Bharti Airtel — Interception and blocking of select websites

Address:

Chennai, Tamil Nadu

I have been facing problems with my Airtel broadband. They intercept my website requests and redirect me to airtelforum.com. When I type in URL http://prism.opticsinfobase.org I am redirected to the below URL http://airtelforum.com/main?InterceptSource=0&ClientLocation=in&Particip...⇄ The redirection itself is a plump evidence that Airtel is doing something with my web traffic on the way and in the name of redirection blocking access to actual website. This blocking happens for select websites and the worst part is when you get redirected to airtelforum.com it stays there for several minutes. (In the past, many times I have just moved away thinking it as a broken URL.) During this time, it blocks access to browse the actual website. Few months back when I faced this issue, I called up Airtel customer care, the representative could not even understand what is interception and blocking. Such is the workforce they have. Being from telecom industry, I explained their technical team about the possible suspects to look for and resolve the issue. Subsequently without doing anything Mr. Mayank from Nodal office marked it as resolved on Jul 11th. I again faced problem with URL http://infocom2015.ieee-infocom.org/authors/call-for-papers and reported the same. Then, one lady called me up to say that Madras High court has recently asked them to block/unblock some websites and it should work fine now. When asked why it is working from my office - she could not answer. Then Ms. Priyamvada called me up from Airtel. After explaining the problem, she closed the complaint on Jul 29 saying "there is no issue with Airtel.. kindly check with your local IT team". What a response ? Should all residential customers have their local IT team to work around problems with Airtel ? Below is the email. My argument is simple - "When there is no issue with Airtel and I am not accessing airtelforum.com - why is this redirection and subsequent blocking happening to me ?" This is annoying. When Airtel completely lacks technical expertise to resolve the issue then why create pain for its customers ? regs Ganesh --------Email from Ms. Priyamvada received on Jul 29th[protected][protected] Dear Mr. Ganesh, This is in reference to our conversation over the phone [protected] regarding browsing related issue on your airtel account number 13280536. airtel regrets the inconvenience you have experienced. We would like to inform you that, there is no issue with airtel, kindly check with your local IT team. airtel appreciates your business and always welcomes your suggestions/feedback. Customer touch points: Level 1: Customer Care: [protected]@in.airtel.com and 121/198, working Hours - 24/7. Level 2: Nodal Team: nodal.[protected]@in.airtel.com and[protected], working hours: 9:30 to 6:30, Monday to Friday. Level 3: Appellate Authority: appellate.[protected]@in.airtel.com and[protected], working hours: 9:30 to 6:30, Monday to Friday. Please visit our website www.airtel.in for a range of products and services. Warm Regards Priyamvada Nodal Appellate Office bharti airtel limited