Indian Telecom giant, Bharti Telecom (Airtel) has announced its plans to offer 8Mbps broadband internet for business as well as home users in selected Indian cities. The high speed broadband will be rolled-out within the next three weeks in Bangalore, Chennai, Pune, Kolkata, and Delhi. Subsequently, it will be launched in Mumbai and Hyderabad. Tariff plans and offerings are yet to be worked out, but roughly it should cost you around Rs. 2000 – 10000 depending upon your bandwidth requirement.
As most users won’t be needing 8Mbps speed constantly, Airtel has introduced a new "on-demand" feature which will lets you vary your broadband speed. This means that the end-user will be able to switch on 8Mbps whenever they need it, say when watching a long online video or downloading something over P2P? With 8Mbps speed, Airtel’s Broadband Service is also going IPTV (Internet Protocol Television) ready.
Last year, it was BSNL who took the initiative of taking broadband internet access to a new level by going 2Mbps. Now, it’s Airtel with 8Mbps. I’m pretty much positive that other ISPs in India will follow Airtel’s initiative.
I’m not certain, if Airtel will impose any bandwidth caps on their 8Mbps broadband plan, just like how BSNL did when they rolled-out 2Mbps broadband last year. I don’t think 8Mbps is going do any transformation to the end-user, unless ISPs here in India decide to lift bandwidth caps and provide unlimited access. For instance, BSNL still doesn’t have a 2Mbps broadband tariff with unlimited bandwidth. What’s the point in having such broadband connection, if you don’t get to enjoy what you pay for?
[Via: Hindu]
Written by 
wrote, on October 12th, 2007
i ve read somewhere that the starting plan will be around for Rs 3k/month for downloads upto 7-8 GB’s of data…
again its too costly for normal users
wrote, on October 12th, 2007
This will be useful for medium level softwares companies, but definitely not for home users.
wrote, on October 12th, 2007
Shashank: Right, but then again, it all depends upon how much you download. I would sure move to Airtel, if they could offer 8Mbps unlimited for Rs. 3K/month
wrote, on October 12th, 2007
But Thilak, ISPs aren’t doing social service. They’re looking for profit. Serving unlimited caps for every plan wouldn’t be a good decision from a company’s standpoint.
I use BSNL’s unlimted internet (for Rs.900/m) and I think the service sucks because they’re providing this service with their worst infrastructure and other plans get good servers and all. Its all in the game.
About 8MBPS, I wish they launched 3G everywhere in India before doing this because in our place, we won’t get. I’m a little happy that Vodafone came here. Who knows ? Maybe they’ll take the initiative to bring the technology here.
wrote, on October 12th, 2007
Sreejith: If you compare India with any other country like US or Australia, you would probably roll on floor being jealous. And yeah, I really hope Vodafone brings 3G in India. As a consumer, I’m too much worried about my standpoint than anybody else’s
wrote, on October 12th, 2007
8Mbps unlimited for Rs. 3K/month is a great idea but then i am paying Rs 1K+ for 256Kbps speed..just compare with that …
And yes Vodafone needs to do something…no great offer from them till now..
wrote, on October 12th, 2007
Comparing other service providers, the technologies used by Airtel is High-Tech. Even though BSNL provides more than airtel, the service given by Airtel cannot be competed with any service providers in India.
Airtel is best in all aspects like Mobile, broadband etc. Many of my friends where switching to Vodaphone but Airtel is no1 in India .
wrote, on October 12th, 2007
Sankaranand: Well, I’m a happy Airtel customer, so my views maybe biased. In the past, I’ve used Spice, and Vodafone (both suck a lot, at least interms of technology). The only complaint I’m having with Airtel is that their postpaid plans don’t match with Prepaid schemes. I mean… for internet access on my Airtel post paid, I have to shell-out 399 bucks per month, but I only get 100MB worth of download.
On the other hand, prepaid users get the flexibility of having internet access for just 20 bucks per day (renewable each day) (and yeah, unlimited download)
wrote, on October 12th, 2007
Shashank: I won’t mind shelling-out another 2K for 8Mbps, but the only problem is bandwidth. Will they provide unlimited net access (at least after off-peak hours?).
