Availing of BSNL FTTH in a small city( Whole journey & User Experience)

Hi there!! This is DIBRU MARDI, Currently Studying UX/UI design at Design Shift by Masai. Here, I am going to share my whole journey and user experience of availing BSNL FTTH in a small city like Jamshedpur.

I live in Jamshedpur with my parents. For your quick introduction, Jamshedpur is known to be 1st planned city of India. It was named after Jamshedji Tata. It is a home to the world’s 11th largest steel manufacturing company “TATA STEEL”. But still after so many years, infrastructure of this city is not fully developed yet. It needs some more companies and at least one international airport.

So let’s get to the point. In my locality BSNL was the only player which provides Fiber to the home service.

But before explaining my whole journey, let’s know the BSNL a bit.

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) is a government owned telecommunications service provider headquartered in New Delhi, India. It is under the ownership of Department of Telecommunications, Ministry of Communications, Government of India. It was incorporated on 15th September 2000 by the Government of India. Image below is the General stakeholder mapping of BSNL.

As I mentioned earlier, I didn’t have other option to choose from. So I decided to go with BSNL FTTH service.

Step 1: Applying Online for new connection

I did some searches in google about how to get a new broadband connection. I got the links from BSNL where I can book a request for new connection. I immediately applied for the same. I got SMS from BSNL intimating that my request has been booked with reference no. xxxxxxxxxx. BSNL sales team will get back to me soon. Detailed information can be read from image below.

I patiently waited for almost one week but I didn’t receive any call or text from BSNL representatives. I was frustrated waiting for the BSNL to contact me. Then I searched on you tube about the offline procedure. I came to know that online booking is just a gimmick thing. It never worked in small cities.

Step 2: Applying offline for new connection.

I was frustrated already thinking of visiting office but still with heavy heart I visited the BSNL office. When I reached the main gate, I doubted myself “ have I got lost?” But I was in right place. On first look, it seems like Office has been deserted from long. There was no single person walking around.

I went in to the office. There was a transmission room ahead of me. There was no help counter. I searched around and found an officer working inside his cabin. I told him about my issue and he gave a contact no. of a third party cable service provider who work on a contract basis.

Step 3: Interaction with a third party agent

I didn’t understand why BSNL was encouraging third party contractors for their service. BSNL is one of leading company of India and has decent market share in the field of telecommunication. They should have their own workforce to handle such task for new connection request.

I contacted the agent by phone and made aware of the issue. He said “Okay I will visit your locality if the service would be available to you or not. In evening he visited my home and told me about the tariff plans, documentation process and total cost.

Step 4: Providing details and required documents to the agent

Agent asked me for my details and documents to submit. I provided all without a delay through WHATSAPP. This process was seamless and didn’t take long. Then he applied for a new connection to the BSNL as a contractor.

Step 5: Waiting for BSNL to approve my new connection request

After all the documentation process I had to wait some time to get approval from BSNL for new connection. These few hours felt like weeks. I was constantly checking my phone and email awaiting confirmation from BSNL.

Finally after a day I received a mail as well as text from BSNL stating my new Phone no. and account number. Now I was stress free knowing that my request has been accepted.

Step 6: Installation and Activation of internet

After getting the confirmation mail, I was waiting for the installation process to be done as soon as possible. So these hours were not easy for me.

For two days Agent procrastinated the installation work. I called him multiple time stating about my urgency. After 3–4 calls, finally he took me seriously and laid the cable from pole-to-pole to my house. But I was surprised by seeing that labours engaged in that work were all children.

He then installed router and activated the internet.

Conclusion and overall experience:

So after going through all this process I can say that BSNL is reluctant in expanding new user base specially in small cities. They act like they do not care. They don’t have workforce to carry out a installation task. They are heavily relied on third party contractors.

Online booking of Fiber is just a gimmick, it doesn’t work. They don’t have even proper customer support. Sometimes the connection goes down for one or two days and there will be no one to listen your problems. You can log your complain through online portals but that’s also a gimmick. Your complaints will never be entertained.

But after using the Bharat Fiber for almost a month I can say that speed of the connection is very good. It provides the best plan and speed to the user what company promises.

Whole Journey and Experience mapping

I have mapped the whole journey and my experience in the image given below.

Thankyou for reading!!