cable providers in this area, and I want to go in for TATA Broadband so as to get ride off “operation/maintanence” being charged by my Cable operator and at lower price as compared to sify broadband. Awaiting for positive response and feedback for closure from sify only. Labels: broadband, sify |
| posted by DesiBaba @ 5:22 AM |
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| Sunday, November 26, 2006 |
| Sify subsidiary receives NLD & ILD Licenses |
Chennai, India, November 21, 2006: Sify Communications Limited (SifyComm), a subsidiary of Sify Limited (Nasdaq National Market: SIFY), a leader in consumer Internet and Enterprise Services in India with global delivery capabilities, today received licenses to operate and offer NLD (National Long Distance) and ILD (International Long Distance) Services from the Department of Telecommunication. Following this, Sify has, with immediate effect, transferred its VPN business to SifyComm. Both the companies had signed a MoU earlier this year to this effect. The licenses were applied for as they became a condition for the provisioning of IP VPN services in which Sify is the market leader. Mr Raju Vegesna, CEO and Managing Director, Sify Limited, said “Sify is the leader in IP VPN services in India with best in class services to a wide range of customers spanning Indian corporates, multi-nationals and Government. I am confident that these licenses, along with our expertise, knowledge and infrastructure will help further strengthen our leadership in converged services over our data network.” Mr. Bhaskar Sayyaparaju, Chief Technology Officer, Sify added, “With the NLD and ILD licenses in place, SifyComm will be able to enhance the portfolio of connectivity services to customers to build on our leadership in this space. These approvals will enable us to provide additional services over the robust, state-of-the-art meshed network infrastructure that Sify has developed.” The licenses will enable SifyComm to offer Domestic Leased Circuits (DLCs) and International Private Leased Circuits (IPLCs) in addition to Long Distance Subscriber Telephony services. Many VPN customers, especially multi-nationals and the Information technology and Information Technology Enabled Services (IT / ITES) companies, subscribe to DLCs and IPLCs. The ability to offer these services together will give Sify an advantage, particularly with the company’s technical expertise in data services over IP (Internet Protocol) networks. Sify has alliances with leading International carriers to offer end-to-end IP-MPLS solutions for VPN services, and constantly invests in bandwidth on both its sophisticated national and international network to offer redundant, reliable, secure, scalable and efficient traffic routing. About Sify Communications Sifycomm carries expertise in the Data Security and Trust Solutions and services space. Sifycomm’s areas of specialization include Cryptography, PKI & Digital Signature based solutions; Data protection and privacy solutions, Strong Authentication solutions, Digital Rights Management solutions, etc. Sifycomm created history in India by becoming India’s first licensed Certifying Authority (CA) under the Indian Information Technology Act 2000 and is today India’s largest Certifying Authority, providing services across India via a network of over 80 business partners. In order to bring the “best of breed” technology to the Indian market, Sifycomm has tie-ups with leading vendors in this domain including VeriSign, SafeBoot, Swivel, Seclore, ElOck, Alladin, etc. About Sify Limited: Sify is among the largest Internet, network and e-Commerce services companies in India, offering end-to-end solutions with a comprehensive range of products delivered over a common Internet backbone infrastructure. This Internet backbone reaches 183 cities and towns in India. A significant part of the company’s revenue is derived from Corporate Services, which include corporate connectivity, network and communications solutions, security, network management services and hosting. A host of blue chip customers use Sify’s corporate service offerings. Consumer services include broadband home access, dial up connectivity and the iWay cyber café chain across 154 cities and towns. The company’s network services, Data Center operations and customer relationship management are accredited ISO 9001:2000. For more information about Sify, visit www.sifycorp.com. Forward Looking Statements This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. The forward-looking statements contained herein are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those reflected in the forward-looking statements. Sify undertakes no duty to update any forward-looking statements. For a discussion of the risks associated with Sify’s business, please see the discussion under the caption “Risks Related to Our Business” in the company’s report on Form 6-K for the quarter ended June 30, 2006 which has been filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission and is available by accessing the database maintained by the SEC at www.sec.gov. |
| posted by DesiBaba @ 5:59 AM |
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| Wednesday, November 15, 2006 |
| SIFY Broadband to pay for Unfair Trade Practices |
Delhi’s North-West District Consumer Forum has by its order dated 08 Nov ‘06 directed India’s ISP SIFY Ltd (SIFY Broadband) to pay compensation of Rs 8,200/- including refund of Rs 1,200 paid for two months internet connection to a consumer, Ankur Raheja, an IT lawyer by profession for indulging Unfair Trade Practices and deficiency in service. The case related to non disclosure of significant terms and conditions, which included hidden conditions that after downloading of 750 MB data in a month the speed would be reduced to 14 Kbps and also a new condition that if a customer downloaded more than 150 MB data in a day, then he was penalized in the form of reduction of package validity by one day, but still packages were advertised as unlimited. It has been regarded as a landmark judgment as for the first time technical deficiency has been proved in the court of law in India against an Internet Company. And further Court interpreted the matter from the point of view of definition of Broadband as laid down by TRAI, which lays down criterion of minimum speed of 256 Kbps to be regarded as Broadband. Accordingly, Court has held providing of 14 Kbps speed instead of 256 Kbps is in itself a ‘deficiency in service’. It has also been held that SIFY BroadBand has poor customer service that did not redress to Customer complaints and selling packages as ‘Unlimited Packages’ when there existed Hidden conditions, amounts to deficiency in service on the part of SIFY Limited and indulging into unfair trade practices. The case was supported in the Cyber World by hundreds of SIFY customers from all over India, who all experienced similar problems and supported the case throughout, whose testimonials were also included in the original complaint as Annexure! CyberLawTimes.com is cyber law portal by Archer Softech Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi |
| posted by DesiBaba @ 12:08 AM |
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| Thursday, August 03, 2006 |
| Legal actions against Sify Broadband |
I suffered the bad services provided by Sify Broadband for around a year’s time before I decided to move to Gurgaon to get myself an Airtel Broadband connection. Looks like the services of Sify Broadband back in Chandigarh are as bad as they were during my stay there almost 1.5 years back.