Vodafone probably needs more stake in Hutch. As far as I know, it’s Vodafone Essar right now… I’d love to see it as just Vodafone!
wrote, on October 13th, 2007
8mb huh… interesting…
malaysia still rely on 4mb…thats the best package avalaible offered by local telco company…
we’ve to wait for wimax next year for a better option
wrote, on October 13th, 2007
let us see what the competition does to others….
wrote, on October 13th, 2007
@Thilak: You’re absolutely correct that other countries have superior internet facilities than ours but Australia doesn’t have unlimited internet. Read this : http://forums.mactalk.com.au/s.....hp?t=32769
And about Vodafone, I think Hutch just got worse. My cousin had a Hutch connection and he tells me customer service numbers and customer service itself are faulty. He’s planning to change back to Airtel. Home sweet home.
wrote, on October 13th, 2007
Sreejith: Yeah, my friends are having similar complains with Vodafone. I personally never felt like switch from Airtel to another carrier. I’m on Airtel postpaid, but my friends on Airtel prepaid say that their no customer support for them.
wrote, on October 13th, 2007
Izzatz: 4Mbps unlimited? Wimax is already running in India, but I never really had an opportunity to check it out.
wrote, on October 13th, 2007
Tata Indicom has launched 1Mbps Unlimited Broadband connection… Its a different approach than Airtel that Tata Indicom is taking… Read More Here
wrote, on October 13th, 2007
Saptarshi: Tata Indicom is certainly struggling to lure the masses. I wish, their 1Mbps unlimited plan was available nationwide. It’s too expensive, but who cares?
wrote, on October 13th, 2007
yeah… its pretty costly, but atleast its at the right direction. Broadband without unlimited access makes no sense, atleast for home broadband users like me. For the business, we have leased lines. But may be BSNL and Tata Indicom considering for small and SOHO business!!
wrote, on October 13th, 2007
Saptarshi: I have to doubtlessly agree with you! Internet with bandwidth caps doesn’t make any sense at all
wrote, on October 19th, 2007
Broadband is mainly intended for videos. I have a BSNL 2Mbps connection with about 2.5 Gb per month limit (costs about $14 including taxes). If I do any video watching, even news videos, it exceeds the limit. How they charge excess has no logic at all. You get 2.5 Gb for about $14. The next 1 Gb download costs about $20 including taxes. Did these guys ever go to elementary school and learn simple arithmetic? I was in London last week and my host had a WiFi connection for about 30 pounds per month and had an unlimited download speed of 56 Mbps. So one of the writer’s argument that “ISP’s are not doing it for free” argument has no merit at all. They are daylight robbers - nothing else. They know that there is a small community out there who are willing to pay and they plan flecee them. Nothing else. India has one of the highest internet charges anywhere in the world. They have plans advertises as low as Rs.125, which is useful only for checking your email, provided the sender hasn’t attached huge files
I hope these guys go to hell
wrote, on October 20th, 2007
Sam i think you are new to India, charging too much for isp service is pretty usual here. Everything happens based on the competition not on the real stats. If any ISP service provider comes with a better or cheap plan then they will revise their plan to compete it. In india they are not serving customers their only basis is profit. BSNL customer service is best known for their worst care.
The only solution is you have to choose a better plan according to your need, u can opt in for bsnl unlimited plan 256 kbps or go for any other alternatives like Airtel, Sify and Reliance. Don’t expect the government services like BSNL.
wrote, on October 29th, 2007
Glad that Airtel wil be the 1st ISP in India to launch a 8Mbps connection. But a year back, when BSNL upgraded their bandwidth and offered to its customers at no extra cost, i firmly believed that Airtel too would follow them. But much to my disappointment, Airtel didn’t even take any initiative. Even now, their 8Mbps connection will be helpful for corporate users alone and hardly any home users opt for it, mainly due to its cost. .
Now at least, if they follow BSNL and offer 2Mbps connection to its existing users at no additional cost, it will be highly appreciated.
wrote, on January 7th, 2008
yeah i think bsnl home 250 …..is for uploading only…..bcoz 1gb is enough for uploading any kind ……..upto 1 month bat …….certainly i found dat in 1 day i ve downloaded upto 150 mb in just 2 hrs so successively in 10 days it will b over i.e. 1 gb bandwidth limit………so 250 is for very limted use
wrote, on June 24th, 2008
I am interested in Airtel Mobile office,
but i dont know if my w700i supports it.
bc’z my phone doesnot have modem..
pls any one can clarify..
wrote, on September 9th, 2008
These are very good efforts for airtel to launch new service, but many customers are suffering form their customer care executives who do not know about the plans they provide, that badly affect the service.
Consider that you pay 2k, 3k or whatever for the service and after some time your service suddenly stop working without prior notice and you won’t get any proper response from customer care or from gallery or from any other source from airtel then what will you do? And this is what happening !!!
wrote, on December 10th, 2008
well I am so happy with airtel gprs but once it happened plain has been abolished of net
So I think no body would like to acess internet of airtel
wrote, on December 29th, 2008
Hi Friends,
As compared to service plans,
I have Airtel Broadband, the plan is 256 kbps speed and unlimited download upload a monthly rental is 799+taxes and they are going to give 75 free calls to any airtel landline numbers And the customer service is too good
The only bad thing abt this is the speed varies consistently and if u use Vista it works good and if u use on xp it didconnects regularly,
Any way i am happy having Airtel yes its really too good internet provider i tried to download a 3 gb software and it takes approximately 42 hrs to download