Got New Airtel BB Connection.. A small review.

I am from Chennai, after a long research, settled downed with Airtel, coz..no other ISP proved to be better except BSNL perhaps but i dont own bsnl landline. Bsnl persons themselves told met that, it will be take qutie good amount of time to install Braod band since i need to apply for land line first. Since i needed it soon for by business purposes, i opted Airtel. And i guess i made the right choice.

Paid the amount Rs.1300 initially. I opted Airtel 30GB max plan, applied on friday and got connection on saturday itself.After three long days of usage, i should admit that i am quite satisfactory with the speeds and service of Airtel.
Getting around 240 - 260 KB/ps speed on torrents and other file sharing sites.
Of course some times, it tends to slow down to some 150 kbps, but over all speed is decent.

This post was just to share my experience and it will be useful if you can provide me any useful information necessary for new Airtel BB user.

Thanks.

Bear these points while using the connection.

Use http://goo.gl/EYCdO to keep a track of the remaining GB

Register yourself the connection over at http://goo.gl/ejvCM This portal will enable you to pay the bills online as well as check the account usage.

Connectivity is not an issue with airtel broadband. The real issues are (a) incorrect calculation of the remaining GBs (b) changing your plan without your consent (c) nagging reminders which tell you that you have crossed the fair usage policy limits (d) and of course the fair usage policy speeds.

Thanks for the help.
I have some queries, your advice wud be helpful.

1. Does this link( goo.gl/EYCdO) )gives the correct details about my data usage? I mean, will it track the actual gb i used genuinely. I am asking this coz, if this link can show right amount of data i used, and before full usp if airtel tells me i have crossed usp, i could refer this link for my actual data usage.
If not, please let me know if there is any other way how can know my actual data usage.. (Or i need to note daily how much data i downloaded..).

2. If they change me to costlier plan without my consent, will they bill that way accordingly?

3. How to get rid of those nagging reminders which tell about usp, and how long i need to stare on those reminders?

See now you are talking about the real issues with Airtel Broadband.

There is no definite answer for (1). We are at their mercy. If their server calculates the usage incorrectly, then we have no option other than to suffer silently. The data usage calculation is thankfully working out nicely for me. But I know plenty of subscribers who get fair usage policies enforced on their connection because of Airtel's fault in data calculation.

If they change your plan, they may not/ may inform you about the same. Some subscribers know about the plan change when they see their monthly bills. As of now, you have no option to move back to your default plan if they change your plan.

The remainders are programmed to appear for about 20 seconds after each time the connection is established. When the message appears, just close the browser window...wait for 20 seconds and resume your browsing. You can use IP blocking software like PeerBlock to block these IPs too to block these webpages.

Thanks. I checked my data usage, and it works perfect for me as well. Infact according to my calculation, it shows low data usage.

BTW, still i could not get the idea of random plan change of Airtel.
For instance, now I am in 30GB plan, (Rs. 1300), which is what i could afford at maximum and i dont need any costlier plan. Do you mean they could switch to costlier plan of their own wish? Its out of question whether they inform me or not. I am not in need of any better plan which costs more.

What do you mean by "As of now, you have no option to move back to your default plan if they change your plan".

However, if i do face any problem you quoted, i would never mind to quit and say goodBye to Airtel, because i need BB connnection for just 3 months.
If the experience is satisfactor, i may consider about retaining the connection, else i would say bye-bye to Airtel.

Anyways, your help was very useful..Thanks again..

For the sake of this discussion, let us assume that you are on plan A. Out of the blue, airtel will discontinue plan A and will shift all the subscribers of plan A to a new plan B.

This new plan B will of course be costlier than the original plan A. In order to pacify the questions / anger which may occur among the subscribers, airtel will give something like free upgrade of speeds. It is a win situation for the company because they get additional revenue from the same subscriber. Bandwidth upgrade may seem like a big deal (for some), but imagine having your 1mbps plan speed upgraded to 2mbps. The fair usage policy limit of both plan A and B will remain the same. In other words, if you used to take 12 hours to download 10GB and thus trigger the FUP speed of 256kbps, now the same slow speed of 256kbps will be activated within 6 hours (because the speed upgrade, the fair usage policy limit will be triggered fast).

Imagine that you come to know of this unauthorized speed upgrade / plan change. Naturally, you will contact the customer care and ask them to change you to the original plan A. They will say "it cannot be done". You will be given the option to continue with the new expensive plan or disconnection from their services.

This is a hypothetical situation as of now (for you and me). However, if you visit certain other broadband forums, you will come across many people who experienced what I stated, from the same company. Plans getting changed in the middle of the month and hence they are forced to pay additional amounts. When the subscribers complain, airtel asks them to discontinue the broadband services!

Very funny... God knows when will India get best ISP by all means...
Any ways, in such a situation if they ask me to leave their services, i would be pleased to do so..

Thanks again for all your detailed help and responses..

Check out Business Line : Industry & Economy / Info-tech : Airtel ups wireline broadband speed to 2Mbps They are upgrading the speeds to 2mbps on select cities. The speed upgrade comes with an additional surcharge of 50/- to 100/-.