It's no surprise. This shady tactic has been applied by Airtel since a number of years. I have complained about it to Airtel CC multiple times who give you the usual response that it is being taken as feedback at the highest priority and then nothing. Been 2 years now. I had also escalated to the Airtel appellate authority. Absolutely no response.
Airtel is desperate to make money from it's DTH business and with many customers disconnecting DTH now to move towards OTTs this desperation is very evident, be it the exclusion of useful broadcaster boquets, random addition of their own Airtel language packs which have a pathetic and useless mix of channels, to such tactics where channels can be added via remote but not cancelled.
Having an elderly parent at home, I had to carry out the only option I could. Update parental lock on all paid channels and services I had not subscribed to. Only reason I am continuing with DTH is for news channels which are cumbersome to access on OTTs. Discontinued my black service, removed all unnecessary packs through the TRAI app (as Airtel Thanks app is utterly and deliberately useless to let you do it) and now am on a very basic NCF package with FTA channels and any A-la Carte I want.
