Airtel 3G FAQs

[KurianOfBorg]

A little bird has told me that it's around Rs900/mbit/month or some Rs3/GB at the purchasing level of STM-64, though this is based on a government organization's recent tender for the same. Since Airtel owns their international capacity pretty much outright, presumably it's even less for them.

Doesnt it cost much more money to supply it over the already over staturated cellular network than just buying the international data?

 

[mgcarley]

Doesnt it cost much more money to supply it over the already over staturated cellular network than just buying the international data?

Yes there are overheads to factor in as well, but not so many that it would work out being anything close to even half what they sell it for. If the costs worked out to over Rs10/GB I would be incredibly surprised and somewhat disgusted.

 

[Sushubh]

besides i am not asking them to sell us bandwidth at 3 bucks per GB. i am asking them to sell it to us at a fair price. airtel currently charges as high as 550 rupees per GB on some of their plans.

 

[Topweb]

A little bird has told me that it's around Rs900/mbit/month or some Rs3/GB at the purchasing level of STM-64, though this is based on a government organization's recent tender for the same. Since Airtel owns their international capacity pretty much outright, presumably it's even less for them.

So they are making HUGE sums of money from limited download plans on wireline+ADSL side of the business.

Cost of Bandwidth is Rs 3/GB and Sale price of Bandwidth is Rs 170/GB for some plans.

Looks like we need Egypt like revolution here in India to put an end to this extortion.

 

[rj27]

That 3 rs./GB is for BSNL, which doesn't own any of the submarine cables itself. For Airtel & others owning their own cables it should be lesser than this

 

[mgcarley]

That 3 rs./GB is for BSNL, which doesn't own any of the submarine cables itself. For Airtel & others owning their own cables it should be lesser than this

Not necessarily. Rs3/GB (Rs900/mbit/month) sounds like it's coming pretty close to cost to me - probably couldn't go *too much* lower than that - those cables aren't cheap to build, ya know (not cheap as in i2i from Chennai to Singapore costing $250 million dollars not cheap), but at the prices they charge now and have been charging historically, I expect they've already made that money back so it'll just be operational expenses and maintenance.

---------- Post added at 03:18 AM ---------- Previous post was at 03:15 AM ----------

So they are making HUGE sums of money from limited download plans on wireline+ADSL side of the business.

Cost of Bandwidth is Rs 3/GB and Sale price of Bandwidth is Rs 170/GB for some plans.

Looks like we need Egypt like revolution here in India to put an end to this extortion.

Don't forget the overage fees of 20, 30, 40, 50 paise/MB or more equalling Rs200-500/GB... or more with some ISPs!

Our charge is essentially going to be 1 paise per MB.

 

[Ryan]

I have the "H" symbol showing on my phone and I did not even activate 3G, yet I did a speedtest and I am getting a speed in excess of 1.2mbps. What is this ? I called up customer care and they say I don't have 3G.

 

[Sushubh]

looks like they activated 3g on your phone without your approval. has been happening to a lot of people.

 

[Ryan]

looks like they activated 3g on your phone without your approval. has been happening to a lot of people.

What Should I do?

 

[Sushubh]

well i guess enjoy the free period. or turn off 3G on your phone if you do not want to risk getting falsely billed!