Thread: Airtel DTH Review (Digital TV Review)

Airtel DTH or Airtel Digital TV is more or less officially launched now. Although they have started it off late when compared to other already existing players like Dish TV, TATA Sky, and Big TV as well as Sun Direct, but still they have a huge scope in this market with DTH yet to reach majority of households in India as around 80% of them are still using the cable TV.

Airtel Digital TV too followed its previous market leaders’ path by offering free channels for one year by paying a joining or installation charges initially. Although it looks not impressive as you get to watch only around 70 channels for free initially and if you want to watch more channels other than the free channels you will need to pay extra for it.

This new Airtel DTH comes with a universal remote control, which can be used simultaneously for your TV and for your set-top box. This is a first of its kind for in DTH service, as we always need to struggle with two remotes while watching TV using our DTH previously.

Airtel Live, this is nothing but premium services from Airtel DTH through which you can order movie tickets, book your holidays, order movies on demand, astrology, and much more but it is not operational yet but will be soon as per their reports. With the movies on demand you can watch English as well as most regional language movies.

There is also an interactive feature called iNews at Airtel Live where you can watch two news channels at once. Similarly there are also iAstro, iTravel, iShope, etc. All these were additional features, which will be charged extra if you avail them. There is also a unique feature called iMatinee where you can book your movie tickets through Airtel Live from a multiplex near your neighbourhood.

Airtel DTH also comes with a satellite radio in association with Worldspace. You can listen to all the stations available in Worldspace through Airtel Digital TV.

The navigation part on Airtel DTH comes with a special feature called Electronic Programme Guide or EPG. With this you get an interactive electronic on-screen program menu which you can access from your remote itself. This EPG can be viewed also in Hindi.

They are rolling out plans based on three tariffs namely silver, gold and platinum. You can choose any package and can also switch between plans in between during your subscription period. You have the option of recharging your plans online as well as by calling their toll-free help line number or as always can visit your nearest Airtel dealer to recharge the same.

All the above features although looks promising, but still Airtel has not come up with any unique plans or offers to woo the existing users of DTH. To woo the existing users who mostly were contended with their existing service provider they would have to come up with something new or something amazing to get them switch or are they targeting only new customers who are yet to switch to DTH.

Hello...!
I have a tata sky connection....!
Compared to Tata sky , Airtel has good better features..!
But I had bad experience with the customer service people of Airtel DTH.
I Have airtel Boradband connection.The service offered by those guys is fantastic.I am satisfied by their way of treating customers.Keeping that in mind I thought to check the Airtel DTH.I got the Customer care # from Ad.I dialed that ph# in the morning at aroung 8.15 am.After going through the IVR I was directed to a rep.The phone rang for aroung 1 min, guess what...! No one picked the phone and I was disconnected.Later I tried once again after couple of mins ,again no answer...! the phone kept on ringing and I was disconnected.Hmmmm...I was frustrated.......Later I thought they might be working from 9am-9am.But soon I realised that it cannot be because after 10 mins(@8.30am) I got connected to a rep by name Neal who sounded as if he was sleeping and got disturbed by me.He confirmed that they work 24/7.I am not expecting much from Airtel.Since it is from Bharthi,I would expect the same quality of services that is offered by their internet division.He was less knowledgeable and he was not able to highligt the main features.I have to probe and get the details that I needed.Later I asked him that I was hung up twice by airtel DTH as no one answered the phone.The response was awesome -"You might have dialed wrong number".Oh I was shocked by that response...! .I repeated the number I dialed and he said carelessly"yes thats our number".He was not able to handle the situation when I asked him how could that happen and he tried escalating the situation to a senior rep.He was rude aand careless. Airtel needs to take care of this issue.Airtel have outsourced their call centre operations to a mumbai based co(I came to know by the same rep).Usually when they outsource the C Care ,all these problems would arise.
Airtel should work on their Customer care division(only contact point to customers which is very important)

Just today i got airtel and I am disappointed. I am using tatasky as well. Airtel's customer support is pathetic. Their free offer of package is pathetic. Topup is not very impressive. Their user interface with STP is of poor quality. Channel guide is total mess.

I did not see even a single point where I can say Airtel is better then Tatasky. Buying Airtel is big mistake. I would say if anyone wants to go for DTH. Buy only Tatasky.

Originally Posted by rakson

Just today i got airtel and I am disappointed. I am using tatasky as well. Airtel's customer support is pathetic. Their free offer of package is pathetic. Topup is not very impressive. Their user interface with STP is of poor quality. Channel guide is total mess.

