Let us decipher the Airtel Fair Usage Policy

Please sign the Airtel Fair Usage Policy Petition in case you support the cause!

Let us decipher the Airtel Fair Usage Policy

Airtel’s Fair Usage Policy is designed in such a manner that we continue to provide the best of internet experience to all our customers.

What they mean:

Airtel Fair Usage Policy is designed in such a manner that we would not be required to upgrade our network infrastructure to meet the growing demand of a good online web experience. We prefer that our customers stick to checking emails on their ‘broadband’ connections. YouTube? That is for American audiences.

A very small number of customers use an excessive amount of the network bandwidth, to the extent that it can impair the experience of others. The intent of Airtel’s Fair Usage Policy is to provide the optimum internet experience to all customers.

What they mean:

We have some customers who pay us good money to get high speed broadband connections and they want to use it exactly for what it is supposed to be used for. But that is not good for our business. These are the customers who require us to stay up to date with our network infrastructure but that costs a lot of money. Money we are not ready to invest because we believe India is living in the stone age.

Under the policy we have defined fair usage levels for unlimited data transfer plans and needless to mention, the usage levels set are very generous such that most customers will not be affected by the Fair Usage Policy.

On reaching the fair usage level, the plan speed would be rationalized by up to 50% for the rest of the monthly billing cycle. You would also be redirected to a page which will inform you that the speeds for the rest of the billing cycle month would be as per the Airtel’s Fair Usage Policy.

What they mean:

We have decided that we are not going to let those customers enjoy the broadband they have been paying for all this time. It’s time for us to take away the pleasures of surfing online without the pain of controlling the urge to stay up to date with the latest technologies. Since we are the boss here, we get to decide the awful limits after which your internet would slow down to half its original speed. We also decided to not involve our customers in deciding the limits because well who are they to interfere with our business anyways!

Please note that the speeds would be upgraded to the normal speeds at the start of the next billing cycle.

What they mean:

Keep paying us the money you have been paying for the proper speeds and we would reduce it to half just days into the month.

We assure you that the data transfer limits remain unlimited and no change has been made in the same.

What they mean:

Since TRAI requires us to provide unlimited data transfer in the name of ‘broadband connectivity’… the connection remains unlimited with a well guess what a *.

Here is a spreadsheet created by a member of the India Broadband Forum detailing how much this new fair usage policy suck in real world scenario.