March 15, 2010

YouTube Bonanza for Airtel Users in India

Starting today, all IPL T20 cricket matches will be streamed live on YouTube (youtube.com/ipl)  and since there aren’t any geographic restrictions, cricket fans around the world can watch matches of their favorite teams on any computer (or an Internet connected TV) for free without having to pay for premium cable channels.

YouTube will live telecast every single IPL cricket match for the next 43 days. If there are no glitches, this IPL season will clearly go down in history books as the largest sporting event ever that was streamed live on the Internet worldwide.

If you have an Airtel Broadband connection in India but it isn’t fast enough for watching streaming web videos, here some good news.

Airtel will automatically upgrade the broadband plan of all customers to a speed of 2 Mbps during the entire duration of the IPL tournament without you having to do anything. That means no more “buffering ..” messages while watching live cricket videos on your computer.

Is the Airtel Broadband Speed Upgrade free?

Airtel won’t charge you any fee for upgrading your existing plan to 2 Mbps and your Internet speed will automatically be downgraded to your existing plan after the IPL season is over.

However, there’s something you should know. When you are upgraded to 2 Mbps, the data transfer limit will still be governed by your current broadband tariff plan.

So while you can watch videos at higher speeds (and possibly higher resolutions) with your current plan, too much of IPL can quickly exhaust your data limits and then you’ll have to pay per byte which is often not very cheap.

Another point –  the upgraded speed of 2Mbps is applicable only for videos streamed via youtube.com/ipl and not for any other site on the Internet.

 

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