This time I am showing some other type of corruption that often plagues common person today. It is about MTNL service for internet connection. I had decided to use the internet connection service offered by MTNL and to begin with decided to take up their lowest cost package it was only 49 rupees per moth and with 200 Mb free. 

On the face of it that offer was really very tempting to me, as I am a retired man with only limited income out of my saving. My other friends opted for offers, more expensive from other sources, such as private cable operators. In the beginning, MTNL service worked well but over a period, I realized that this service of MTNL, irrespective of its package, has one inherent defect. The defect was that the service is not without interference or disconnections. I was finding it very difficult to work with that connectivity since, in the middle of either download or upload, that service would stop and all the down loads or uploads were lost; however the bytes were counted and so I was charged for that unsuccessful download or upload, costing me a bill far exceeding my 49 rupee package. 

Last month I wanted to download Linux package for Ubuntu. It is about 650 Mb and while downloading after 600 Mb were completed the connectivity was lost I waited for long time but it did not connect and I had to stop that. Interesting part is that I immediately restarted to connect Internet and to my surprise, I got connection, so resumed the download here again the download continued until 620 Mb, and again lost connectivity. This continued until my download was finally completed but by that time, I had made unsuccessful downloads of whooping 4500 Mb. I got bill for all that download. I have paid the bill but now I feel that was simple looting of a non-suspecting user by MTNL. The question is why one should pay for unsuccessful downloads or uploads due to disconnectivity. 

I do not know if there is any protection to the users by any law that, there will not by any charge for unsuccessful download or upload due to untimely disconnectivity. Because, we know that the service provider is responsible for continuous connectivity. I doubt if there is any such protection to the users since, that responsibility yet is not mandatory. There is no such protection. We the users are at their mercy. One thing we should note and that is that in this process MTNL is not losing anything but on the contrary benefit. See for example my case given here, supposing the connectivity was perfect I would have to pay only for the 650 Mb download whereas due to this inherent defect of MTNL service they have earned whooping extra about 4000 rupees. 

My telephone is with Union Park Exchange of MTNL Mumbai. When I contacted the engineer, Mr. Prasad, he showed his inability to help me and told me that if I am not satisfied I can stop this service and go to other service provider. I am now seriously thinking of doing that soon but that does not resolve this mode of corruption. On enquiry, I came to know that similar condition prevails in other Exchanges also. Some persons connected with the department told me that, there is nexus between Exchange Engineers and the other service providers such as private cable operators and or Reliance or Tata to malign MTNL services so that they may get that business, I feel that could be the cause behind this type of corruption of bad service.

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Ashok Kothare’s Blog

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