To start with, I pretty much live on the internet. I use it for work(I work from home), website maintenance, blogging, and heavy downloading, including a lot of bittorrent. My computer is never off.
I’ve used Spectranet, Reliance, a line from a local cybercafe, and Airtel, over the last 5 years or so; and Airtel is leaps and bounds ahead of everyone else. You might find cheaper ISPs, but if you want an ISP that’s dependable, that will fix problems as soon as they turn up, whose service won’t go down at random times with frequent disconnections, then you must go with Airtel.
With Spectranet, I’d get frequent disconnections, or the servers would go down, and when you call up the helpline they’ll tell you they can only get to fixing it at 11 am the next day. With Reliance and others, you get fluctuating speeds that are often far less than promised. If you use the internet as heavily as I do, and if you use it for things like work(fulltime or freelancing), then this is of course unacceptable.
However, with Airtel these things simply do not happen. First, you get the speeds as promised. I’ve used Airtel in three different locations in Delhi, with their speeds and service consistently excellent each time.
If you ask for 512 or 1 Mbps, that’s exactly what you get, and you’ll get it 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, with no interruptions. Any technical faults are often fixed within four hours(usually within half an hour in my experience) and if for any reason it takes longer than that, they’ll make sure to adjust the billed amount so you’re not paying for it.
For example: One of my idiot neighbors happily went about cutting all the cables and lines in the alleyway behind my house in South Delhi. When I noticed my modem was showing no line and I had no internet or phone, I got on my cellphone to call up the Airtel helpline and stepped outside to get some air. While on the phone I looked down into the alleyway and there were the Airtel engineers, already putting up fresh cables. They came to fix the problem before I even realized there was one. And the fault wasn’t Airtel’s in the first place, but some vandal in my neighborhood. That’s a good example of how good their service is.
As I said, I use the internet very heavily. I don’t even own a TV, because I get everything off the internet. I have bittorrent running nonstop. My computer is never switched off, it’s always downloading, even if I’m asleep or not at home. Needless to say this makes me a very demanding, hard to please customer; and I am blissfully happy with their ADSL landline service.
I use the 1 Mbps unlimited plan. I might switch to the 2 Mbps or even the new 4 Mbps unlimited plans in the near future, since I need that kind of broadband.
Those were the pros. Now for the cons: The only real problem I have with Airtel is their automated helplines, which seem to be getting more and more labyrinthian and complicated and confusing and needlessly redundant with time.
It takes forever to get to where you want to be, and longer to get to speaking to a human being. However, this is still a minor con in light of how good their service is and what you get.
In conclusion, I would strongly recommend their ADSL to anyone in need of broadband at home. There are other ISPs that may seem cheaper on paper, but I’m a believer in "you get what you pay for." Airtel’s service, uptime, reliability, and relentless drive for perfection and world-class service will make you feel like you may not be paying enough!