Airtel implements caps on Unlimited plans.

Let me be the odd one out and say that I don't see any real problem with this for 95% of the consumers. Let's consider a 1 Mbps connection with a cap of 50 GB. This gives me almost 100+ hours of non-stop downloads at the maximum 1 mbps transfer speed per month. For most normal usage (surfing, email, online videos etc), you'll end up with double or triple the usage before you hit the cap. That's almost 10 hours of usage per day. Also, even if you hit the cap, they're only saying that they'll throttle you, not overcharge you or cut you off.

The people who are upset are the heavy downloaders/torrenters who leave their machines on 24x7. They do have a right to be upset, but I'm guessing Airtel doesn't care even if they leave.
 
@racy: the policy is not approved by TRAI, you see these guys have actually implemented this policy without approval from TRAI.

@jagan: My usage is typical 1-1.5GB per day~ 30-32GB per month, d/l whole night only and casual use in day time. Will you term this as heavy downloading.

If this is heavy usage and they decide to cap it, will surely sue them(along with some free media publicity for Airtel ppl) drag them to court, ask for heavy damages and also complain to MRTPC.
 
^^ Not wanting to kill your enthusiasm but you ARE in India ! You will spend thousands of rupees and months on our courts and you will get a verdict when you are 60 years old !

Though I am surprised that Airtel has resorted to this when no other ISP is doing it.
 
Yes I am in India and I am a law student, so I think if I face any such situation I will take care of that :D..

You dont know that might even turn out to be my first case. :p

and to be very frank, going to consumer court is not that tough..
 
jaganm said:
Let me be the odd one out and say that I don't see any real problem with this for 95% of the consumers. Let's consider a 1 Mbps connection with a cap of 50 GB. This gives me almost 100+ hours of non-stop downloads at the maximum 1 mbps transfer speed per month. For most normal usage (surfing, email, online videos etc), you'll end up with double or triple the usage before you hit the cap. That's almost 10 hours of usage per day. Also, even if you hit the cap, they're only saying that they'll throttle you, not overcharge you or cut you off.

The people who are upset are the heavy downloaders/torrenters who leave their machines on 24x7. They do have a right to be upset, but I'm guessing Airtel doesn't care even if they leave.
Click to expand...

Well 95% won't take the 2.5k a month Unlimted 1 mbps line like me to surf daily ..... you can do that for much less....I pay for a service and I get half speeds wtf wtf.....

We pay so high so that we can download.... 50 gb for 1 mbps can be completd in 5 days flat....:(

Indian Internet charges per gb or per kbps is much higher than most countries.... They give us slow internet at much higher cost and then they go further ahead and cap the download limit......:@

OT:
My immigration plans are in motion now...

Cancelled Sweden and Netherlands as income tax rates are above 50% there :bleh:

Singapore, Korea, Canada and Hongkong are looking good now ...:rofl:
 
setuniket said:
Yes I am in India and I am a law student, so I think if I face any such situation I will take care of that :D..

You dont know that might even turn out to be my first case. :p

and to be very frank, going to consumer court is not that tough..
Click to expand...

I love this kind of enthusiasm & totally support it... Clearly AIRTEL will go beyond the line if they implement this.... The legal implications will be heavy... I am confident it will come to media frenzy even for sometime... the ironic thing I see here is that India still does not have true affordable broadband & they are restricting users who use it.....

If its the bandwidth trouble that they blame then India has enough bandwidth to provide affordable Mbps connections but ISP's are greedy & they are sitting on it charging heavily to the users.... My friend from states was here a few days ago.. He was on 10Mbps UL in US for $35 (~1800/- bucks)... Now we pay that much almost for a 512kbps UL connection here... Where is the true affordable broadband in India... :@

AIRTEL or any other ISP has no right to cap bandwidth on our unlimited plans which in itself cannot be considered broadband... :no:
 
racy1 said:
If its the bandwidth trouble that they blame then India has enough bandwidth to provide affordable Mbps connections but ISP's are greedy & they are sitting on it charging heavily to the users....
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+1

The TRAI has specifically mentioned in its paper that Indian ISPs have more than sufficient bandwidth on hand.
 
