Thread: Switched from Airtel after 6 years and am happy again

Cancelled my Airtel broadband connection after 6 years just like techboy: and am happy again!

My experience is also on similar lines:
Plus: Airtel had provided good service but over the last 2-3 years. I took the speed upgrade offered to move to unlimited 640kbps by day and 1mbps at night (explorer)

Minuses:
- BSNL is turning out to be unbelievably cheaper and now that most of us use alternate providers, the bandwidth contention is almost zero. I have a retired government official living in my house and my annual bill for 640kbps unlimited is only Rs 6000 versus Airtels Rs 13,200 (1099 x 12)

- I had almost forgotten what true 640kbps actually means with Airtel shaping the torrent traffic during the day. BSNL gives me a rock steady 640kbps throughout day and night irrespective of what I use it for. I have never seen such performance with Airtel. It does prove to me at least that in my area BSNL has little connection sharing.

- I could live with switching my modem off and on at 10:30 pm which Airtel forced us to do sometime back to get to our double speed at night offer but recently they reduced the FUP from 75gb to 15gb without sending any info There are other posts in the forum about this... eg 37758-anyone-using-south-explorer-1099-plan.html
With BSNL I can download 104 gb a month and the connection speed never wavers unlike Airtel which used to get reduced at random

- It was not a bad experience with Airtel (I remember when I initially moved I had even bought 2 connections - one from Tata Indicom for backup and seeing Airtel's reliability I give it up in 2 months) until I realize I have been robbed clean looking at how much I have paid over the last 6 years...

I hope Airtel would realize the current broadband scenario and re-vamp the pricing and speeds.

Airtel's low FUP is making it highly unpopular amongst users. They should at least give some decent FUP if not for a lavish one. BSNL 640 Kbps plan ? May I know which one you are referring to ?

It is actually UL 750 512 Kbps unlimited. While this is obviously a 512 kbps plan my download speed is a continuous 64kb/s hence my confusion. It seems to be one of those rare plans that has no Fair Usage Policy (outside MTNL's area)

Certainly. Me too on UL 750 since it is became 512 kbps unlimited.

Actually, many users do not have a wide choice. Because the civic authorties have banned road digging or charging very heavy for such activity, the spread of wired broadband has been curtailed.

So, if you have multiple landline providers in your area, you can choose.

In my case, on the contrary, the choice is between BSNL and Tata. I do not have many complaints against BSNL. And I am happy with them.

It is correct that FUP has earned Airtel many enemies. But unless someone is downloading movies heavily, I am inclined to agree with Airtel that 15 GB is fair limit.

15 GB is a bit low I think, considering one hour video chat will consume around 200 MB with a decent web cam. YouTube videos are getting bulkier day by day, so are photos with digital camera getting cheaper. Web pages are getting heavier with flash and images and many freewares are available for download. It is ok if an ISP is providing 4 Mbps or above, but for speeds less than 4 Mbps, they can be a bit more lenient. I feel it is just milking the market just like what Windows is doing. Of course they are not doing any charity, but they are not compelled to invest in low profile areas and are free to choose premium areas where connection density is high. But the line between profit and customer satisfaction is getting thinner day by day. People stick to Airtel when the alternatives are Ambani's Reliance and Babu ruled BSNL / MTNL.

I am against FUP for that matter and what you say is true.

But if someone is going to video chat all day long or look at YouTube, and do this everyday, then I say that it is a serious misuse of bandwidth. Bandwidth is costly.

At the same time, providers are also acting holier than thou.