Airtel to hike fixed line broadband rates from April by up to 40 per cent

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Spacescreamer

Spacescreamer

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New Delhi: Airtel's fixed-line broadband customers will have to shell out more for Internet services from next month as the service provider has hiked the charges, by up to 40 per cent in certain plans.

The operator has informed its customers that the increase in broadband rates would be effective from next billing cycle in April.

Due to an increase in input cost, the rent will be revised from Rs 250 to Rs 349 with effect from April 17, 2014, the company said in a communication to a customer.

Due to an increase in input cost, the rent will be revised from Rs 250 to Rs 349 with effect from April 17, 2014.

In another communication to a customer, the company mentioned that from April 23, the rental will be increased from Rs 850 to Rs 949.

The company in the plan also informed customers about increasing minimum speed of broadband to 512 kilobit per second from 256 kbps.

When contacted, an Airtel spokesperson said, "Tariff rationalisation is a continuous process and a function of market dynamics. This price revision of our broadband plans is in line with the increasing input costs that have a direct impact on the final prices."

Airtel is the second largest provider of fixed line broadband service with 1.39 million customers, according to TRAI data for December month.
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Instead of providing better Min and Max speeds, Airtel is trying to increase the basic fare without ANY increase of speeds in any categories?

How to lose prospective subscribers and alienate customers ?
 
Any idea of the new plan rates? I had to get a new airtel line coz the bsnl morons just couldnt fix their line.
 
Airtel can do what ever they want. They have a monopoly. Probably they will dial down the FUP units, so the latent speeds will kick in sooner. Have fun.
 
Is this going to be all over India or in a particular region?

Regardless I am not sure what to do? I have been with Airtel since 2008/2009 and the last time I was this infuriated was when they introduced FUP. I was sure they would loose enough customers that it will make them reverse their decision. What happened was that the others adopted FUP gradually and those who switched were left feeling stupid.

Considering the price we pay the only thing that we deserve is more bandwidth with no FUP but I guess that is just wishful thinking.
 
Airtel has hiked their rates in the past without losing too many subscribers due to their monopolistic hold over certain regions. Don't think this has changed too much. For me, time to check if ACT has any immediate plans to come to my area. :banghead:
 
Have been with Airtel since 2006 and can easily say that they have been testing my patience off late. I have not received any communication on this (will check the last invoice). If there is an increase of ~40%, guess I am switching over to BSNL.

EDIT: Just saw the invoice and it says Im going to pay 99 more per month excluding taxes. Will look at the options at hand and then decide. 1050 to 1149 (I guess I get 2mbps with 25gb FUP)
 
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random2 said:
Have been with Airtel since 2006 and can easily say that they have been testing my patience off late. I have not received any communication on this (will check the last invoice). If there is an increase of ~40%, guess I am switching over to BSNL.

EDIT: Just saw the invoice and it says Im going to pay 99 more per month excluding taxes. Will look at the options at hand and then decide. 1050 to 1149 (I guess I get 2mbps with 25gb FUP)
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Can't put better. Airtel mostly gets away because of lack of alternatives for consumers.
 
If anyone ( or probably me?) believes JIO will counter Airtel in wired broadband segment then that moment is still far away.. Probably 3 years more.
 
ayanavish said:
Airtel mostly gets away because of lack of (reliable) alternatives for consumers.
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Some time earlier raks posted that govt. said they were charging for internet, the isps said that would increase costs by 30%. I scoffed at this news as i could not understand how 10% tax increase could lead to 30% price hike :(
 
blr_p said:
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Some time earlier raks posted that govt. said they were charging for internet, the isps said that would increase costs by 30%. I scoffed at this news as i could not understand how 10% tax increase could lead to 30% price hike :(
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Monopoly and pathetic service / uselessness attitude from BSNL/MTNL :(
 
blr_p said:
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Some time earlier raks posted that govt. said they were charging for internet, the isps said that would increase costs by 30%. I scoffed at this news as i could not understand how 10% tax increase could lead to 30% price hike :(
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The price rise is not uniform. My bill has gone up by about 10%. I guess they're charging more (30%) for customers below the Rs. 600 price band...
 
Mine went up from 999/- to 1099/-

Glad in a way that it wasn't 40%. Upto 40% could have been anything.

Instead of speed I would prefer getting rid of FUP altogether or raising the limits. I don't see why FUP is necessary at all. I don't see how FUP helps anybody not even casual users.

How does FUP help the ISP? Are they rationed a particular amount of data that they distribute and by reducing our limits to minuscule amount they ensure we don't step out of the overall boundary even if we go ape crazy downloading at 512 kbps 24*7 for an entire month.

Once a person crosses the FUP limit he/she might feel cheated and just download out of spite.

As far as quitting Airtel is concerned most users have the mighty Indian attitude - "Arre chalta hai sau doso ki to baat hai..."
 
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