Discussion My frustrating experience with Airtel Black, will never consider Airtel again

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240p

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A few months ago, I decided to switch from my reliable local ISP to the Airtel Black 599 plan. My goal was to get an all-in-one package that included Internet + OTT + TV. The process began with Airtel forcing me to submit my mobile number via their app just to view plan details—this instantly triggered a flood of sales calls within 15–20 minutes. Reluctantly, I proceeded and paid ₹2500 to get the connection installed.

Initial Impressions:​

Things were smooth for the first 3–4 weeks. However, the honeymoon phase ended abruptly. Internet issues started cropping up frequently—something I hardly faced with my local ISP (maybe 2–3 times in 5 years). In contrast, Airtel managed to beat that in just one week. I began raising tickets regularly. The usual response involved sending someone to check the local distribution box. The issues kept recurring, to the point where I had to reactivate my old local ISP just to have working internet.

The Deactivation Nightmare:​

By the third month, I had had enough. I decided to disconnect Airtel Xstream Fiber and return to my local provider. What followed was the most frustrating part of this entire experience.

I called 121 and waited for 30 minutes to speak to a supervisor. The supervisor kept going in circles. In frustration (and yes, I admit, I used some harsh words I should’ve avoided), she disconnected the call. I called again, this time waited for 40 minutes, and got another supervisor who was even more annoying. His only response was, “We’ll send a technician to your location.” After a lot of back-and-forth and raised voices, he finally agreed to disconnect the service. In total, it took me two long calls, more than an hour of waiting, and a lot of frustration to terminate the service. I was once a loyal Airtel customer—my first SIM was Airtel, and I’ve used their other services for years. This experience, though, has completely soured my opinion.

This whole episode has made me rethink my plans for when I move to Bangalore. I was considering Airtel or Jio Fiber, but after this, I’m now looking into ACT or a good local ISP.
 
It is always good to go with a network which operates through LCO operators.
At least we will get response, incase of issue.
I am reluctant to go with airtel, going with airtel was my wish and now our area also covered with airtel.
But people whoever using airtel in our next area are not giving a good feedback.
Fortunately our LCO is really good and his response was always exceptional.
He has three different networks I can't switch between those networks at free of installation cost.
I too hardly face outage.
 
It is always good to go with a network which operates through LCO operators.
Fortunately our LCO is really good and his response was always exceptional.
He has three different networks I can't switch between those networks at free of installation cost.
I too hardly face outage.
Talking about LCOs, Airtel is also managed by LCOs in maximum cities and mostly these LCOs are doing a good job in maintaining the infrastructure, better than JioFiber team at least.

Airtel has given their fiber franchise to multiple LCOs (area wise) in my city for mainline maintenance and last mile connectivity. Their own Airtel team manage the tower end (OLT and other technical stuff).

My area Airtel Fiber connectivity is served by the same LCO guy who had provided me with a Railwire Broadband in the past. He also has BSNL Fiber, Alliance Broadband, etc. franchise. Overall good experience because even if I contact him directly asking some queries, he helps me with those.
 
Sad to hear such experience with Airtel black, I hope it differs from location to location. Even I faced this kind of issues initially when I took black connection around February, Multiple calls without any proper resolution. After that our forum member suggested to raise complaint from nearby store, then till now didn't get any issues except latency because of airfiber. So It's always better to raise a concern through them & Airtel should work on CC or any automation part to deliver a better service. Otherwise, This itself will drag them
 
I have been an Airtel Broadband/DTH/Mobile customer for 17 years now in Bangalore.it had its share of turbulences but i feel overall Airtel's service has been good if not great atleast for me.Most of my Broadband issues gets resolved within 2-3 hours at max.In initial days Airtel used to pay "Hafta" to local ISP's so as not to cut their cables,my local ISP was run by goons of the area MLA but even with that also the service was good.
 
I also faced same issue when airtel airfiber was initially launched , at that time Airfiber's ODU Comes with Physical Sim, I have complained many times regarding speed and no signal Issue but no one came for one month after that i switched to jio airfiber
 
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