Telephony

Still no ADSL, or for that matter calls outside of the local area and abroad: a trip to the telephone exchange was in order. BSNL is the state owned telecom company in these parts, and the exchange which serves our line is conveniently nearby. My father-in-law had done some prior research on ADSL by phoning up his exchange in Hyderabad. Apparently they can sort you out in a day over there. Not so Pune! A few weeks is the suggested time frame, and we're heading into months territory...

The public face of the exchange was challenged on this temporal disparity. The answer provided was a peculiar one to my non-native understanding of matters telephonic. Here's the gist:

You see Hyderabad is a busy place so things happen quickly there. Pune on the other hand is a retired, relaxed place. Therefore, you must expect things to take some time.

Right. Into the next room (they all have KEEP OUT signs but no one seems to mind visitors), and a chat with an engineer. He expressed surprise at our problems and said it should all be quite straightforward. Indeed after the weekend we received a phone call informing us that the line was checked and ADSL will be available shortly. I won't believe it until the bytes start flowing but things are looking more positive.

The international dialing issue was simpler. We had filled out a form to get our current service, but international dialing requires a separate form to be filled after you have the basic service. It requires a list of countries you're going to be calling, how often you'll be calling, signed photos and a further proof of identity. Quite a bit to get '00' working.

Edit: update - we have the internet at home - yay!