I just bought an Airtel 4G dongle - last week on Saturday afternoon. I was told activation would be done in 48 hours. It was done on Wednesday - ONLY AFTER repeated calls from me.
Next, I was told by the guy who sold the dongle that I should call him after activation, and he would run me through the installation process and choosing of Network option etc. I did that.
The guy said choose WCDMA option on your Network options menu. I asked why CDMA? I can see Airtel Lte here as an option. He said no, choose WCDMA. No explanation. This despite the fact that he gave a demo and 4G was running perfectly well.
I checked my email, opened some newspaper sites to check on stats on women and crime(as I was doing a story on the same). I saw someone had sent a file on We Transfer - about 2GB - which I downloaded.
I logged out. Logged back in after a while to continue working on my story. I kept logging out and in, going out for lunch etc.
Around 9pm, I get a message on my mobile that my 5GB data was finished. I was shocked.
I have been on a Vodafine 3G dongle so far which worked perfectly well - never ever ran out of data. I could comfortably use it for 15-20 days, till it hit a slowdown path due to data usage.
I had not watched any videos. I tried opening some sites. It kept saying Internet not working.
I posted about my experience on Facebook and got so many responses about similar experiences. Someone said Airtel 4G is a HUGE DATA HOG. This was a former media colleague who does tech reviews and advised not to continue with the connection, and switch back to Vodafone.
Also the connection kept swinging between abysmally slow to so-so.
BAD, AND CONFUSED, SERVICE
I called up the helpline after getting the message - - first the woman tried to fob me off saying you will know when you get the bill why your data got used up. Can’t do anything now. I said but my dongle’s not working at all. It’s not opening any sites. I had to finally threaten with taking this to online platforms before the woman relented and said ok, we will send you an engineer tomorrow.
Which is today. No engineer. I had to sned off an article so I spent a good part of my day at an internet cafe. I called the helpline again around 4pm. Quoted my complaint number. Asked why there was no engineer yet. I was told "your case is closed as your data has run out." WHAT?! "Your case is closed. Only when you have available data can we send an engineer to your house."
After much argument, tired, I said fine just top up. 1 GB was topped up at Rs 300. Please send engineer. She says "just select GSM mode, not WCDMA and it will be fine." I selected GSM mode. It was caterpillar-like slow. Went back, slected Airtel 4g Lite. Got only 2 bars.
I wrote to their complaint email ID. They replied "We recommend you to keep mobile data off to avoid this kind of charges when there is no usage. While we understand your view on excess data consumption, here are some possibilities how you may exceed the free data usage - a. Some applications installed on your phone may as well connect to internet at regular intervals.
Typically, anti-virus and security software¿s require to update themselves when you are connected to internet. b. If you are a BlackBerry/iPhone/Smartphone user, your phone may frequently ping to update data. Also, some screens/wallpaper showing weather data may connect to internet and update datayour mobile must have."
And blah bloody blah.
Obviously they hadn’t cared to read my email properly stating IN CAPS that I had a dongle.
As my FB page advisers suggested - DO NOT TAKE AIRTEL 4G. That is what I am going to do. I would advise everyone NOT to take up Airtel 4G. High speed is a huge attraction, but the speed also means it chews up data real fast. And also as I experienced, and so did others who were n my FB, they have a some faults in the system. What else would explain a 5G data plan getting wiped out with just email checking and browsing newspaper sites?