Airtel has announced the new broadband plans for the Airtel Xstream Fiber Broadband service. The new plans see the addition of a new Rs 499 plan as well as the switch to unlimited data across all subscription plans—irrespective of the speed you choose. This means Airtel has done away with the Rs 299 unlimited data add-on that users had to bolt on to their Airtel Xstream Fiber Broadband subscription to get unlimited usage every month. The new Airtel Xstream broadband plans come just days after Reliance Jio announced the new JioFiber broadband plans that switched to the unlimited data benefit for all plans, for all users. The new Airtel Xstream Fiber Broadband tariff plans start with the Airtel Xstream Unlimited plan which is priced at Rs 499 per month and offers unlimited data at 40Mbps speed. This is a new addition to the line-up, to compete with the Rs 399 plan by Reliance JioFiber that offers unlimited data at 30Mbps speed.
The Rs 799, the Rs 999, the Rs 1,499 plans have been updated while the flagship Rs 3,999 plan has been left untouched. This means that the Airtel Xstream Premium plan priced at Rs 799 now offers unlimited data at 100Mbps speed. The Airtel Xstream Entertainment plan at Rs 999 per month now offers unlimited data at 200Mbps speed. The Airtel Xstream Ultra plan now also offers unlimited data at 300Mbps speed. The Airtel Xstream VIP plan priced at Rs 3,999 always bundled unlimited data usage at 1Gbps speeds—continues to offer the same benefits. It is expected that existing customers will also be switched to the new unlimited data benefit in the coming days. Earier today, we had noticed the removal of the Rs 299 unlimited data add-on option from Airtel’s website which we believed was the first hint that new Airtel Xstream Fiber broadband plans were incoming (You can read more on that here).
Airtel has updated its tariff plans by removing the data caps in place earlier to make the data bundles unlimited across all Airtel Xstream Fiber Broadband plans. At the same time, Airtel has not changed the pricing and continues with the Rs 799, Rs 999 and Rs 1,499 price points as before, albeit with unlimited data benefits. This was in a way expected and the announcement comes just days after Reliance Jio announced the enticing new broadband plans for the JioFiber broadband service.
With the Rs 499 Unlimited and the Rs 999 Premium plans, Airtel Xstream users will get the bundled subscription for the Airtel Xstream video streaming platform. The Airtel Xstream Entertainment, Airtel Xstream Ultra and Airtel Xstream VIP plan subscribers will get the Airtel Xstream video streaming platform subscription bundled as well as subscriptions for Disney+ Hotstar, Amazon Prime and Zee5.
Till now, Airtel’s fair usage policy (FUP) that differentiates between home and commercial usage for unlimited plans was 3333GB per month, and it is expected that will continue as us. Reliance Jio has the 3300GB data per month FUP policy for the new JioFiber plans.
Airtel also says that all Airtel Xstream Fiber Broadband subscribers can get the Airtel Xstream Box for TV as part of the subscription—this is otherwise priced at R3,999. This Android TV powered direct to home (DTH) set top box (STB) allows users to access video streaming platforms such as Disney+ Hotstar, Amazon Prime and Zee 5, to name a few, as well as Live TV channels. The Airtel Xstream TV service offers 550 Live TV channels.
A few days ago, Reliance Jio dropped a bombshell by announcing the new line-up of JioFiber broadband plans for existing customers and new users as well, with unlimited data. This includes all plans priced between Rs 399 and Rs 3,999 with speeds on offer between 30Mbps and 1Gbps.
The new Reliance JioFiber plans start at Rs 399 per month. Specifically, there are now four plans to choose from—the entry spec Rs 399 plan for 30Mbps speed, the Rs 699 for 100Mbps speed, Rs 999 for 150Mbps speed and Rs 1,499 for 300 Mbps speed. These plans now offer unlimited data as well as with unlimited voice calls, thereby removing the earlier data cap that some of these plans had. For instance, the Rs 699 plan that offers 100Mbps speed earlier was unlimited up to 350GB data per month.
With the updated JioFiber broadband plans for home users, there are also comparatively more bundled subscriptions for streaming platforms. This will depend on which plan you pick. The Rs 999 plan offers bundled subscriptions for 11 apps, while the Rs 1499 plan bundles 12 app subscriptions. The apps that are part of the bundle include Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+ Hotstar, Zee5, Sony Liv, Lionsgate Play and Alt Balaji.