2 in 3 broadband, fibre and DSL users in India struggle with connection disruption issues, lower speed: LocalCircles Survey

Community Social Media platform LocalCircles in its survey said 2 in 3 broadband, fibre and DSL users in India struggle with connection disruption issues and lower speed than what they are charged for, 56% of broadband, fibre and DSL users say they have 3 or more issues every month with their connection, 61% internet connection users say it takes more than 24 hours for service providers to resolve issues and 74% broadband, fibre and DSL users say they are willing to switch to an alternate provider for better quality, service or price.

The survey received over 33,000 responses from more than 319 districts of the country. 64% of participants were men while 36% were women. 48% of respondents were from tier 1 districts, 30% from tier 2 and 22% respondents were from tier 3, 4 and rural districts.

LocalCircles Founder Sachina Taparia, ‘’The objective of the survey was also to understand if users of broadband, fibre and DSL are getting the value on their payment in regards to the internet service they are getting from these providers. The survey also revealed that it takes a long time for service providers to attend to the complaints of users during the prevailing situation where the reliance on online connectivity is critical for meetings and classes. Even a few hours of downtime leads to loss of productivity.’’

The survey sought to understand how often users face any issue with their broadband, fibre and DSL connection in a month. In response, 25% said they face issues “Once or twice”, 21% said “5-10 times”, 19% said “3-5 times”, and 16% said “more than 10 times” a month. On an aggregate basis, 56% of broadband, fibre and DSL users surveyed have 3 or more issues every month regarding their connection. Only 19% of the DSL, broadband, fibre users said they “do not face any issues”.

Further, it was also revealed that even though many consumers are not getting the speed they are promised, internet service providers continue to charge consumers the same or increase tariffs.