Airtel woos broadband users with 100 mbps offer

New Delhi: Upping its services bouquet amid intense competition in the telecom sector, Bharti Airtel Thursday said its existing as well as new broadband users would be able to access internet speed of up to 100 megabit per second with the use of 'V-fiber' technology.

"Existing customers can upgrade to 'V-Fiber' speeds within same plan at no extra charge. Modem charges will be fully refunded if a customer is not satisfied within the 1st month of service," Bharti Airtel said in a statement.

Customers opting for V-Fiber based broadband service will need to buy a new modem for about Rs 1,000. Existing customers will also need to replace their present modem by paying Rs 1,000 for new modem to avail high speed, an Airtel spokesperson said.

Airtel is offering three-month free trial of V-Fiber to new customers and also made pan-India unlimited voice calling free on plans starting Rs 1,299.

"More importantly, there is no new wiring, drilling etc. required at an existing customer's premises. One simply needs to upgrade to a new modem to experience 'V-Fiber' speeds," the statement said.

The offering has started in Chennai starting today and will be rolled out across Airtel's national broadband network in the coming weeks, the statement said.

"With 'V-Fiber' and our national optic fiber backbone, we are all set to offer a future ready network. This solution, besides reducing our carbon footprint, offers a very quick and convenient upgrade to the customer," Bharti Airtel, Director ? Operations, Ajai Puri said.

The announcement came a day after Airtel launched one-time 50 minutes of free calls within Airtel network with new version of its mobile application 'MyAirtel App' and 2GB of online storage space.

Existing telcos have started rolling out high-speed internet plans as well as other offers to retain their customer base amid disruptive pricing by newcomer Reliance Jio which is offering unlimited data service till December 31 to its users.