Airtel DTH + Wi-Fi Combo Plan Issue – Second TV Not Activated

[windyglaze]

Hi everyone,

I need some help understanding an issue I’m facing with my Airtel DTH setup.

I have two separate Airtel DTH connections in my home, each registered under a different number, but both operate through the same dish antenna on the rooftop.

Recently, an Airtel sales representative informed me that I could combine both DTH connections under one plan and also add a Wi-Fi connection to it. The total cost was said to be ₹2500 for 4 months, which sounded like a great deal.

The installation team visited and set up an IPTV box and a dual-band Wi-Fi router on the ground floor. Both the IPTV and Wi-Fi are working fine.

However, the issue is with my top floor DTH connection. It was supposed to be included in the new plan, but it hasn’t been activated yet. The connection was active until 6 November 2025, and the new plan was initiated in the last week of October.

Despite multiple assurances from the sales representative and Airtel customer care that the top floor TV would be activated soon, it’s still not working. This is the first time in years that the TV has been inactive due to “no payment.” The situation is quite inconvenient, especially since the TV is mainly used by the elders in my family, and it’s their only source of entertainment.

To make things more confusing, Airtel’s app shows that the second DTH is not part of the plan, even though Airtel representatives insist that it already is.

Has anyone faced a similar issue or know what could be causing this mismatch between what the app shows and what Airtel claims? Any advice on how to get this resolved quickly would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

 

[windyglaze]

On top of the previous issue, I’m now facing more problems with this whole Airtel setup.

First, some channels are not working on the IPTV connection, even though they work perfectly fine on DTH. For instance, ABP Ananda is available on DTH but missing on IPTV — despite both being part of the same package.

Secondly, even after paying ₹2500 for 4 months for the IPTV and Wi-Fi plan, I still had to pay ₹520 separately for the second DTH connection for one month, because it was never actually added to the Airtel Black plan.

The local marketing executive had repeatedly assured me that both DTH connections would be merged under the same plan. He kept saying he would “add it soon” — for almost two weeks. On the final day before the old plan expired, we had no choice but to recharge the DTH again, since he still hadn’t done it.

Even just before we made the payment, he again promised he would take care of it, but nothing happened. Meanwhile, Airtel customer care told me midweek that the second DTH was already part of the new plan, even though it clearly didn’t show up in the Airtel app.

So far, I’ve been given conflicting information from every side — marketing, customer care, and installation. The lack of communication and accountability has been extremely disappointing. For a company like Airtel, this level of mismanagement is unacceptable. I’m honestly disgusted by how misleading and confusing this entire experience has been.

 

[pillaicha]

Do you still have access to the DTH set-top box and dish antenna? If yes, wire it up and see what error messages are showing up on it. It could be that they've migrated you as an existing customer (1TV + 1 Internet ± 1 landline), which means your secondary DTH connection is still active in the DTH pool and they probably wouldn't have pushed you out of it.

Just to understand it correctly, you have atm 2 IPTV set-top boxes? Both wired to Airtel Wi-Fi?

If you actually can't get the old DTH feed on your previous set-top box, then it means that your connection has been migrated. It could be a local configuration issue only then.

 

[windyglaze]

For your first question — yes, I tried plugging in the old DTH set-top box. After turning it on, the TV just shows “No Signal.”

For the second — I don’t have two IPTV boxes. I have one DTH connection on the top floor, which I had to manually recharge on 6 November, and one IPTV connection on the ground floor that was installed about two weeks ago. The person who verified my documents and took the payment repeatedly assured me that both TVs would work together under one plan. He said I’d only need to pay ₹2500 for both DTH connections plus Wi-Fi. Despite multiple follow-ups and his repeated claims that he’d “add” the top-floor DTH connection, it never happened.

If this is a local configuration issue, what exactly should I do now?

Also, this morning an Airtel representative came to our neighbourhood with flyers for new connections. When we asked him about our situation, he said the person who handled our installation had likely duped us and advised filing a complaint. But honestly, I’m not sure lodging a complaint will untangle this mess. The person who did the installation has stopped responding to my WhatsApp messages and calls. What should my next step be?

 

[pillaicha]

TV shows no signal? Is the set-top box connected to the dish? The LNB or dish alignment has not been tampered with right? The coaxial cable is intact from the dish LNB to the set top box?

You had essentially 2 DTH connections - under 2 different numbers. Which means you weren't using Airtel's multi-TV connection feature, which allows 1 primary + upto 3 add-on DTH connections, all paid for under the same consumer number. You basically had 2 different/independent connections in one house? And Now you have chosen to upgrade one of your connections to fiber + IPTV.

I don't understand how the second DTH connection lost its signal? Did they take away your viewing card? How did you recharge that connection? It means they haven't deactivated that connection from their end.

And since you said you only have 1 IPTV set-top box - were you sold the idea by the salesperson that you can have one IPTV and one DTH connection - all under one consumer billing number?

