Initially get 1 GBPS plan and then downgrade to 100mbps for wifi 6 router?

[newGuy2024]

has anyone tried it?
with 1 gbps we get their high end wifi 6 router, pics:
Source

so if I initially pay for that plan (1 month) and then move to their cheaper plans, will they keep me the wifi 6 router? or will they downgrade me?

 

[rohancyberdude]

What's the point? You can obtain basic Wi-Fi 6 routers at the price of a 1gbps plan to use in bridge mode, so why take the risk?

 

[tr1k0N4]

Absolutely, @rohancyberdude !!!

3999 for TP-Link AX23, 4299 for TP-Link AX53 at the moment in the sale.
@newGuy2024

 

[Deleted member 87056]

The WiFi-6 ONT provided by Airtel ain't that great. Its better to get a TP-Link Wifi 6 router. AX10 is currently available for 2799. You will also have more control over your connection like configuring DNS of your choice, changing WiFi Channel etc. It would be more than enough for a 100 Mbps connection, upto 300 Mbps it shouldn't be a bottle neck.

 

[newGuy2024]

@rohancyberdude for my new connection, Airtel is asking me to deposit 3.5k regardless of 1 gbps or 100mbps plan, this deposit will get adjusted in my monthly bills,

so my math was I can opt for 1gbps plan initialy and get my own wifi 6 router after few months and i dont have to spend all 6-7k this month
but if the coverage is not good, then it dosent make sense. i would rather buy my own wifi 6 router and maybe TP-Link xpon modem to completely remove airtel hardware.

​

 

[pxgmr]

All ISP provided router ONU combo units are useless as routers.

Likely Downsides (depends on what you get):

1. Everything will be locked down; you will likely not even be able to change DNS server in DHCP settings. This is a huge privacy issue.
2. Buggy firmware leading to random issues and poor reliability as ISPs are cutting corners
3. Lack of DFS channel support, resulting in poor performance in congested apartments.
4. Only 2x2 MIMO, resulting in poor performance when using multiple devices.
5. Only Wi-Fi 4 in 2.4GHz band, so poor performance if you stray too far from your router.
6. Lack of WPA3, as it is optional for Wi-Fi 6. Neighbour kid with an ESP8266 can enjoy your connection for free.
7. Poor gaming performance due to bufferbloat and cheap hardware.
8. Higher idle power consumption due to cheap hardware combined with the beefier specs required for Wi-Fi 6.
9. All LAN ports will still be 1GbE

IIRC, you only pay for the number of days you use a plan, which means you can bait them into installing a Wi-Fi 6 router by paying just a few hundred extra instead of 3K more for a month. I'm not sure if this works before the first bill, if it doesn't, you'll be left paying ₹100-₹120/day or ₹3000-₹3500 extra for an entire month over the much more reasonable plans. That money could go into buying a decent router.

Personally, point 1 alone strikes out any ISP provided equipment as router for me. My use cases (gaming, wireless VR, file transfer, etc.) also strike out cheaper WiFi 6 routers, ISP provided or not.

I thought about doing this too, but as of now I am using a Mercusys MR90X, which I got for a pretty good price of 9K last year, it has none of the downsides I mentioned and has a pretty decent Filogic 830 chip which supports OpenWRT. I use it only for Wi-Fi 6 devices while the rest of devices go on an older AP. It is running in bridge mode with the Airtel provided crap ONU.

If I feel like cleaning up my setup or adding battery backup, I will buy my own ONU with SN cloning but from what I read, it can be a hit or miss depending on what OLT is being used and I don't notice any major issues with the provided ONU router combo acting as a dumb media converter.

 

[Kaiju404]

TP-Link routers are equally sht nowadays due to their experimental firmware upgrades especially for India