Photo Courtesy: http://ktm2day.com/ Facebook, Google, YouTube and Internet Surfing, Nepalese people do it all now. The value of Internet in our country is more than we realize. Our country might be underdeveloped, but even common people today acknowledge Internet as the part of their life. We use Skype to talk face to face with our loved ones who are outside the country. Viber has made messaging easy among the teenagers. Google, Wikipedia, and many more websites come in handy for students these days. With the increasing use of Internet in Nepal, there has been a growth in the number of Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in the market. People can choose their own ISP for better Internet facility. But how can people know which is the best Internet Service Provider? People usually go with the trend and set the Internet connection. People might also look at the brochure of the Internet service, its bandwidth, cost and all the necessary accessories. But there is more to it than just cost and bandwidth. Several problems may arise during the Internet use. Customer care and maintenance service also matter when some major issues with the Internet come into sight. Internet might not live up to the expectation of common Nepalese and they can’t afford to change the Internet Connection time and again. DWIT News had done an independent survey among the 89 Computer Science students of Deerwalk Institute of Technology to gain probable knowledge of the best ISP in Nepal. Since the sample size is limited to 89, we certainly cannot make a rigid conclusion from the survey. However, the results when extrapolated to a larger size can help us obtain a likely outcome. First of all, here is the picture of what the 89 surveyed students use to get an Internet Service. [caption id="attachment_4002" align="aligncenter" width="689"] Photo Courtesy: Amun Kharel[/caption] The first sight of the graph reflects ADSL and Subisu to be the top two competing ISPs, followed by Worldlink and others. Now let’s get into details. 39 out of 49 students, who use ADSL, find the connection extremely slow. Their experience has led them to conclude that the download speed is less compared to the bandwidth. 5 students complained that the Internet problem arises on a daily basis; such situation, according to them, is sometimes overlooked for a couple of days. 4 students feel the Internet service is marginally expensive compared to the other Internet services. The Internet service gives limited access most of the time, quoted 34 students, who find that problem really irritating. 7 students increased their respective bandwidth to solve the problem of slow Internet but merely felt the difference in the speed. They also experienced the speed fluctuating when raining. Customer Care is poor said 28 students opposed to 8 students who felt the customer care is good. The ones giving negative remarks said that the system is inactive in solving the issues promptly. Eyeing from a positive viewpoint, some students agree ADSL to be good because of the unlimited service, satisfactory speed and no buffering on the most popular video site YouTube. 15 students consider unlimited download within a given period of time to be the best thing about this ISP. Direct payment service through phone via recharge cards is adored by most of the students. 11 compared to 8 students, found setting up the Internet quite simple. Most did it with the help of technicians. Other students were neutral on the subject. Another plus for ADSL. However, on average, the poor review from the ADSL users signals it to be a red light when ISPs are considered. Half of the Subisu users at DWIT feel that the login interface makes the ISP secure and easy to use; some find it tedious while some are neutral about it. Students feel it has good download speed and fast buffering compared to the other ISP. Most interestingly 10 of Subisu users switched from other ISPs and found the result to be satisfactory. They know the hardship of downloading data from other ISPs and they seem to be reasonably happy with the ISP. 3 students cherished the fact that they got TV cable for free along with the ISP. Downloading Torrent files is quicker from this ISP said 12 students. Most of the students think setting up the Internet was fairly easy with some help from the technician’s side. 14 out of 18 students felt the customer care quite friendly, supportive, helpful and prompt. 5 out of 18 considered it to be slow most of the times while 10 complained about the limited access. Despite the presence of mixed responses, most of them were positive. Some of the students were unwillingly filling out the disadvantages part of the form. Subisu definitely looks like a green light for people who are willing to set up a brand new Internet connection. Worldlink, which landed on the third position in the survey with 9 users, has a lot of advantages over minor disadvantages. Setting up the Internet was easy, sums up the poll of 9 students. Unlimited Internet service and good speed according to its bandwidth were considered to be the advantages. 4 students feel that the data package system upto which a certain speed is given is good and it is fast even after the completion of data package. One student was particularly happy that he got Internet service free for a month with free installment charges. Gamers were reasonably happy with the Internet service saying that its speed was satisfactory for online gaming. Most of them were satisfied with the customer care that Worldlink provides. Students also liked the online service they provide. A minority of 2 students, feel that Worldlink provides limited access most of the times and has fluctuating bandwidth. Some students tend to dislike the concept of data package. They feel the Internet should be unlimited on same speed range on cheaper rate. With positive remarks overweighting the negative ones, we can plausibly comment that Worldlink is good to go if we are willing to pay for good quality Internet service. NTC 3G have 3 users. Though many of the students use NTC 3G on their phones, these 3 are the ones completely dependent on the mobile internet service. They were confident that it was a better Internet service on mobile phones compared to Ncell with cheaper, reliable and easy to initiate Internet service. Classictech got no particular disadvantage from survey of 3 students. It is satisfactory said all of them. We can definitely try out this Internet connection. Westlink, Netmax, Websurfer, WiMax and Cable DSL all had one user. We were not able to conclude it being a better ISP based on the single user survey. Moreover, when comparing the three types of services, Unlimited Internet Plan, Volume Based Plan and Night Surfing Plan, that ISPs provide, Volume Based Data Plans, comparatively, seems to be providing higher data rates. So, if we are looking for performance then we can undoubtedly choose Volume Based Plan. Night Surfing Plan seems to be the best plan if we are working on the Internet 10pm-5am. We can definitely think on that! The survey helped us conclude that students from Deerwalk Institute of Technology seem to be missing some attractive ISPs such as Broadlink. Broadlink provides a device, Signal Booster, at NRs. 3500 with some attractive offers that helps us boost the WiFi signal. If we are outside the valley, we may not have as much option. However, with Broadlink, we can receive Wi-Fi facility outside the valley as well. Likewise, UTL provides CDMA Internet services but it requires good signal strength to have desired speed, so if a good signal is not available, we shouldn’t try UTL. When we extrapolate the survey results, we can clearly see that most of the people have been using ADSL because of the unlimited speed and mostly because of the trend. But users don’t seem too happy with its Internet. However, opting for other Internet services would mean changing their ISPs. Most people don’t want change as it requires extra time and effort. People would have to adapt to the change. Also people might not be sure if the changed ISP might turn out nice. If some ISP is planning to break the ongoing monopoly of the ADSL services, they might want to come up with something that catches the attention of people making them comfortable with the service. Setting up that internet must be fairly simple with good customer care. Surely existing Internet service can upgrade to being easy to setup, cheap, reliable with good customer care. Happy Surfing People! :)