Internet services are closely scrutinized by consumer courts. After BharatMatrimony received an adverse consumer court judgement for failing to find a suitable match for the daughter of one of its users, here is an ISP being punished by another Delhi consumer court for some bizarre terms and conditions.
The company in questions is Sify Broadband, which has been asked to pay a compensation of Rs 8,200 (including a refund of Rs 1,200) by Delhi’s North-West District Consumer Forum for indulging in “Unfair Trade Practices and deficiency in service”. The complainant is an IT lawyer Ankur Raheja, who approached the court alleging non-disclosure of certain terms and conditions by the ISP. The ISP is alleged to have reduced the speed to 14 kbps once the user exceeded his limit of 750 MB. Also a new condition cropped up when the company reduced the validity of the connection by one day when the download limit crossed 150 MB on a single day. The court also observed that according to conditions laid out by TRAI, a service is considered broadband only if the minimum speed is 256 Kbps. So Sify’s provision of 14 kbps in itself is considered a ‘deficiency in service’.
In a related note, do we really get the speed promised by ISPs? Everyone’s refrain is that ISPs deliver half of the speed promised. Ask for 256 Kbps, then you will get 128 kbps. Ask for 1 mbps, then you get 512 kbps.