Airtel's Broadband on Demand - Now Sucks on Demand. Review on Airtel Broadband

I have been using the Airtel Broadband for the past 4 months. The connection was given to me on the 4th day from the date of application and the equipment was installed by a engineer who was giving instructions on the phone to line men and busy answering interview calls right on the JOB!

I knew he wasn't happy with his job. The modem was not configured from the server end. I was told that he would return with a new modem the next day but that never happened until I had to call and remind them. They left the old modem at my place. I dunno what I should do with it .

So finally, the broadband was installed and the phone with zero rental was effective. I am still on the 256 kbps unlimited plan which allows me to download at 256 kbps or 32 KBps(Note the difference between kb and KB). All was good and infact I was surprised that the speed when I tested was always hovering between 248 kbps - 256 kbps, something that I never experienced with BSNL which was constant at 91 kbps.

The sales team never bothers to give you the correct details of the plans as they themselves do not have a clear picture of the plan and the freebies that they are offering. The sales guy wouldn't take down the correct address even when told due to which I had to make corrections to my address after the first bill.

First month usage benefit orFMUB is given to the customer that allows you to call for 100 minutes to a local airtel mobile and 400 minutes to a local airtel landline. This was never communicated to me and when I enquired, I got various opinions from the Airtel muffs(the executives at the airtel offices at begumpet and lifestyle). I did not use the phone and lost the benefit. However, they tax for the FMUB(worth Rs 500) is Rs 50 that I had to pay.

Here is the real reason why I had to write this review:

The Broadband on Demand or the Speed on Demandservice that Airtel offers to its impatient customers who want to download at a higher speed without changing the plan by offering various speeds at different rates with a pulse of 5 minutes.

I needed a high speed to download some videos so I signed up for this and went for the 1 Mbps speed at Rs 50 per hour.

I was baffled by what I saw. The speed that I should have got was 1 Mbps or 1024 kbps or 128 KBps.

It was none of those, instead the speed was around 520 kbps or 65 KBps which is almost half of the speed I should have got. I saw this and immediately disconnected after 30 minutes.

I called up the customer care which really should be called customer snare and told them the problem and like the rest of the customer snare executives was assured that It will never happen again and that I will get my money refunded if ever I am billed for this.

Yes, just like I thought, I was billed Rs 25 for this mediocre service. I called up again and questioned them to which they took a complaint and some lady called me after a few days to tell me that she cannot refund the amount and that I have no option but to pay. She also told me that it was impossible to give me the waiver and that she has to speak to her higher authorities to get me a waiver even for such a small amount and insisted that I pay up.

I really had no problem paying up as this was a small amount when compared to all the money I lost at Airtel. I was concerned about the probability that today I was falsely billed for Rs 25 and there is a equal chance that I could be billed for Rs 250 or even more in the days to come.

What if I did not check the speed and thought I was downloading at 1 Mbps when its not even half the speed?

Airtel products are not risk free. Like a reviewer here says, Airtel is Depressing. Such is the apathy that prevails at the Airtel office.

I have attached a snapshot of the pathetic Broadband on Demand service that Airtel Provides to its customers.

Another thing one should keep in mind is the Fair usage policy, FUP that the private operators have implemented. FUP says that if you have a connection with speeds more than 256 kbps, say 512 kbps, you will get the speed of 512 kbps until you reach a certain download limit. After that, the speeds come down to almost half of the original speed for the rest of the month. So if you have opted for the 512 kbps unlimited plan and have reached the limit set by Airtel on the 20th day of the month, you are doomed as you no longer get 512 kbps for the rest of the 10 days in the month. In other words, you don't get what you pay for and Airtel is not providing what it is advertising.