I did not see even a single point where I can say Airtel is better then Tatasky. Buying Airtel is big mistake. I would say if anyone wants to go for DTH. Buy only Tatasky.

made the biggest mistake going for Airtel Digital TV. Mark my words you will regret taking this service. Firstly the customer service has raised new benchmarks in incompetence.

1) My problems first started with them assuming I had bought 2 STBs while I had bought just one. Every 2 days some woman from airtel calls me up to make payment for the 2nd imaginary STB which I never purchased.

2) If you have the misfortune of calling Airtel Customer Service, god save you! The guys working there have absolutely no idea about anything. Every question you ask will be followed by the agent asking you to hold while he "checks your details". If he doesnt know the answer, he will say database is slow and he cant pull up your information and that you will have to call back a few hours later!!!

3) If you ask for a supervisor, the agent will not give it to the supervisor. He will keep stalling you till you get fed up or your BP rises so high that you will be too tired to talk.

My advice to anybody who is buying Airtel DTV is to STAY AWAY from this.

Just Recently purchased a Airtel Digital TV @ 1099/- For STB KIT+Installation
Regarding Services they are good, Customer Helpline number is always reachable, it is with great technology that is Universal Remote that functions as you tv remote + Stb remote, Good looking and stylish black colour STB mostly looks good with Lcd's and plasma tvs, have the feature of World Space Radio Channels in which u have ten channels, interactive services are also there like icity, inews etc which is not very usefull to you. Programme Guide is very easy t understand and use, quality of picture is very good and sharp, quality of sounds also good
but packages are too costlier and top ups are good

My sister bought south value pack for 2000 rs she is staying in ground floor and the antenna was supposed to be set up at the second floor due to poor coverage from first floor but guess what airtel charged 300 rs extra for placing antenna in second floor saying its cost towards the additional few feets of wire provided .So she had to spend 2300 instead of 2000 on the very first day -Is this a fair business ?
Exactly after 6 months and 1 week ,Tv signals were completely lost .she called the customer service for assistance and they said that she has to recharge for 300 rs then only they will take the complaint else they will just disregard not even bothered to satisfy the customer service manager explicitly said "do whatever you can"-worst customer service we had ever seen.She had no option other than to pay 300rs because she already subscribed for 1 yr plan but to her surprise they said that this 300 rs recharge fee will not be added to the subscription account .Its just a fee(then why r they calling this as Recharge) to have one of their technician to look after the issue.I prefer they would have call this additional fee as a fee rather as recharge because whoever reads the supportive document thinks that they will get additional service towards the recharge amount but certainly it is not.We are completely dissatisfied with this service .utter monkey business.

@rajen,

The first charge of Rs. 300/- is ... well, how do I put it ... ah yes, it is there in the fine print. The standard installation includes some minimal amount of cable length. Extra cable is charged. So while it is a deplorable practice (* - to put in fine print like this), it is done by every DTH company. Airtel is no exception.

The second charge is somewhat confusing. What did the company do to rectify the fault? Was your dish misaligned and did they send a person to fix that (to your home)? What was the exact problem? Did all channels disappear? Your sister may have subscribed to a six month introductory pack and not a yearly pack?

I checked from the website. This is what it says under the Rs. 2000/- pack:

Channels included: 121 + View List
Interactive services: 9 + View List
Offers / Promotions: Inclusive of 3 Months Subscription of Mega Pack
Charges after Free period: @ Rs. 235 p.m.
Cost: Rs. 2000

just4kix

Yes all channels disappeared ,when we asked them about the issue they said you have to recharge for additinal amt to take the complaint. though the package is meant for 1 yr.To them ,if we incur any issues in dish antenna or in the set up box afer six months they will not look into it.To have their technician to look into the issue we have to pay more on top of the one yr subscription though we are still in the subscription period.

the first charge they took from you is for wextra cable which is used for installation of the Dish.

and the second 300 Rs is for out warranty visit charges as the company provides 181 days warranty..

so if your case is older than 6 months surely they will take visit charge from you.

Originally Posted by bipindhamal

the first charge they took from you is for wextra cable which is used for installation of the Dish.

and the second 300 Rs is for out warranty visit charges as the company provides 181 days warranty..

so if your case is older than 6 months surely they will take visit charge from you.

Hmm. You are correct. But that is not what Airtel told rajen about the second charge or rajen/rajen's sister misunderstood. That leaves consumers frustrated.

