[Resolved]  Airtel — Airtel broadband data usage theft

Address:

Gurgaon, Haryana, 122001

Airtel Broadband
We have been facing data usage theft issues for the last few months with reference to the Airtel Fixed Line & Broadband services installed at our home in Gurgaon, registered under the Customer Fixed line number: [protected] & Broadband:[protected]_dsl, and had already lodged a complaint in this regard earlier, after which we even had the password (id key) changed.

Thereafter, we changed from a simple broadband plan to a combo plan, with installation of fixed line on 09 July 2016. But, in a matter of 12 days, ie, by 21 July 2016, our entire high speed quota of 60 GB was consumed, out of which around 20 GB was consumed in just 2 days, ie, 19 & 20 July 2016.

What raised our suspicion in the first place is that even late at night, when everyone was asleep at home rendering no one using the internet in my family, there was consumption of data to the extent of 1-2 GB per hour. Eventually, when we shifted to the new combo plan, we began switching off the router at night, before we went to bed, or whenever no one was at home. At least, this ensured that whoever was hacking the system to use our high speed data quota would not be able to do so when it is switched off. For a short period thereafter, we found that data usage was at a reasonable level.

But, as explained above, the data usage again shot up to incredible levels on 19 & 20 July 2016. The only time the theft did not happen was during the time that the router was turned off, which effectively means is that the only way for us to prevent this theft is by discontinuing Airtel broadband services in our home. we also ran a quick check with some of our neighbours in the same apartment complex (The Legend), and found that others using Airtel broadband were facing the same problem, but did not know where to go to resolve the issue. On the other hand, customers (within The Legend Apartment Complex) of a competing service, Nextra, did not face the same problem.

Airtel's technical support service is virtually non-existent. I have made several calls and hit a brick wall. A neighbour of ours had a similar problem with airtel of excessive data quota consumption (even when the customer was not consuming the data usage), and it was attributed to airtel uploading excess data to the particular customer's id. Once this was discovered, airtel was able to rectify it.

Airtel advertises its broadband service as convenient and secure. However, it is obvious that the wifi broadband service they provide is not at all secure, and their inadequate security protocols can be hacked/misused/abused rather easily. I've made calls to Airtel customer service to have this issue resolved, but they have no been able to offer any solution and finally asked me to send a communication to this email id ([protected]@in.airtel.com) providing details of the complaint.

Right now, the only option for us (including our neighbours using Airtel) is to seek immediate resolution from Airtel with respect to this complaint of brazen theft, or to discontinue Airtel and shift to one of the other service providers.