India Broadband Forum

techboy44

Airtel has started reducing connection speed for unlimited plans exceeding a certain download limit. Hence it means there is no unlimited plan.
This is ridiculous.
May be they want to divert bandwidth for IPTV and dump the existing broadband customers.

Some info I have -
Plan 384 kbps - UL - Limit 25GB (per month ) after which speed reduces to 256 kbps.

Worst part is the customers are not infomred about this "Fair usage Policy" before it gets into effect.

At the customer care side the rep can view a pop-up for the accounts which fall under this policy.

cool_techie_tvm

U shall be getting the details about the speed cap with your next bill.

Keep a checkout on your email inbox too, because some of the subscribers have been notified using emails.

panchabhut

Its only a speed cap and not downoad cap.
plan would still remain unlimited

techboy44

I Accept - The thread should have been named like " Airtel - Unlimited Plans have restrictions !! "
But my intention is to initiate a discussion of Airtel doing this. I stay in Hyderabad and have not heard anything like this before.
I am not sure if users in other cities are already familiar with the policy.
Really appreciate if IndiaBroadband users can share more info and perhaps thier experiences in this regard.

I have also noticed the landline sometimes will not let you reach customer care. After dialing 121, i get a voice "welcome to airtel.." thats it.. it goes blank after that.

cool_techie_tvm

Please contact the broadband customer care. They will break the entire details to u. Alternatively u can emailing the customer care too at :: Airtel :: Broadband Servies - Reach Airtel - For You

StormShadow

Not necessary. What you have said is reality.

Unlimited plans cannot and should not have restrictions.

Airtel has put caps of 15gb for 256kbps plans and speed reduction to 128kbps after that - it ceases to be Unlimited plan and also a TRAI defined broadband connection.

Infact Airtel is violating the very definition of broadband connection as per TRAI.

cool_techie_tvm

Guys checkout http://www.trai.gov.in/WriteReadData...per15jan09.pdf

Gary4gar

Thanks, for the link. TRAI knows Bittorrent is biggest bandwidth eater:P

Also read the replies from ISPs

vinit

then whats the use of paying 4r a speed u arent getting

pisces_m

Dont know what the hell is happening to the broadband industry here. Instead of lowering the fares and increasing the speeds. They are capping them. What is TRAI or DOT doing in this regard. its a bad thing all.

StarK

guys u remember the signature at the end of their signup form with the terms and conditions, don't you?...
it is we and the government who have given them right to do anything against the customer.

panchabhut

you still have the basic right right to say "NO". you can always surrender the connection in protest. if even 50% of the users surrender their connections, Airtel would have to rethink their business strategy.

cool_techie_tvm

What about the subscribers who are stuck with Airtel as their only ISP?

StarK

@panchabhut and also all airtel customers irritated after this restriction


Some facts below:

i used to use 150kbps previously for 840bucks on reliance wimax, 64kbps @700bucks previous to that, and 96kbps at 700 prior to that... and all this **** was going on with me till just 3months ago... believe me i'm still happy with airtel. if you give me a better deal and quality option right now, i will change the ISP this instant.

all these services were a big pain in the a** for me, frantic calls to a dumb customer care, various types of connectivity issues, upgrading of speed of wireline customers while leaving wimax in the cold----> RELIANCE, disconnections often, slow as hell, crappy cables, all services prior to reliance.

i have suffered enough before... so what if they give me 128kbps after 15gb on my 256kbps plan...big deal...

there is no hope of any improvement in the bb scene in india given the present state of affairs.

what wrong have they done? they are just taking some advantage of the abismal state of bb here... still better than most others.

techboy44

BSNL wont give any connections to my apartments.. they say cable is damaged or D SLAM doesn't have any open ports.. etc.. this has been going for the past 2 years. BSNL gives ads in newspapers about broadband but does not care a damn to expand..
I have options like Beam cable but not sure of the up time.. which is imp for me since I connect to office network..Sify .. also not sure.
.. I was just wondering is this also fallout of global recession..because companies want to squeeze maximum out of the existing infrastructure without any new investment???

Also interesting article - related to contention ratio in India - (search in Google news .. I could not insert url here )

ISPs irked by TRAI norms
16 Feb 2009, 1320 hrs IST, Joji Thomas Philip, ET Bureau

cool_techie_tvm

U must be referring to ISPs irked by TRAI norms- Telecom-News By Industry-News-The Economic Times

Lol according to Reliance Comm, contention ratio methods are inefficient !! Great...

techboy44

Yeah that's the link.. thanks cool_techie_tvm.
It shows Reliance is not concerned about customer experience which has been the case always.

cool_techie_tvm

Airtel is also messing up with VOIP services like Vonage in different parts of the country.

dr.karthik

i am really very upset with airtel BB policy, gonna change to bsnl soon

superprash2003

i still dont get why airtel is doing this.. they should have realized that doing this would cause them to loose customers..weird..