AIRTEL has very good service ...they r know for quality of sevice

ok i have already bought the airtel thingy and they will come and install it tomorrow .... have i made the wrong choice ?? please comment !!

hi,
pl go through this....
Details of transactions:
1. Customer ID: 3001013913
2. Installed on 25.06.09 with South valve pack Rs 1750/-
3. On 26.06.09 through prepaid vouchers deposited another Rs 850
4. Kept receiving on my registered mobile & STB that I have negative balance & I should recharge immediately! (Although STB showed NO DATA in my account)
5. Help line 18001028080 when contacted after good many attempts reaffirmed that there is sufficient balance and I should ignore the messages.
6. When I enquired about adding some packages, he offered me New South Mega package with 6 months free subscription @ Rs 2600 approx. He also said they would deduct some Rs 20-30 for 2 days of earlier package usage. I asked him to change the package accordingly.
7. Since I continued getting negative balance messages, I recharged another Rs 1000 on 30.6.09. Here is the official extract from Airtel website.
Date of recharge Mode of recharge Recharge Amount(Rs.)
30/06/2009 Self Care Payment - Credit Card 1,000.00
30/06/2009 Promotional Payment 75.00
27/06/2009 IVR Voucher Payment 50.00
27/06/2009 IVR Voucher Payment 500.00
27/06/2009 IVR Voucher Payment 300.00
25/06/2009 IVR Activation Voucher Recharge 1,750.00

8. STB continued showing NO DATA & messages of negative balance kept pouring despite everyday calls to helpline!
9. They finally acknowledged my complaint with ref no. 812518 “wrong balance deducted” on 3.7.09.
10. Today i.e. 6.7.09 after all these interactions they have finally SUSPENDED the services!
Again when helpline was contacted, “wait till 9th when we will address your complaint” remains the stock answer!

Now you are the judge of their services – Hopeless, Bad or Worst?

Chandrashekar

Was planning to shift to airtel from my tatasky.
Looks like there are too many customer care issues with airtel.
Had vey few issues with tata sky.

I was purchased Airtel DTH 9 July 2009 and get installed on 11 July 2009.
After installation found problem with hardware and account was also not activated.
Installation person said that replace the hardware and activation do today.

While I was asked him, why this problem was happed then said that online purchased was problem.

Next day 12July 2009 called to customer care and told the problem then registered complain and said that tomorrow hr 17.00 will be resolve but I was wait till 21.00PM and again called to customer care n told full story. Customer care person told for tomorrow and discount the phone even not listen our problem.

If you call to customer care take each call takes 5-7 minutes to reach customer care person after that he was talk to you. It means have any problem then you ready to pay INR 100 to INR 200 in call and also not granted to solve your problem.

Today was 4th day and still not solved.
I was suggest don’t purchased by online and I hope direct purchased may be same.

Originally Posted by kooldude

Was planning to shift to airtel from my tatasky.
Looks like there are too many customer care issues with airtel.
Had vey few issues with tata sky.

If you are satisfied with what you have, then don't change. You may not get what you desired and on top there will be one-time payment of CPE+installation.

hi to all the people here.the tata sky installation engineer who came at my place didnt charge me a single rupee extra for the wire. to be precise,he installed almost 90 metres of wire between the terrace and my second floor apartment...the dish is on the terrace and ours is a tower......he even told me that i can keep any amount of additional wire for emergengy....i am shocked to read that airtel guys charge extra for wire!!!! appeal in consumer court!!!!!!

I purchased this DTH on end of june. since then i had problem with my activation for 10 days and i still have problem with viewing all channels in my package (South Value). When i contacted customer care they killed 20 mins evrytime hearing all the problem and abruptly hooking down the call. Initially i felt that may be by mistake, but it happened 6-7 times for me. Then i mailed about the problem to digitaltv@airtel.in, but still went into vain. they gave a reply that is no way related to my problem. They gave the details of my balance where there is no answer for my question regarding activation and channel problems. And their smart work here is they totally broke the chain mail while replying to me so that it won't be a proof for me. still i took a second chance of mailing the question and asking for reason for breaking chain mail..
yes your guess is right.. they didn't respond at all.

today i had another surprise seeing my account validity..

I purchased TV in June 28 with South Value pack which is supposed to be valid for 90 days. But in my account details it is appearing as valid till Sep 12 2009 which is 74 days ...

So guys if u r passionate about seeing more surprise in ur life.. yes u r the ryt person to buy Airtel DTH

Just address your concern to the concerned Nodal Officer of your region. details of nodal officer u will find in the web site, or u can ask the customer care also, theyare bound to provide you.
lodge a compain with Nodal Officer, it works.

the stb just sucks!!! i got it installed on 31/aug/09 . the stb does not work properly.. i have got it replaced 2 times in 1 month.. the stupid engineers tried to give me a repaired box instead of my 2 weeks old box. but somehow i got a new one.. which is again giving me problems.. and also the mpeg4 tech. picture quality is not better than tata sky which uses mpeg2.. my customer id is 3001378369. i am even planning to file a case in consumer forum against airtel digitalTV.

