Just a couple of months after Airtel reconfigured their V-Fiber broadband plans, the company has given its home broadband plans a completely new coat of paint. There is now a new identity and the subscription options that consumers can choose from have been further simplified as well. The speeds range between 100Mbps and 1Gbps, depending on which tariff plan you select. While the entry price point remains the same at Rs 799 per month, there are changes in the packages upwards in the price band as well as some tweaks to the add-on benefits as well. Earlier, the Airtel broadband was called the V-Fiber broadband but is now called Xstream broadband—perhaps to build the identity of the Xstream platform that also includes the company’s video streaming service.
The entry-spec Basic plan is priced at Rs 799 per month and includes 150GB of data per month, at a speed of up to 100Mbps. There is also a bundled landline telephone with unlimited local and STD calls, as well as the Airtel Thanks benefit that includes the Airtel Xstream video streaming subscription. Earlier, the Basic plan bundled 100GB internet per month with speeds up to 40Mbps. For a while, Airtel had the promotion that bundled 200GB bonus data for a period of 6 months too.
The next Airtel Xstream broadband plan is called Entertainment, and this is priced at Rs 999 per month. What you get is 300GB of data per month, at a speed of up to 200Mbps. The Airtel Thanks benefits with this plan include subscription to the Airtel Xstream Premium content, access to Zee 5 Premium content, one year of Amazon Prime subscription as well as three months of Netflix subscription. The landline phone also offers unlimited local and STD voice calls. This is a big change compared to the same subscription plan earlier—it was priced at Rs 1,099 at the time, with maximum speeds capped at 100Mbps.
The Airtel Xstream Premium plan is priced at Rs 1,499 per month. This bundles 500GB data per month at maximum speeds of Rs 1,499. The Airtel Thanks benefits with this plan include subscription to the Airtel Xstream Premium content, access to Zee 5 Premium content, one year of Amazon Prime subscription as well as three months of Netflix subscription. The landline phone also offers unlimited local and STD calls. The change from the Airtel V-Fiber era is that the same plan was earlier priced at Rs 1,599 per month but offered 600GB data instead.
At the top of the pyramid sits the VIP plan which is priced at Rs 3,999 per month. What you get with the Airtel Xstream VIP broadband plan is unlimited data usage every month with speeds up to 1Gbps. This plan makes Airtel one of the few broadband service providers in India to offers a 1Gbps broadband plan. The Airtel Thanks benefits with this plan include subscription to the Airtel Xstream Premium content, access to Zee 5 Premium content, one year of Amazon Prime subscription as well as three months of Netflix subscription. The landline phone also offers unlimited local and STD calls.
Earlier, the VIP plan was not the flagship Airtel V-Fiber broadband plan and was priced at Rs 1,999 per month offering unlimited data at up to 100Mbps speeds. This also means that Airtel has done away with the Xstream Ultra plan, which was priced at Rs 3,999 with similar benefits.
The interesting bit is that Airtel is offering an add-on for all broadband plans except the VIP plan, which converts them into completely unlimited plans. The add-on is priced at Rs 299 and is applicable for the Basic, Entertainment and Premium plans. For instance, if you have a subscription to the Airtel Xstream Basic broadband plan, you would be paying Rs 799 per month for 150GB data at up to 100Mbps speeds. Now, if you make it Rs 799 plus Rs 299 per month, you get unlimited data at 100Mbps speeds. Since Airtel has made each of the new Xstream simpler and distinguished in terms of the maximum speeds that you can get on each plan, this Rs 299 add-on could make a lot of sense for users who don’t necessarily need 1Gbps speed or Airtel doesn’t offer that much speed in their area.
As things stand, Reliance Jio, Spectra and ACT Broadband are the few other internet service providers that offer 1Gbps broadband plans for home users in India.
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