Airtel launches 100 Mbps Wireline Broadband Service @ Rs. 999; Free upgrade to Existing Customers!

So many companies are looking to setup fiber networks in India, but none of the bigger players have yet taken the step. Reliance’s FTTH is still in the pilot mode, ACT’s Fiber network is pan-India but slightly unreliable in some areas, and no one knows where Google Fiber is.

However, Airtel today has launched the much-awaited high-speed fixed broadband service called ‘V-Fiber’ in India. The service will be offered in 87 cities across the country and will be rolled out across Airtel’s national broadband network in the coming weeks.

Chennai will be the first city to get V-Fiber, followed by Delhi-NCR and Bengaluru and then the rest 80 cities. The broadband service will start at Rs. 999 for 50GB FUP limit and will go all the way till 4,999 for 1TB FUP limit.

“India is witnessing an explosive growth in data usage and a lot of in-home data consumption is happening over fixed broadband that offers consistent speeds. With ‘V-Fiber’ and our national optic fiber backbone, we are all set to offer a future ready network for tomorrow’s digitally connected homes,” said Ajai Puri, Director – Operations at Bharti Airtel.

V-Fiber is a combination of Fiber and Vectorization technology that offers extremely fast internet speeds. Vectorization has been borrowed from Europe, where it has been tested and tried for a long time now.

Pricing and perks of V-Fiber broadband service

If you’re an existing Airtel broadband user, then you can upgrade to V-Fiber at no extra cost. All you have to do is provide your Name, mobile number, email ID and DSL-ID/ landline number and Airtel will call you to setup the V-Fiber modem. The new plan will not cost anything to the customer, except for the one-time price for the new modem.

If you’re not an existing customer of Airtel and want a new connection, you can book one now before upgrading to V-Fiber. New customers will also get 3-months of free trial and can directly request for the V-Fiber broadband service as soon as it is available.

If the V-Fiber customers are not happy with the service within one month, Airtel will refund the modem charges and the amount will be adjusted in the next bill cycle. This sounds legit enough for new users to try the service.

Coming to pricing details, the plans in Chennai will start from Rs. 999 for 50GB FUP limit, and these plans keep increasing by Rs. 50 or Rs. 100 with an equivalent increase in the data quota. The maximum one can have is 1TB FUP limit at Rs. 4,999.

Apart from the cheapest plan, all the rest will offer unlimited free voice calling (Local + STD) at no extra cost. This is similar to Reliance Jio in which calls and texts are free.

Will Airtel live upto its promise of 100 Mbps?

Airtel’s open network was lauded for its transparency and it was the first time any telco was coming out clear with its plans. Despite that, consumers are unhappy with Airtel because of poor customer service and false promises.

More often than not, the company messes up in key locations and offers terrible connectivity in prime locations in large cities. Also, the call and data charges are not cheap for Indians and the company seems to overprice its plans.

However according to Airtel, V-Fiber will transform the home broadband for Airtel customers with consistently superfast data speeds and enable HD video streaming, heavy file downloads and uploads in a multi-device environment (over Wi-Fi).

Of course speeds of 100 Mbps will be difficult to achieve, but you can expect speeds much higher than the existing Airtel broadband plans. Airtel also did not reveal the prices post FUP usage, and post trial periods. If the company can maintain the pricing starting Rs. 999, then it might be worth it.

Let’s see how V-Fiber fares once it launches in all the major cities in India, where majority of the population uses Airtel internet service. If you want to request for a connection, head over to Airtel V-Fiber right now.