#32 BSNL Broadband Days

Created: July 10, 2022 11:17 AM

The only time I was excited to see the MSN homepage was in 2007 when we got our first broadband connection.

It loaded slowly, but experiencing the internet for the first time gave me goosebumps. I was very eager to browse the internet, except for one small issue. My bandwidth was 1 GB, for a month. Anything more than that would incur extra cost (₹1 per MB). So if I exceed my monthly bandwidth by 200 MB, we will be billed an extra ₹200 in our telephone bill.

And such mistakes will label me as reckless and my parents would pull the plug on the internet connection. So, I divided 1 GB by 30 (days of the month) - that came down to 34 MB per day. I used a data counter on my PC and browse the internet. If I used up the 1 GB by 23rd, I will spend the rest of the month without internet.

It wasn’t hard as my life wasn’t dependent on the internet and the web wasn’t heavy on media. But it was a relief when my parents upgraded to the 500C plan. It came with 500 minutes of landline calls and 2.5 GB of data every month. It was a steal for both my parents and me as everything came for Rs.500 per month. But, the best part of the plan was you can use unlimited data every day from 2 AM to 8 AM. It won’t fall under the 2.5 GB cap.

So from 2008 to 2014, I used to wake up at 4 am and spend time on the internet till 8 am. I spent time browsing the internet, downloading movies, watching Youtube videos, searching for extraterrestrial life (as part of the SETI project), and so on.

It was the time I fell in love with the internet. I learned about writing, tech, learned the basics of HTML and saw a ton of Hollywood movies from the past. And I was able to do everything at peace as my parents slept during that time.

If not for the 500C Plan, I wouldn’t have become a blogger, a movie buff, and a tech enthusiast. Today, I use a 100Mbps fibernet connection. But the thrill of waking up and downloading as much as I can before 8 AM was amazing!