Airtel Broadband New Plan? - 8 Mbps Unlimited 150GB FUP Rs. 2399/-

[vebk]

Got a call from someone from Airtel Sales today offering me a new plan - 8 Mbps (or in her words for Rs. 300/- more "double" the spped from my current plan (4Mbps)) ~'unlimited' (150GB FUP) for Rs. 2,399/- per month (plus the usual package of free calls, antivirus etc.). I think she called it "Rapid 150GB" or something like that. (Post FUP it goes to 256kbps :apathy.Anyone else heard of it? Or is it a scam?Assuming it is genuine - while I usually give them the go ahead for new plans right away, I told her to call me later. But the more I think of it, the more I am disinclined to take it. Apart from torrents, nothing else really works at 4Mbps, so what's the point? And since the FUP limit is not going up, it doesn't help with downloading in general. My main use these days is video streaming, and if I am lucky I get at best 150 - 200KB/s speeds (though on an average I get 30 - 70 KB/s). That will not change with a 8 Mbps plan, so why waste money? Added to that, the general experience is getting very sh***y with them, so I have my doubts that the overall experience will be any better.Thoughts?

 

[Humanoid]

I totally agree with your line of reasoning. It's not worth upgrading, if you mostly use your connection for streaming. Almost all the video streaming websites are capped at a much lower speed, moving over from 2mbs to 4mbs wasn't as good as an experience as I thought. Plus, with all those John Doe orders being passed around like frisby's, who knows how safe torrent websites are anymore.

 

[Sushubh]

4mbps has been fast enough for me. it has finally enabled me to cross 150GB most of the months which has been painful in itself. frankly speaking for me the FUP is more like 80% of 150GB because the last 20% they drive you nuts with random redirections and i avoid entering that bracket of usage. i am going to hit FUP this month and i do not see any reason to make it easier for me to reach the limits (double speeds on some online activities)!would have been nicer if they had bumped the FUP to 200GB or even 250GB.

 

[mgcarley]

I got offered this plan today when I contacted airtel_presence on Twitter (out of curiosity), but this was subject to feasibility (that being that they weren't sure if 8Mbit/s is available in my area... I'm not sure why it wouldn't be: if the equipment supports 4, it should support 8... but who am I to argue with such a stellar customer support team!)The difference between 4 & 8mbit/s might not seem that great - and compared to like 1-2 or 2-4 for most applications it might not be such a boon, however for certain applications, it should improve the overall experience, but it won't do much for pingtimes or anything.That being said, your existing plan costs you 2099? Probably then, I wouldn't really argue with you if you couldn't see the value. If the speed jump was a bit more significant (say to 16mbit/s) then it might be more enticing...

 

[Sushubh]

right. even 4mbps is subjected to feasibility in your area. 2mbps i guess is available across their network.

 

[mgcarley]

right. even 4mbps is subjected to feasibility in your area. 2mbps i guess is available across their network.

But that's daft. There's no reason for it, especially since (I believe) Airtel cabinetizes it's DSL network (that is, they operate almost like the FTTB cable operators), which means the copper loop lengths shouldn't be that long - there's no reason that even on old ADSL1 equipment the average user shouldn't be able to get 6mbit/s or ADSL2+ equipment up to 20.

 

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[itzmynet]

much better than velocity 2999

 

[Sushubh]

heh. i guess they need to kill Velocity 2999. or at least migrate the users on this plan to this new one. but they probably wouldn't because they have no shame!

 

[Crazysah]

I want this 8 mbps plan. Sounds pretty good.

 

[balajik]

If this is true, I'll take it.