As per latest incoming information, the Consumer Forum in Chandigarh has directed M/s Sify Broadband Limited, Sector 34-A, Chandigarh, to pay an amount of Rs 6,600 to a local resident Col Pritpal Singh Bhatia.
This fine is on account of compensation and service that was not provided to the complainant. This is great, as this would result in more consumers taking the same route to get compensated for poor services provided by Sify Broadband in the region.
The forum held Sify Broadband guilty of deficiency in service and they have directed the company to pay Rs 5,000 as compensation and Rs 1,770 paid by Bhatia for the connectivity, which was in the end never provided to him as promised. |
| posted by DesiBaba @ 2:59 PM |
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| Sify Broadband User story |
Here is a sad story i read on the net today have a read through friends.
I am about to post this expose in the same structure to Sify Corporation, The Broadband forums in India as well as the Press. I am writing this article as I feel it is necessary for all the people who use broadband in India (also the ones who wish to go for similar services) to be aware of the worthless and awful service that is provided by Sify broadband.
My troubles with Sify started with the day I actually made the decision to go ahead with their service in spite of repeated warnings from friends who wisely chose not to use this atrocious service and those who have suffered as much as me and have switched to other broadband services.
The connection which I was promised within five working days too wasn’t offered within the stipulated time but I didn’t loose my cool then. However, the manner in which it was installed was as sloppy and hopeless as one could ever see. The broadband is actually installed by the wiremen who have no knowledge of either computers or the technology. They seem to rely on “put these numbers in those fields” approach to get to a level of atleast somewhat acceptable incompetence. Since I was using Linux at that point, their presence beyond laying the cables was absolutely useless since they would converse only in their local language which Sify strongly believe is enough to deal with the customers as the local wiremen seem to be the only contact between Sify and their customers which happens “only” at the time of collecting the lease for their ridiculous service.
Amongst the other specifics, the local cable operators or wiremen thought it was compulsory for me to bear the additional cost over the “installation charges” since the installation charges does not include the cost of LAN cables and their labour. They seriously seem to be underpaid for their tardy and rubbish service.
Now it has been over a month and as the local operators come to collect the lease for their service, they also ask for an extra “service charge”. I couldn’t understand the “service” bit ever.
On Friday the 3rd, my connection finally gives up for good and after calling up the customer support (which they strongly object is not to be mistaken as a helpline). I was told the problem would be solved within two (yes 2) hours. Sounds prompt but I get a call only the next evening at 8pm to check if I am connected. I did as I was asked at 10pm just to find out that the dim-witted engineer (or wireman) actually “fixed” the connection by “disconnecting” the LAN cable. For the next three days I call the customer support just to waste half an hour every evening over their helpless support and hear their worthless words to cheer me up like “yes, sir we understand your problem and it would be fixed by tomorrow for sure”, but it takes not more then ten minutes after which they begin to crack-up and start behaving arrogantly with you. Finally after another few minutes of an insignificant confrontation with someone who really doesn’t care (or maybe is just useless for his job sitting at a call center) I finally man
aged to get in touch with one of the seniors at the call center who had atleast the decency to talk respectfully and even called back the next day to checkup on the connection’s status but his attempts to restore my connection too were simply useless after that.
