Airtel 3G Review, Data Plans and Intenet Speed Test
Airtel is the largest mobile service provider across India. It all began four years ago when Airtel first started providing 3G services in some parts of India. Now, 3G service is prevalent in most of the telecom circles. Besides 3G, Airtel also has 4G internet service in selected parts of the country. We have reviewed Airtel 4G services before, please read the Airtel 4G review if you have not read it already.
I am a long time Airtel user. I started using Airtel 2G services since the time I got my first internet enabled mobile phone. Unfortunately, I never got the opportunity to use 3G on my mobile because Airtel 3G was not present at my place until recently. So I decided to give it a try.
How to activate Airtel 3G?
First, you need to make sure that Airtel 3G service is available in your area. You can call customer care (121) and ask them about the availability. Or if you have a 3G enabled mobile phone, you may go to network settings, select 3G only mode and do a network search. If you see Airtel network, it means that 3G service is present in your place. To activate Airtel 3G, you can either type “3G” and send it to “121” and then follow the instructions you receive. Alternatively, you can recharge your mobile number using a 3G fortified recharge card to have the service automatically activated on your phone.
Airtel 3G plans:
3G service in India is still not quite affordable. You need to shell out quite a lot of money to enjoy fast internet speed on mobile devices. Airtel has several 3G data packs to satisfy all kinds of users. Please note that Airtel 3G tariffs differ in amount in different circles, so before recharging your number kindly visit the Airtel website for the correct 3G recharge amount. You may check out the following 3G packs for your reference:
The base data pack is volume based. For 10kb data, you will be charged 3p. But you may be charged a lot if you are a heavy user. It is advised that you do not opt for this data plan. If you want to just stay connected to the internet and exchange emails, you may opt for the 300 MB data plan which costs Rs.102. The 1 GB and 2.5 GB plans will cost you Rs.249 and Rs.449 respectively. There is no true unlimited plan; the maximum data usage is up to 10 GB which will cost you Rs.1499 per month.
Airtel 3G Speed test and result:
I was really excited to test the Airtel 3G internet. I decided to use the connection for varied activities to the likes of browsing the web, streaming HD video content on mobile and finally tethering the connection to the computer. I have to say that I am quite happy with the performance of the Airtel 3G network. But before moving to the speed test result, let me tell you that just like any other wireless internet connection, 3G internet speed depends on various factors such as the signal strength, number of active users etc. I get full signal strength at my place and the number of 3G users here is quite less. So as expected, I received good network performance here.
I used an HSPA+ enabled mobile phone which can technically reach up to a speed of 21 Mbps. Airtel 3G has constantly provided good download and upload speed. Upon using it on my mobile, I found that the websites loaded up fast, HD video streaming worked great and the download speed was quick. To give you a better idea on Airtel 3G speed I have run some internet speed tests on both the mobile phone and computer. Most of the time, the download speed hovered around 7 Mbps and upload speed was around 1 Mbps. I think the maximum speed supported in my area is 7.2 Mbps and I was served a speed of about 7 Mbps which is quite impressive.
Are you using Airtel 3G? Are you satisfied with it? Do share your experience with us.
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Yes, airtel offers 3G plans in most of big circles of operations. You can go to its website for more details or call up customer care and ask them about the availability of 3G in your area and then go to network settings and activate it. They provide 4G also, you can upgrade your 3G to 4G.
I am getting very poor net speed on my airtel 3g connection.
download is less than 0.7 mbps and upload is less than 0.05 mbps
I believe Airtel network shows more than the actual data usage. I have cross verified this by making video call using different survive provider. For the other service provider data usage was showing 0.32KB, whereas for airtel this shown 0.32GB for the same period of video call.
ATTENTION……..ATTENTION…….ATTENTION
Wrong practices by AIRTEL. I had 2 Airtel postpaid numbers under various plans, and now i want to tell everyone, DO NOT BUY AIRTEL POSTPAID, rather prefer prepaid service as they can not charge you illegaly. ( At Least you can expect them not to). The ordeal i have to go thru with Airtel is only made me question the type of company it is. AIRTEL is one of the most expensive service providers in the market and they claim to be the best (OPEN NETWORK stunt). The TRUTH in reality is a lot different. AIRTEL charges you money for services that they promise to deliver. No doubt they have good network coverage but this does not mean that the services are also worth the money they charge you.
1) Airtel sent me a bill that had an charge added to it twice, which was not even suppose to be there (Please see attached PHOTOS as proof). I had to make calls and send emails to get them off my bill which was amounting 200rs. This if overlooked would have made me pay the whole amount and this would have been non refundable. Later airtel official admitted their mistake and said SORRY(till next time).
2) One of my airtel number +91-70******99 was lost and switched off 3-4 months back. Till that time all bills were paid on that number. After that AIRTEL never contacted me. Now after 4 months I receive one (1) sms from AIRTEL on +91- 80******00 saying that I have an outstanding amount of some 800+ rs and need to pay the same. On receiving the same sms i got in touch with the Airtel local office and asked them to close the account and tell me the final bill. Till date im waiting for the same. And now AIRTEL have stopped my outgoing calls on the number+91-89******00 whose bill was paid. And not forcing me to quickly pay all bills without any discussion and then only they will start any service on my number.Despite a call on the customer care and confirmation that my number will be restarted soon, im still waiting for the same, when contacted the local office i was told that i need to pay the bills in full and it does not matter that i didn’t received any bill during 4 months time.And as the alternate number given to the account is of AIRTEL, that’s y airtel has stoped the services to the number whose bills were paid.As its there will to give the service or not.
3) During this time i got a fresh bill for the number +91-89******00 and i paid it in 2 parts. 1st via PAYTM and 2nd via cash in Local AIRTEL office. After checking today on Airtel app i found that the cash bill is not paid yet after 2 days. Now the fun part is that the local office is saying that they didn’t receive any amount from me. Now i am wondering that for what reason i visited the Airtel Store, if not for paying my bill. On asking Local airtel office told me that they do not have a operational CCTV system, hence my claim can not be proven. As a standard practise AIRTEL never gives a receipt and/or bill for cash bill payment. So now im at the mercy of the Local Office who is claiming that i only came to the store to chit-chat, as the same count not have been done via phone.
All the above statement are not from various people, it happened to just one person and im that person who is also writing this post. I am not related to any other network in any manner and any one want to verify can email me @ [email protected] and get in touch.
{Sorry can not give phone number as incoming me also be stopped after this post.}
To all AIRTEL officials,Prefer hiring well behaved and well spoken personnel in your regional/local offices as well. As they are equally important to hiring well trained and qualified personnel in your own head offices.
If you seriously wish to know the details, please feel free to mail me. Will provide you with an alternate number( NON-AIRTEL) for further follow up.
RGDS
Umang Singh
This company is fraud,it gives always any bullshit reasons while conversation with costumer executive. BULSHIT ………
BLOODY YOU CHEATER
Very poor service. I am porting out to other service.
Last,20’sday’s,is 2g,sppid is,25.kbps,&3,’g,’sppid is 5:kbps,
The worst network ever used. I really did a great mistake.Guys please don’t get cheated,they r the biggest cheaters, I am not able to have access of my network bcos its damb slow. In my house v have 4airtel connection which v planned to give away, worst experience.
I use 3g internet but in our area not work properly airtel network very very slow so I request please in RATIA make high internet network.