This is truly a big fat loaded bullsh1t!! Next thing i think Indian ISP's will implement is time limit ---> "You can't surf/download more than 5 hours per day" That day is not far from us guys. :@

sato1986 said:
im on 128k ... any effect on my speed?
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If you are an "Airtel" customer then your speed won't be affected but there is a download limit of 10 Gb and after that your speed will be cut into half (from what i heard).
 
setuniket said:
@jagan: My usage is typical 1-1.5GB per day~ 30-32GB per month, d/l whole night only and casual use in day time. Will you term this as heavy downloading.
Click to expand...
I consider myself to be quite a heavy user, surfing for 4-5 hours a day, downloading lots of podcasts and watching quite a few videos, but I doubt my usage goes beyond 20 GB a month. I could very easily go on the metered plan and save some money, but I have always chosen the highest speed unlimited plan simply because I don't want to waste my time worrying about the bill at the end of the month.

Coming to your usage, I definitely think you would be in the top 1-2% of users. It is not for me to say whether it is excessive or not, because each person's needs are different.

Look, I don't support the fact that Airtel has introduced a cap. All I'm saying is that the caps are high enough that a very large percentage of their clientele will hardly notice. And I am happy that instead of charging for additional usage, they have decided to throttle us.

The other point is that while the caps may be adequate for the average usage of today, they may prove totally inadequate for the future where things like online video, cloud computing etc may play a big role. One should hope that they will move the caps upwards as things evolve.
 
jagan sir, with due respect when I buy an unilimited plan, what I expect and am promised is:-

-Upto xxx KBps speeds(as promised by ISP).
-No extra data/time charges.
-No speed/data restriction.

Unlimited for reasonable prudent man will be 'no limit' or without any limit, now when the company limits the internet speed after fix data, its completely a restrective trade practice and not a 'fair use policy'. I have absolutely no problem with company earning profit, but implementing an unapproved policy and violating terms in the contract, gives me the option to knock the doors of justice.

For you I can suggest is, check your monthly data usage and select the plan which suits you the most, you can always save some money for good.

In the mean time I will monitor the speed and data usage(any applicaiton for that??) and see if they try and throttle BB or not.
jaganm said:
I consider myself to be quite a heavy user, surfing for 4-5 hours a day, downloading lots of podcasts and watching quite a few videos, but I doubt my usage goes beyond 20 GB a month. I could very easily go on the metered plan and save some money, but I have always chosen the highest speed unlimited plan simply because I don't want to waste my time worrying about the bill at the end of the month.

Coming to your usage, I definitely think you would be in the top 1-2% of users. It is not for me to say whether it is excessive or not, because each person's needs are different.

Look, I don't support the fact that Airtel has introduced a cap. All I'm saying is that the caps are high enough that a very large percentage of their clientele will hardly notice. And I am happy that instead of charging for additional usage, they have decided to throttle us.

The other point is that while the caps may be adequate for the average usage of today, they may prove totally inadequate for the future where things like online video, cloud computing etc may play a big role. One should hope that they will move the caps upwards as things evolve.
Click to expand...
 
yes i accept this fact only on 1 basis airtel start and change thats he dont have unlimited plans. better not to fool people saying thats we offer unlimited
 
DU Meter Monthly Traffic Volume Report

Month Incoming Outgoing Total Conn. time

January 2009 257.6 GB 185.9 GB 443.5 GB 13 day 9 hr

February 2009 20.8 GB 18.3 GB 39.0 GB 22 hr 44 min

December 2009 762.0 MB 2.7 GB 3.5 GB 8 hr 25 min

January 2010 41.0 MB 27.9 MB 68.9 MB 3 min

Created on computer XP-8F25D37A496D at 2/12/2009 9:44:31 PM, report time span: 1/1/2009 - 12/31/2009

I would've been doomed if I was using Airtel..Wonder whats the status for business plans ? I have an airtel 256k line in my office..
 
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