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Airtel has a 3G USB modem for postpaid and prepaid internet connections. Unfortunately the Airtel charges for postpaid billing can be extremely unfair to consumer. In Goa, They have stopped giving new postpaid 3G connections from April 9, 2013, according to Ms Fulmati from their Panaji, Goa branch. Airtel has stopped providing 3g connections in 7 circles, and only provides 2g connections to new customers. Change in plan is also not possible, according to Ms Fulmati. Ms Fulmati refused to give an acknowledgement for the written complaint submitted to the Panaji, Goa branch on June 14, 2015

Airtel charges Rs 450 /2 GB monthly data transfer and Rs 650 / 3GB monthly data transfer. However a customer is billed on the basis of 3 p/10 KB or Rs 3/ 10 MB. We have noticed that the higher of the 2 is charged and a customer exceeding the monthly bandwidth usage is penalised very heavily compared to a prepaid customer using a 3G connection. In the bill also, the customer is charged on the basis on 3p/10 KB.

For example, in a month if the customer bandwidth usage/data transfer is 2.5 GB and he or she has subscribed to the 2GB postpaid monthly plan, he or she will be charged (excluding taxes) Rs 450 + Rs 3 X 500 = Rs 1950 . If the customer was using a prepaid connection he or she would be charged at a uniform rate for all the data transfer, and not made to pay such a huge amount for exceeding the bandwidth even slightly. Typically for most ISPs the customer only has to pay (2.5/2) X 450 = Rs 562.5 for 2.5 GB data transfer. However, Airtel caps the monthly bill at Rs 1500 , so a customer who uses 2.5 GB data transfer and a customer using 15GB data transfer a month has to pay the same price monthly.


Airtel scam SMSes - Unauthorised SMSes sent by/to Airtel users