Update: Soon after we published this article, Airtel officially announced that it's Home Broadband service is now Airtel Xstream Fibre. All home broadband plans by Airtel will now be available under the new brand name and they are basically the same Xstream Fibre plans, which were initially announced. The only new changes here is a special benefit for Airtel Stream Fibre customers, who can now purchase the Airtel Xstream 4K Hybrid STB for Rs 2,249, down from its standard price of Rs 3,999. Additionally, customers will also have an option to upgrade any plan they choose with unlimited data benefit by paying an additional Rs 299 per month.
Competition in the telecom sector has been gradually increasing ever since Reliance Jio commenced its commercial operations. Rival telcos such as Airtel and Vodafone-Idea had to revamp their entire offering lineup to keep up and retain their subscriber base. Airtel has again made some changes to the benefits it offers to its broadband customers but unfortunately, its users might not like it. Airtel will be gradually phasing out the data rollover facility it offers to its broadband users. We confirmed with Airtel about this development and were told that this change will gradually come into effect for all of its broadband users.
Since this a gradual change, this means that any data left in an Airtel broadband users’ data bank won’t be wiped out. They will be able to use it till it is depleted, however, no additional data will be added over their existing data since the rollover option is no longer available. For example, let's assume you have a total of 1000GB data left in your Airtel Broadband account. It will be rolled over until it’s exhausted and if you use up 500 GB next month, the remaining 500GB will still be available next month. The rollover option is still available for postpaid mobile Airtel subscribers and it should be noted that the option was never available for the telcos’ prepaid users.
This new change by Airtel is bound to draw the irk of users who are counting on data rollover to supplement their monthly data cap. Many users have started complaining since Airtel didn’t make any announcements about the change and abruptly ended the data rollover facility. This comes soon after Airtel announced its new XStream service, which consists of fibre to the home, online media streaming, DTH television and more. The company might be planning to either introduce the rollover facility on its Xstream plans or introduce some similar changes, however, this is purely speculation on our part.