One Airtel Plan users able to subscribe to Demo Base pack with Rs 0 NCF

Since the New Tariff Order (NTO) came into effect DTH and Cable TV subscribers are required to pay a Network Capacity Fee (NCF) in addition to the cost of their selected channels or packages. Airtel Digital TV however seems to be allowing it’s One Airtel Plan users to subscribe to a ‘Demo Pack-Base’ which offers 131 channels with Rs 0 NCF. The development was noted by a One Airtel Plan user having an Airtel DTH connection which has been confirmed by another One Airtel Plan user also having an Airtel DTH connection.

Airtel Digital TV has added a base pack named “Demo Pack – Base” with 131 channels for One Airtel Plan holders. Although the plan itself consists of 131 channels, the NCF remains 0 even if you add paid channels in your subscription. 

The Demo Base Pack contains 33 mandatory DD channels, Malayalam, Devotional, Telugu, Hindi News, English News, Bengali, Punjabi, Music, Kids, Gujarati among other channels.

For the unaware, Airtel under its quad-play service One Airtel Plan offers multiple plans combining postpaid, broadband, and DTH business wherein plans that have DTH included allow customers to select TV channels worth Rs 350 – Rs 424 depending upon the One Airtel Plan. If the customers under utilizes the given credit for selecting TV channels, then the same is said to be adjusted in the bill as per a One Airtel Plan user.

As of now the Demo Pack – Base is only available to One Airtel Plan users and available for activation. Whether this is a bug or some special benefit for One Airtel Plan users is unknown. Airtel usually offers its distributors with demo set-top boxes that are subscribed to ‘Demo Pack’ which pre-NTO used to offer all channels except VAS while post-NTO the same is said to offer only FTA and a select amount of pay channels region wise.

The surfacing of Demo Base – Pack within Airtel Thanks app for One Airtel Plan users and ability to activate it by the user end indicates that it might be some sort of benefit for One Airtel Plan users.

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Thanks to DreamDTH Community Forum members harieaswaran91 and Vadirocks for the tip.