Okay, we have been harping about pathetic Broadband speeds in India for sometime now. Although, speeds are better than what they were couple of years back, they are still very low compared to global standards.
Now, Airtel seems to be making amends in Indian Broadband speeds, last year they became the first telecom service provider to offer 16mbps broadband speeds, Now according to latest news, they are all set to offer broadband speed of 50 mbps –
Now this is huge !
This ultra-fast 50 mbps will be offered on wired VDSL2 technology.
If you are not aware what ADSL2 is:
VDSL2 (Very High Speed Digital Subscriber Line) is the newest and most advanced standard of DSL broadband wire line communications. It is designed to support the wide deployment of Triple Play services such as voice, video, data, IPTV, high definition television (HDTV) and interactive gaming. VDSL2 also enables customers to stream HD Content anywhere from the internet world as well.
Here are the details of the plan that Airtel is offering:
- 50 MBPS – @ Rs. 8999 per month, free data transfer upto 200 GB and additional free value added services (VAS) like Parallel Ringing, Website Builder (Basic), PC Secure (Anti-Virus software), Online Storage, Unlimited Gaming on Games on Demand.
- 30 MBPS – @ Rs. 7999 per month, free data transfer upto 200 GB and additional free VAS like Parallel Ringing, Website Builder (Basic), PC Secure (Anti-Virus software), Online Storage, Unlimited Gaming on Games on Demand.
Imagine downloading a full length movie or 1 Gigabyte file in less than 5 minutes – Yes, that’s the kind of speeds 50 mbps connection (theoretically) offers. This is good news, but like always there are few questions that need to be asked.
- First and foremost, even though Airtel has promised 50 / 30 mbps, will it actually offer that kind of speed on ground to your PC?
- Even though, you have 50 mbps speed, you are still limited by 200 Gigs of download limit. With that kind of speeds available, you can finish that transfer limit in less than couple of days. They have not mentioned anywhere about availability of unlimited download plans.
- Currently, it is only offered in Delhi & Gurgaon – It will probably take months before it is available in other major cities
- The initial cost also may be quite high, as it may require special modems !
Anyways, even with all these questions, I am quite happy that we are atleast hearing about such speeds in India – This itself is something we should be happy about :)
Whats your take?