Airtel replaced my ONT and now suddenly they're claiming I've exhausted my data cap

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vpsj

vpsj

Messages
53
Location
Bhopal
ISP
Airtel Fiber 200 Mbps
This is a weird situation and I need some help/clarification from you guys.

On 13th September 2025, our Airtel Fiber stopped working. It didn't seem to be an outage so I registered a complaint. A technician came to check and told us that our Huawei 8145 ONT was faulty and within 3 days he replaced it with a ZyXEL ONT.

It isn't locked or anything so I thought so far so good.

Anyway, today (21st September 2025) my connection is only giving me speeds of 1-2 Mbps (I'm on a 200 Mbps connection). Checking the Airtel app says that I've exhausted my monthly quota.

But here's the thing: I've been using this Fiber connection since 2020. Not even once have I ever crossed the FUP limit of 3300 GB. Even on those months where I'd heavily download games or torrents, it would still only cross 1500-1600 GB at max.

So the fact that this happened just after the ONT was changed seems to be extremely shady/suspicious to me.

Is it possible that their new router is reporting more data than I've actually used? As far as I can see, there have been no extra usage/downloads this month, just the usual streaming content, browsing Reddit (my parents using Facebook/Insta), petty much like every other month.

Has anyone faced something similar? Is there a way for me to confirm if their claim is even true or not?

Please help me out if possible. I don't want this to happen again in future months. Thank you
 
Sad. Good luck dealing with Airtel customer care, [email protected] doesn't even bother to reply to my queries now, 121 cc is super dumb who don't have any answer to queries. You can try to launch a consumer complain on NCH and see if they respond.
I'd say if you have other ISPs in your area, consider switching.
 
@87056 I thought about complaining to the Consumer Forum but sometimes they take weeks to do any kind of action. My speeds will be restored within 10 days so all Airtel has to do is wait till 1st October then say "We've restored the user's speed to full 200Mbps"

Unfortunately only Jio is available in my area and from what I've heard their router/locking is even worse than Airtel.
 
Nothing of the sort is required. If you have the number for the local team that makes field visits, call them and talk to them about this. Call customer care and tell them your router was replaced and now it shows data quota exceeded, so something is off here and they should fix it. Be polite, and go through the process.

You can NOT do worse than Jio, depending on what you use your internet for. So, switch keeping the larger picture in mind, if you do. Jio may give you an internet supply, but that comes with costs you NEED to consider.
 
@phoenix10386 the ground staff doesn't give a fuck about anything unless the SR is assigned to them, talking to their customer care feels like banging head on the wall. Even the folks at airtel store are bunch of idiots who have zero clue about anything. You can try that. In my city/area, they take 3-4 days to even restore the connection in case it goes down for some reason.
One thing to note is to never opt for Airtel Black, they make it very difficult to disconnect.

@vpsj there's this YT channel called geeky twins and they have shared a simple guide to replace the Jio router with a GPON based TP-Link router at a affordable price, I think it should work for you as well. Before switching make sure that Jio's reliability is better in your area although their CC is bad as well in my experience. Try switching to a local cable operator, sometimes they offer very good service but it totally depends on the LCO.

ONTs from both Jio and Airtel are locked as hell and performance is trash.
 
@Sushubh I don't think they let you see your data usage anymore. But when I went to register a complaint for slow speed, this is what it showed me.

The same thing was also said by the Airtel CS on Twitter


Screenshot-20250922-005236-Airtel.jpg
 
@87056 , let me be clear here; you have your experiences and I have mine. I am not deriding yours, you better not deride mine. While at it, keep things civil, language polite, and tone respectful - you are talking to fellow members here - to and about humans. Each comes with their own level of intellect, getting frustrated with people is one thing but talking smack about them speaks more about ourselves than it does them.

Coming back to the premise - my experience with the local team is that they can connect you to/ speak to the backend and find things out for you. Or, they can at least have someone more knowledgable and in the know call you. No SR needed for this much, if they are willing to do it. It depends on factors I cannot mention without saying some things that might offend.

Next, while I never mentioned anything about the Store, and since you did, I should mention that I have had exactly ONE person in one Store who became my sole point of contact for everything Airtel for close to 7 years. I never did anything except call him and talk with him for anything Airtel. He would raise the issues and follow up with whoever and however things needed to be followed up, and got me the end result. Beyond that one person, Store people are essentially interested in selling and making commissions, and those are who we will meet usually. Again, in my experience, more respectfully than the ones at the largest one. But, this does not entitle us to talk about them in a chiding, insulting manner.

How hard is it to get out of Airtel Black? You can do it yourself (at least I had) or if not possible now, you can visit the Store and get it done. They will dismember the plan into separate plans for each member, and that's it.

These are my experiences, and I have put them forth without negating yours or being offending, I trust. I hope it is possible of and for everyone here, lest we be no better than the uncultured gentry that has no control over theirselves.
 
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