I have been very happy with my BSNL DataOne broadband connection. Its always on and gives me 256Kbps performance in shared mode. I have also connected a wireless acess point and share it between two computers and the response so far (touch wood!) has been good. With lots of talk about private players launching all kinds of networks, the good old copper line seems to be the best bet for now and BSNL has 40 million of these. Plan is to deploy a million this financial year, a challenge where BSNL is its own competitor. The supply demand gap is so huge that they have an unchallenged run till 5 million lines. Wireless broadband does not have the scale that DSL has and cost economics largely in its favour.
Based on all the anecdotal input, BSNL is the best option available today. Some of my friends have tried out VSNL, Iqara, Dishnet etc and have not been satisfied. Number of my friends have deployed dataone in business and homes and are extremely satisfied. For now, BSNL continues to be the best devil around. For a company, whose officials took bribes to allot, deploy and keep the phone networks running, it has been a long ride tamed along the way by free market forces.