On the fifth day of prepaid disconnection, I had realized that things had really gotten out of hand and I needed to get in touch with the manager. Apparently the manager wasn’t available at the afternoon hour so I asked them to provide me with her email address to which they responded by saying, they were unable to mail me because of “internal problems”. Just out of curiosity I asked them if these internal problems were because they were using their own pathetic internet service at work to which the answer was “no”.
As far as the Sify clients go, they seem to have a serious problem adapting a standard clean interface in MS Windows which too wont install without first installing their substandard anti virus program and as far as the Linux client is concerned, the Daemon (sifyd) has to be killed and restarted every time you need to login to their service. Mind you, the client does not specify if it has logged in successfully, so irrespective to a wrong password, wrong scheme or no connectivity, the client always says it has logged in (or maybe done nothing since there is no confirmation message whatsoever). So if things don’t work… as Sify believes, it’s not their problem either.
Finally, as I end this piece of writing, I would like to remind you people; if Sify believes a week has less than 12 hours… do not argue. Cause that’s how those morons actually function so that you dysfunction and yes, even pay for it with an extra service charge. |
| posted by DesiBaba @ 2:55 PM |
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| Sify Broadband User’s Opinion |
Why should you pay charges for services that is already accounted for in such overrated and constrained packages? Moreover we pay in advance without any guarantee of service, dont we? It only goes to show the Sify or any ISP which channel services through franchises have no hold on them and if ppl like us start paying additional charges only makes the situation worse for all the present and future subscribers. It would serve in our interest and the interest of others to make ppl living in a society or neighbourhood aware of such exploitation and best collectively disconnect or boycott the service if they make you pay for additional charges or do not give proper timely service. If members succumb to paying additional charges it is they who are promoting the overpayment for services.
The CTO in my area never resolves my issues in time without me making numerous calls to them or the technicians. Sometimes they deliberately make their cellphones unavailable for reply. I am paying more on my telephone bill in addition to losing days and therefore money of my prepaid service awaiting them to resolve the issues.
I would be unsubscribing from their services after my procastinated and yet unresolved case and the pathetic or no interaction I received from them and their arrogant customer service this time. Their Supervisor was giving me a runaround each time I would make a call and also defiantly asked me to cancel the service only to ring back and request continuation after 4 days without any compensation for losing those days.
I got a call after 8 days for the issue from a local sify tech requesting me to ping an address since there are problems with their backend server or some networking virus(duh!) and there is nothing wrong with my computer. How else would one explain an issue which resolves itself normally after 12:30 or 1:00 when I am tired enough to hit bed? His resolution however did help in partially resolving the case.
This time hopefully would be able to pursue airtel connection which I hear is better off then subscribing to complacent and cheating CTOs and their useless technicians. Sify service is not even worth mentioning.
Yes I know this quiet an exhaustive rant probably your story as well but who other than ourselves can stand up against consumer exploitation or worsen conditions for ourselves??? |
| posted by DesiBaba @ 2:49 PM |
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| Tuesday, August 01, 2006 |
| Another Sify Broadband User’s Opinion |
Why should you pay charges for services that is already accounted for in such overrated and constrained packages? Moreover we pay in advance without any guarantee of service, dont we? It only goes to show the Sify or any ISP which channel services through franchises have no hold on them and if ppl like us start paying additional charges only makes the situation worse for all the present and future subscribers. It would serve in our interest and the interest of others to make ppl living in a society or neighbourhood aware of such exploitation and best collectively disconnect or boycott the service if they make you pay for additional charges or do not give proper timely service. If members succumb to paying additional charges it is they who are promoting the overpayment for services.
The CTO in my area never resolves my issues in time without me making numerous calls to them or the technicians. Sometimes they deliberately make their cellphones unavailable for reply. I am paying more on my telephone bill in addition to losing days and therefore money of my prepaid service awaiting them to resolve the issues.
I would be unsubscribing from their services after my procastinated and yet unresolved case and the pathetic or no interaction I received from them and their arrogant customer service this time. Their Supervisor was giving me a runaround each time I would make a call and also defiantly asked me to cancel the service only to ring back and request continuation after 4 days without any compensation for losing those days.
I got a call after 8 days for the issue from a local sify tech requesting me to ping an address since there are problems with their backend server or some networking virus(duh!) and there is nothing wrong with my computer. How else would one explain an issue which resolves itself normally after 12:30 or 1:00 when I am tired enough to hit bed? His resolution however did help in partially resolving the case.
This time hopefully would be able to pursue airtel connection which I hear is better off then subscribing to complacent and cheating CTOs and their useless technicians. Sify service is not even worth mentioning.
Yes I know this quiet an exhaustive rant probably your story as well but who other than ourselves can stand up against consumer exploitation or worsen conditions for ourselves???
Cheers all! |
| posted by DesiBaba @ 2:57 PM |
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