My experiences with the malices of multinational companies continues. After moving to Gurgaon and getting absolutely tired of the services and tantrums of Tata Photon+, I decided to try out my luck at wireline internet. The most prominent provider for ADSL in India is Bharti Televentures under the brand name of AirTel, so I put in an application for signing up with their ADSL2 services.

The first shock came when I had a look at the Tariff Plans. Being someone who lives in the World Wide Web, going for a Data Limited plan was simply out of question. While I was in Bangalore, there was a plan with AirTel that offered 1Mbps connection with no data limits for Rs. 1699 + taxes. Since this ISP has a presence throughout India, I expected them to offer me something similar in Gurgaon as well. There was a surprise for me in store that they have stopped giving out that Tariff Plan. Instead the plans they were offering was the product of a bunch of Marketing Jokers sitting together and assuming that the subscribers of their connection has no idea of what they are talking about.

AirTel has started offering 4Mbps connections in my area with a Fair Usage policy of 25GB. After the 25GB data limit, the speed will be reduced to 256Kbps. A simple math says that, this means that if I download at the maximum possible speed, I would exhaust my limit in less than 14.5 hrs. This seemed utterly ridiculous to me. Why on earth will someone like to take a 4Mbps connection for a whole mont if he is just allowed to use it for 14 hrs at its maximum potential?

This was not the end, the executive who came to ‘install’ the connection at my place said that I would have to buy a modem from them. Not only that, I would also have to buy a telephone set from AirTel if I intend to use the free calls that AirTel is bundling with my connection.

I remember some laptop companies being sued because they were not ready to provide OEM licenses for Operating Systems free with their products. The logic obviously makes a lot of sense. If I have bought a laptop for say word processing, it is impossible for me to use it without an Operating System. So technically, the product which is being sold to me can’t be tested or used in the way it is being sold. So as a customer, my rights are not being honoured. In the similar note, I have not bought a telephone cable from AirTel. I would not be able to use the connection without a working modem.

I think the reason why AirTel is able to do away with all these malpractice is because there is no other ISP in India who is worth their name or price. Also it seems either the Indian Government is incapable of understanding these malpractices or they are just interested in their share of taxes. But one thing is for sure, I will keep my eye open for any alternatives that I find and would dutifully try to spread the awareness of the largest ISP in India.

Shame on you AirTel.