My Experience with Airtel

There has always been the common notion in all of the mobile phone users that Airtel is the best service provider in the market. It provides network connections at almost all places, and the other advantages we all keep hearing from Airtel users. Even I have been using Airtel for communication from the moment I got my phone. And I was satisfied.

At various places, I would be the only one getting network coverage, and also, the schemes and plans were the cheapest among my friends. Well, this was the all the happy part- superb network coverage and cost-effective schemes.

Then came the time to choose an internet connection for my PC. Having had a bad experience with the local MTNL internet service in the past, I decided to use a dongle with an Airtel SIM for usage. That was the time when 2G was the fastest, and there I was, satisfied with the speed I got.

As 3G surfaced, the speed of my internet reduced gradually and it started crawling at a meager pace. Soon, the net pack I used was shut down by the company, and I had to move on to 3G myself.

The speed overtook me, and the fast pace consumed me. And then starts my sorry tale. After the initial limit was over, I started getting a net speed slower than the earlier 2G I used to get in my earlier 2G service! I asked my friends who have similar net packs with different service providers and I got a response that after the limit, the service still provides a net speed more than the 2G level at least!

Now people say that Airtel has the best consumer service, which responds extremely fast to complaints. I disagree completely with that as I have been billed for services which I would never used (that to in my Grandma’s phone- which is only used for picking up calls and sometimes making them). On complaining, the only response I have got is,” Use karlo naa Sirji. Ek mahine ki toh baat hai”. They do not refund back the money, nor do they prevent auto-renewal. Along with this, I have not yet got my older usage cleared (of which I have to pay the amount for a month after I have opted out of the service).

Airtel is surely better than the rest in providing network connection, and I am completely satisfied with that. But in the world of data services, Airtel is behind the rest.

After an impulsive episode at home due to slow internet, now I am debating whether to change the net scheme (also came up with the idea of giving the dongle to the person who provided this to me, and making him use it to understand the ‘advantages’ of  Airtel 3G.

But, as we see, technology and phone networks always have shown different pictures to everyone. Some users have the best experiences, yet some enjoy the worst. And yeah, I feel it depends on luck.