I was planning to go for a DTH service for sometime now as my local cable was providing me with very bad service. I finally decided to purchase the Airtel Digital TV connection after reading some reviews on Mouthshut and talking to couple of friends who have already subscribed to Digital TV.
I will let you know my experience with Airtel Digital TV till now.
Purchase:
I purchased the Digital TV connection from my nearby electronics shop for a price of Rs 2000 which was giving me 2 months subscription of the Mega Pack along with the ESPN STAR Sports pack. I was handed over the STB and the Activation kit from the store. The dealer told me the things I should keep ready while I was scheduling the installation. It included the STB ID, Activation Kit No, View Card no etc.
Scheduling Installation:
I first tried to give a call to the Digital TV Toll Free No from my BSNL number, but each time I could hear that "All channels are busy, please try after some time". I next tried with my Vodafone number and got connected in the very first instance. The person who attanded my call was polite and collected all the information from me and generated a customer ID for me. The installation was scheduled at 10AM the following day. I had some queries and he explained in details to me.
Installation:
Next day I got a call at around 8:30 AM. The Airtel Installation engineer was on line. He asked me about the directions to reach my home and to my utter surprise they were at my house at 9 AM. They took a look at the place where the Dish was to be setup and also looked at the place where the STB would be there. With my permission they started with the installation. Within half an hour they had fixed the dish antenna to the wall and in the next half an hour they did the wiring. the dish was much larger in size than that of Dish TV or Tata Sky. The engineers were using new HILTI brand drillers and the other equipments also were quite new. After an hour they switched on the STB and adjusted the antenna for optimal signal strength. They could reach till 247 in my case which according to them was their personal best. The STB was left to download the latest software over the air and it restarted after the software got installed.Then they called the local Digital TV office to activate the connection. The picture and sound came as soon as the connection was activated. I was amazed with the picture quality. Before leaving they told me to recharge with the 2000 Rs voucher within 2 days and synchronised my TV remote with the STB remote.
Picture and Sound:
The picture quality of Digital TV in one word is superb. I can say that no other DTH service provider can stand in front of Airtel in terms of picture quality(I have not seen Big TV though). The picture was crisp and clear. I cannot say whether the sound is CD quality or not as I could not feel any difference with the local cable connection. The channel guide as well as the Interactive features are quite futuristic. All the channels had the same clarity in Digital TV(unlike Tata Sky where Zee channels are a bit hazy). The my account feature is also quite good where you can see your current balance and the last 3 recharges that had been done in your account.
Customer Service:
During my tenure with Digital TV I had to call up the customer care number quite a few times(not for any technical problem). Each time I used my vodafone number and the call was connected in the first try. I recharged my account with the 2000 Rs voucher, enquired about some rules and policies, subscribed for a topup package and my experience was pleasant each time I called up the customer care. When I subscribed for the topup, I found that all my channels were not accessible which was quickly rectified automatically within 30 secs or so. Maybe this is the way Airtel upgrades the package.
Some disadvantages:
During the free period, you cannot change the base pack. After the free period, you can either upgrade or downgrade the base pack as you wish. There is a charge of Rs 75 for changing the base pack. The price of the pay-per-view content is a little on the higher side.
In all I can say that Airtel Digital TV is total paisa wasool. I would recommend it to everyone who is thinking of subscribing a DTH package.