Airtel Xstream Fiber Pune Review

This thread is related to Airtel Fiber Broadband experience in Pune/PCMC. I always try to update the thread with my personal experiences.​

Airtel Black:​

I was already using their 999 postpaid family plan, so opted for their 1799 airtel black plan which had 1+3 add on sim(999 family plan) and 200Mbps fiber broadband.The total bill comes out to be 2122(inc. gst). If i calculate the individual cost of the plans - 999+gst=1179 for postpaid and another 999+gst= 1179 for 200 Mbps broadband for both airtel and tata(varies if opting for long term plan), so total cost comes out to be around 2358 per month.
Opting for airtel black 1799+gst saves me around 2358-2122=236 rupees a month, which is not a huge amount honestly.
I paid 4000 rupees as advanced rental which saved all the installation and hardware cost, and this would be adjusted in my future billing cycle. I paid for 2 months in advanced roughly which seems fair.

Booking and installation:​

Headed to the airtel store which is just 1km away from my place, KYC and payment was done under 10 mins. They said that the installation might take time as there are a lot of new colonies and apartment buildings where airtel fiber is recently live, so they have a lot of pending installations. They promised me that installation will be done in maximum of 48 hours which is also mentioned on their website Airtel FAQ.
I booked the connection on 21st june 2023 around 4:30 in the evening. The installation team contacted me the next day around 7pm and it was done by 22nd june 2023 around 8:30 pm.

Router:​

Got the Sercomm AOT - 42221SR. Sleek and modern looking router. Performs decent, good range throughout the house. It switches automatically between 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz band, which is very convenient.
Update on 20th July 2023: The ONT is sub par in terms of performance w.r.t multiple client handling and bandwidth distribution. Ended up putting this router in bridge mode and used TP-Link Archer AX10 instead.
Setting up this router in bridge mode doesn't require any assistance from airtel. I got it working by myself.

Speedtest:​

Source
Download speed on some speedtest.net servers is over 450 most of the times. I don't know what is the reason. Didn't opt for static IP or anything. Upload speed is around 240-250 as per the plan which is acceptable.


Source

Source

Network Quality Test:​

Bufferbloat:

Bufferbloat Test Result: A+

View the full results, and test your own bufferbloat

www.waveform.com

A+ most of the times. Did the test over WiFi.

NPerf:

Latency:​

Getting good latency while playing valorant. 6-9ms to mumbai server.
Connection remains stable when connected to my office VPN.



Overall i am very happy with airtel fiber connection. Browsing, surfing and streaming experience is slightly better than Tata. This is just initial impressions tho. Will update this thread in the future in case of any major update.
After one month of testing:
Definitely better than Tata Play Fiber in terms of raw performance.

Update on 11th August:​

CC support and FR time has definitely improved atleast in Wakad/Pimple Saudagar area.

Update on 27th October:​

FR team now attends SRs in the given time slot.

 

[Deleted member 83050]

You can try escalating it via twitter or applellate/121 but don't expect resolution anytime soon.

 

[Deleted member 83050]

Update:
I have been very ignorant and lazy about getting my own router up until now.
After getting the Archer AX10, i set it up in bridge mode with the sercomm ONT(didn't require any assistance from airtel, got it working by myself). Overall performance has been much better now even with IPv6 turned on(all devices getting v6 address).
5Ghz range is pretty good, reaches every corner of the house. I have completely disabled the 2.4Ghz band.
Battery life on clients with WiFi-6 is supposed to be better because of TWT but i didn't notice a huge difference on my Macbook and iPhone.
AX10 is a much better router compared to C6/A6 with a more capable hardware and WiFi-6 features. Got it for 2799/- after discount on prime day sale. Highly recommended for the price

 

[Deleted member 83050]

Small Update: Internet has been working super fine without any issues since last 1 month. No downtime at all. Getting full upload and download speed at any time of the day(doesn't fluctuate in peak hours). Streaming and gaming experience has been pretty good after putting Archer AX10.

Mini Review of Archer AX10: This is the best budget router imho. Performs rock solid without any issues.

As seen above, i don't restart it in weeks and still performs very well. To my surprise PPPoE dial up doesn't expire/reset even after 7 days. Let's see how long it goes. TWT(Target wake time) feature reduces battery consumption on WiFi-6 clients significantly. OFDMA really seems to work and the difference is noticeable. Simultaneous data transmission to multiple clients works flawlessly without any issues.
5Ghz range is pretty decent. Didn't feel the need to turn on 2.4Ghz which i disabled while setting up the router.
For the price i paid, it is highly recommended to buy this one over any budget Wifi-5 router like Archer C6/A6 or Tenda AC10.

 

[Deleted member 83050]

Update:
My internet went down yesterday and i raised a SR on airtel thanks app. To my surprise airtel engineer called me 5 mins later and immediately came to resolve the issue. There was a fiber break near the FAT box.It was resolved in 10-15mins. I guess airtel has taken some feedback and improved their FR time and service atleast in my area.

 

[Deleted member 83050]

Engineers who visited on friday to fix the fibercut visited again today morning and replaced the whole fiber cable from router to FAT box via conduit/duct. I didn't raise any complain. They said that it's better to replace the whole cable to avoid any issues in the future because it has been spliced twice near the FAT box. Rx power was -25 dBm before which changed to -21 dBm after changing the cable. I don't see any difference in terms of performance though.
I hope they keep up with this level of service so that i can avoid getting a backup ISP because i am too lazy now finding one.

 

[Lolita_Magnum]

There will be no performance issues until -28, this does not use the same methodology as wireless.

 

[Vibhu]

@rajat_ is that same PPPoE session still UP?

 

[Deleted member 83050]

@Vibhu had to reboot the router in between due to some DNS issue. Current PPPoE is up since last 11 days.

 

[Deleted member 83050]

So the PPPoE session got reset after being up for almost 17 days. Maybe this happened because i requested for a static IP.

 

[albonycal]

Yeah