I have taken airtel digital tv one month back. The day one onwards some of the channels are not coming properly. I have given complaint and keep on calling them. But after three weeks also no body has come to check the problem. Really frustrated on their service. Customer care people talk recklessly. I felt local cable guys are far far better than airtel in responding to problems and resolving them

hi fellas..

i purchased Airtel DTH online... the installation was done after 2 days... but i guess that was coz it was a weekend.... they dropped the cable three floors from roof to third at no extra cost... i guess i am pretty satisfied by their service et al... the picture and sound is also clear and the advanced technology and the informative interface makes it more enjoyable.... i guess i am satisfied with it... the cost though is a bit on the higher side... but then its the service that matters...

I bought this connection online on Friday evening(20/11). Customer Care person called me next morning to confirm address and other details. He even changed my plan to Mega from Ultra on my request right away. and told that he would try for installation Saturday evening otherwise Sunday morning it will be done. As my exception with Airtel services was high. the installation guys called me 9:30 AM morning and came by 10:00 AM. and it was done in about an hour. that's it. I did not go anywhere. So far i don't have any issues.
I am satisfied with the service quality.

Hi! I am from Bangalore,was a subscriber of Tata Sky from it's very early days.Had no problems with their quality of service or customer care.But due to the below listed reasons,i was tempted for a change:
1.same package cost,much lesser channels compared to other operators.
2.no further expansion possible due to MPEG2 constraint.
3.Other operators (AD) giving the box and installation for free for just paying an annual subscription.
For the above questions-even the TataSky customer care executives had no answer and they promptly agreed about the problems.(Infact,some agreed with me that i can change the operator)
Taking my specific case,
I was in a Rs275/- package ,i was not paying annually,so it would be Rs 3300/- for a year (and the annual costs 3025/-)
+
In my home itself due to renovation and all the dish had got misaligned and also a obstruction had come up at the location.so needed to refix it at some other place at my house.But even for this TataSky takes Rs350/-

Thus my annual cost comes to 3650/- (even if i take ann pack 3375/-).
+Even with this I don't get many of my regional channels,i dont get WM,MGM etc without a addon,ETnow and all not at all added.And there are many other channels we get in the similar prices package of other operators.
+wanted worldspace,though it closed after i purchased

+ Now for just a small difference of rs200/- why not give a try and get more channels,get a MPEG4 box,bigger dish

Even with many bad reviews in many forums,gave it a try ( actually,am not a mittal lover-me don't have any other service of airtel and dislike their kind of monopoly-but here the service was very competitively priced than other operators even BIG Tv,Videocon D2h ,DishTv and even Sun for that matter for a similar package.).

1.Initially,tried to purchase on their website-but alas- i could never place an order due to some technical fault on website.
2.Then made a call to some number they gave for the dealer of my region.called him.he told he would send a rep the same day and never bothered to send.So,me more or less gave up the plan-seeing the state of affairs just for purchasing.
3.Some day,there was a Tv repairer shop in my locality,saw the ad that he was selling it.Then simply asked him if service was available.He was responsive.Actually it was a saturday evening,he asked my pack,called somebosy and booked instantly,got my subscriber number on phone,booked the installation there itself for the next day itself.All this procedure he did it in 30 mins,gave me my subs no. told me that the box would come with the instl team itself and recieved the money.(though me was a bit apprehensive abt giving the money even without a box-but in our locality thankfully we can trust the shopwallahs).

4.By the time i came home i had already received sms for ADTV about my account being recharged for the given amount.And the same night even if my box was not installed I could register to the website and check the balance.It was 3850/- i was very satisfied with the quick operations.

5.Next day was a sunday,so i was not even expecting that instl people would come.But by afternoon,the guy called me and told he was coming.Then they came with a box,dish,white cable.
6.Instl guys were ok,neither very enthusiastic nor irritating.
7.My installation was done on 2nd floor and Tv on ground floor.No problems with permissions as it's our own house.And then guys had no problem with leaving some extra cable.
8.Yes the dish was bigger than tatasky,cable quality was also good -no problem.
9.As soon as installation was over they guy called customer care and activated - i got all the channels and the free topups assured-no issue like many others faced. Instl guys gave a demo,but i must say i stopped them midway -bored.
9.Coming to the box,ya it's a bit eye candy compared to TS but basically the features are same to same.but i don't like the card protruding out at front of the box in the new model.and one addon is the USB port but of no use still.And for people who want a RF cable it doesn't come in the package as in tata sky.No component output - a big minus-why don't they keep it?