 

[windyglaze]

I have two TVs at home — one on the top floor and one on the ground floor. Both are connected to the same dish antenna on the terrace, but they have different customer IDs, different registered phone numbers, and both require separate monthly recharges.

During the new installation, the technicians simply unplugged the old DTH set-top box from the ground floor TV and replaced it with the new IPTV box. They also set up the Wi-Fi router on the ground floor. When asked about activating the top-floor DTH connection, they said they couldn’t do it and told me to contact the sales guy who sold the plan.

I did that, and he repeatedly assured me he would “add” the top-floor DTH connection to the new plan. He kept saying that right up until November 6 — the day the old plan expired. Since nothing was done by then, we had no choice but to recharge the top-floor DTH separately for ₹520.

The sales executive had clearly promised that both TVs would be merged under one plan, and that ₹2500 for 4 months would cover everything — both DTH connections and Wi-Fi. To make things even more confusing, when I called Airtel customer care, they checked and told me that the top-floor DTH was already added to the Airtel Black plan. But if that was true, why did we have to pay for it again?

 

[pillaicha]

I think you need to visit an Airtel store with your set-top boxes and figure out the truth there. But I don't think they've merged your two independent and separate accounts into one account; they've just migrated your existing DTH on the ground floor to IPTV.

At the airtel store, one of two things will happen: either you pay separately for IPTV and DTH or convince them of the need for an extra IPTV add-on (if such a facility even exists). If the latter is possible, they'll just create an add-on to the same account number. You're still free to do what you want with the old DTH connection.

 

[windyglaze]

I actually did visit an Airtel store and asked them about this. They told me that under the ₹2500 plan, it’s not possible to have two TVs and Wi-Fi together. They also mentioned that they’ve been receiving multiple complaints from other customers facing the exact same issue.

Now, the sales guy who handled my connection had repeatedly assured me — over multiple calls and WhatsApp messages — that he would get it done. I even have call recordings of him promising it several times, so I genuinely believed the issue would be sorted out. But nothing ever happened.

At this point, I think I’ll just continue with the plan until the 4-month period ends and then give up the connection altogether. I’m aware that surrendering it might be another hassle, but I’ll deal with that when it comes.

 

[pillaicha]

Hey @windyglaze I talked to a couple of friends who took Airtel Black. Apparently there's a lot of confusion between salespersons, CC, and backend teams. But yes, what they're all saying is partially true - just that each of them don't know how much % of what they are saying is true.

• So yes - you can have multiple IPTV/DTH add-on connections added to a single Airtel Black bill.
• The discount and fixed price is applicable only to the first IPTV/DTH + fiber combo.
• For every added connection, you pay ₹1000 for the IPTV box. And ₹350 for the Base pack + NCF. Adding a secondary connection gives you only a small discount on the NCF charges. (similar to the rules of DTH multi-connection).
• You can select different à-la-carte/bouquets for each connection. Charges for the channels/bouquets are applicable in full for secondary connections.
• Salespersons and Airtel Thanks apps cannot add secondary connections. Only CC and backend can do this.
• Salespersons need to rely on their inside CC representatives, or in rare cases, if they know someone directly in the backend, to enable this for customers.

So I'd say all hope isn't lost. They did lie to you when they said 2 IPTV connections + fiber will be covered within ₹2500. So please be ready to cough up more money. Also I'm sure the sales guy tried to involve the CC person they know, but probably moved on since he's got his commission.

Now what you can do is to go on Airtel Thanks and register an add-on connection request with CC. Once they register your request and generate an order ID, wait a week to 10 days for the technician to come with the new IPTV box. You don't have the option of just reactivating the old DTH connection and getting it added to your Black plan - there's a prepaid/postpaid mismatch there. So either add-on a new IPTV connection, or get your old DTH reactivated and continue to recharge it as prepaid.

 

[windyglaze]

@pillaicha Thanks for the detailed explanation — this clears up a lot.

The problem is, this whole IPTV setup has created more issues than it has solved. I thought that since we were already paying for two TVs, moving to a combined plan with a discount and adding Wi-Fi would be a good idea. But now we can’t even watch the channels we need. Some news channels available on DTH simply don’t exist on IPTV, which makes the experience worse instead of better.

On top of that, I genuinely feel the picture quality on DTH is better than IPTV. We were told IPTV quality would be superior, but that hasn’t been true at all — especially since we already had HD channels on DTH.

At this point, what I really want is a refund. I don’t know if Airtel even allows that, but since we’ve already paid for 4 months upfront, is there any way to get the connection refunded early? Or are we stuck with it for the entire 4-month period?

Also, after this period ends, is there any way to reactivate the old DTH that got converted to IPTV? Can Airtel customer care help with that? Because honestly, their support so far hasn’t been helpful at all.

If anyone has gone through something similar or knows whether refunds or reversions are possible, I’d really appreciate the guidance.