Bharti Airtel has introduced a 16 Mbps broadband connection which it claims is the fastest wireline broadband on DSL in the country. This service, powered by Airtel’s Carrier Ethernet Network, will be initially available in the cities of Delhi NCR, Chennai and Bangalore with phased roll-out to additional cities of Hyderabad, Pune, Mumbai and Kolkata.
Customers can gain access to 16 Mbps broadband by choosing from 2 Tariff Plans –
- Speed Combo 2999 – receive 16 Mbps broadband speed with monthly data transfer limit of 20 GB along with a fixed line connection at Rs. 2999 per month
- Speed Combo 4999 – receive 16 Mbps broadband speed with monthly data transfer limit of 50 GB along with a fixed line connection at Rs. 4999 per month
What do you think of the rates? Given the speed and bandwidth I actually find the price appealing, I must add here that this is partly because of the surprisingly big bills that MTNL has served me at times for far lesser data access. Anyway, I don’t want this post to be a comparison debate at the moment. The intriguing part about the X MBPS speeds that a lot of providers launch is that they are mega bits per second and not mega bytes, so the download speed that you get in general less than because of the conversions that apply from bits to bytes. I am pretty sure that is the same case with this plan from Airtel. So don’t expect to download a 16MB file in a second if you get this connection, it might still take 4 or 5..which actually isn’t bad to think.
Airtel has quickly adopted an aggressive marketing strategy online to go with this news. I was completely out of the web for a week, so I don’t know when exactly did this site – impatientones.com go live, but that’s a new microsite by Airtel to promote their fast broadband service, and is running banners promoting it on high profile sites.
It is interesting to note however that, Tata Teleservices had announced a 100 MBPS broadband access last month. The fairly unheralded piece of news spoke about how Tata Teleservices has become the first operator to introduce the more advanced wide area ethernet technology in place of the more common digital subscriber line (DSL) based technology for broadband. So there you go, Airtel isn’t lying when it says it is the fastest with 16MBPS in DSL providers. The Tata connection however comes at a hefty 10,000 price tag every month though. In the announcement then, TTML said it has already connected around 20,000 buildings in Mumbai with wide area ethernet technology.
Now all this speed is great, but will the connection maintain its integrity and give me a seamless experience? Will any of these providers give me an experience where I wouldn’t need to expereince their customer service at all? I think that’s the crux of any provider these days. Speed and who comes first with it is good enough only for bloggers to write about, but giving a hasslefree connection and giving it in even the most remote regions of our country is the bigger point in hand.
This is very costly….
and whats the use of such high bandwidth when you have data transfer limitations
Maneesh
Thanks for the coverage.The ‘Impatient Ones’ campaign officially launched this Monday.It focuses on impatience as a virtue via three real young achievers.
As a brand we recognize the need to continuously connect with our audience,this is a step in that direction & hope you like it.You can check us out at:
website:http://www.impatientones.com
facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/ImpatientOnes/60387...
youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/TheImpatientOnes
twitter: https://twitter.com/Impatient_Ones
Whats the point of such immense speeds when there is such a low download cap?
Consider the 16Gbps (2MBps) – 50 GB plan…
50 GB can ideally be exhausted in 25000 seconds or just under 7 hours with a perfect 16Gbps connection! Thats less than half a day!! Then what? I spend some 2Rs/MB for the rest of the month!?
Such speeds should come with atleast 500GB of download caps, if not completely unlimited!!
Now that is expensive !! Will wait for some slashed rate
Today we r using solidstate technology means no recurring cost…..then why so expensive.its good with some one time price with unlimited download, monthly/yearly
Airtel is giving 3.5G HSPA 3.6Mbps connections in Sri lanka for all cities! its has unlimited data usage that costs like Rs.700(indian), in sri lanka! (Rs1500 in sri lanka)
it is very costly, we have to wait for cheaper rate and more data capacity.
Yes Vivek, You are right. I also dropped my idea to buy this plan whn i come to knw that limit is just 20GB. At the speed of 16mbps 20 Gb is like “OOT KE MUH ME JEERA” they shud make it to unlimted or 50-100 GB at least
they should make this plan unlimited at this price or atleast start giving 1,2 or 4 Mbps unlimited below 1000 Rs, limited data transfer plans r just a waste and r of no use to most of internet users, True broadband is only when there is no broadband cap and everything is unlimited, India still ranks 115th at internet speed and is far behind the developed world,shame on india, they should start giving high speed internet and stop giving limited plans,make it unlimited
Only idiots would have a 20GB limitation on a 16mbps speed.
and …only morons would buy such a plan
Now Airtel in Sri Lanka sucks with their lower quality backbone! They are having a 100Mbps leased line for providing their HSPA packages!
Ok, who among all of you that complain on the cap of 20GB, has actually and consistently measured their usage, month on month?
While I agree that caps on usage is old school, you really need to look at what you use the connection for and whether speed is of utmost importance to you. Personally, I would love a 4mbps unlimited plan, which for some strange reason is not an option with Airtel.
It’s really pathetic that India has 16Mbps Airtel connections while Sri Lanka has 7.2Mbps maximum speed from the same ISP. And it’s also only for major cities.
I am not sure Airtel would make success in Sri Lanka with these facts. They have very few customers here.
If they wouldn’t offer satelite coverage, I’m quite sure that they’ll need to pack stuff and go back to India.