10.The remote -yes was very useful,i had to handle three -one for Tv,one for audio system and one for STB.But now can handle all of them in one.The remote is much lighter and classy.

11.Overall interface not much different from TataSky but has more attractive menus and tabs and much faster.

12.Picture quality not any different from TS,but, for audio it really feels better than TS on my audio system.

13.I did like the widget feature very much ,i can now be seeing any other channel and could see my stock market updates on the screen in a small widget window.
Other interactive services are more or less similar to TS.

14.Coming to the defects-
>channel change takes 2-3 secs,not as instantly as TS,yes ADTV people agree on this.This can get into nerves for Channel surfers.
>unlike TS's favourites,ADTV tried to give 4 member favourites,but selecting our favourites and again surfing in it-is not very convinient-one fav was enough

15.As far as CC,i never came to contact them.don;t know how they are and hope not to contact them for next one year

16.Thus,as far as my experience -it is very satisfactory,no problem go for it!

*(This is what i recently have written to Airtel Nodal Office and their other departments and all that has happened to me.)

DTH SERVICE- CONTINUED HARASSMENT/ NO HELP FROM CUSTOMER SUPPORT‏

Hello,

I am using airtel dth service since October 2009 (CUSTOMER I.D - 3001640031), have got 1 + 1 multi connection. Made full payment for one year in advance. Firstly, i have been wrongly given low price channel package (since October 2009) on my multi connection BUT charged me for the higher/desired rate channel package. Channels were freezing, the set top box was performing really slow and a other few problems i have noticed during this time. After causing me all harassment and a lot of pain, and by making 25 calls, speaking and explaining my situation each and every time to at least 10 different customer advisors, 6 team leaders/supervisors, 3 customer retention executives, 5 technical engineers; finally my dth channel package got rectified during November 2009.

Now from the month of December 2009, both of my dth connections are showing continues video and audio disturbances all over the day, within different time gaps. I have already complained 7 times at least, calling 16 different customer care executives at least (their is no way to track the last person i was speaking to AND they don't disclose their i.d, neither do they maintain any notes on the last conversation with the customer to avoid repeated explanations every time and inconvenience causes due to that), out of which nine couldn't understand or shown interest in resolving my problem and disconnected my calls in between after keeping me on hold and saying me to wait and that they are transferring my call to their senior. This again has caused me a lot lot harassment/trouble by wasting my time and effort, and still the problem is not resolved. Six different airtel dth engineers have already visited my house and couldn't find any logical clue to the real problem. The last time they just changed some hardware device on mere guess work, saying me that now the problem won't come (without even intimating me that i'll be charged for that replaced hardware AND that as the connection is hardly four months old yet the malfunctioning hardware is not covered by airtel). For this hardware Rs.1050 has already been deducted from my airtel dth account on the 12/01/2010 without my permission. As a matter of fact the the same video and audio problem is continuously coming and has never stopped till this day.

Again, i have already spoken to at least six different customer advisors in between 12/01/2010 to 13/01/2010. Five of them (their names Faisal, Anurag, Sandeep, Seema, Sunil) listened my full case, kept me on hold to transfer my line to their senior, and then disconnected my call after few minutes. They never told me their i.d despite requesting them for the same during the whole conversation. The last female customer advisor who attended my call today (on 13/01/2010) at about 13:30 has registered a complaint first time for the video and audio problem in my dth service, and that it'll be resolved by 17:00 today. She also made a request to refund my Rs.1050 due to unnecessary hardware replacement by airtel dth engineer. I also requested her to make a complaint to refund all of my subscription charges on both of my dth connections for the number of days this problem is causing me problem. She gave me a reference no.1754481 for the same.

Airtel recently had stop telecasting World Space Radio service within their dth service, which was one of the main reason i have opted for airtel dth service out of several other service providers in the market. These channels are now replaced by the regional FM Radio stations, which are of no use to me.

I guess i shall now appoint a separate staff to handle the airtel dth service due to the time and efforts it need to get the "world class service".

I am writing you this letter (Nodal Officer, Airtel) despite knowing the fact that may soon going to send me another email address (write to 'digitaltv@airtel.in', which i already did) without even reading this whole letter to contact with for the above problems. And that the next person/department (digitaltv@airtel.in) will generate another automated message/reply, and then finally this letter will be lost forever in the precious airtel database without any further response or reply. i am facing all these problems from the very first day, but since i already have made the mistake taking airtel dth service, so i have got no other option but to struggle or to go to the consumer court. So i am only gathering some evidence here, by giving you another chance to perform.

Regards.