I picked up an Airtel SIM at DEL T3 arrivals last week. GB£ 8.50 for 1.5Gb data daily for 3 months.

Unfortunately when I arrived (~5am) they were changing staff shifts and asked me to come back in an hour. Fine, as I had a long layover before a domestic flight from T1 on a separate booking, so I went outside of the terminal to have a cigarette.

Big mistake!!! As I was then not allowed back inside the terminal despite clearly having a boarding pass showing I had just arrived! Eventually an Airtel employee happened to walk past so I collared him and asked if he could help. He was extremely helpful and sorted everything out, coming back in and out of the terminal to see me at various points (as he had airport ID, he could come and go, it was just me who was stuck outside!)

Having to hand over my passport & iPhone to essentially a complete stranger was not ideal, but at least I could literally see the Airtel desk from just outside the doors. I was putting the SIM in a mobile Wi-Fi device, but he had to temporarily put it in my phone first to register it and receive some SMS messages. Once in the mobile WiFi device, it then worked immediately, no waiting around at all for activation etc.

So all in all very impressed with their service. The price is cheap compared to where I’m from (UK) and the coverage/speeds have been good. The one day I went over 1.5Gb it was easy to top up via Amazon Pay. The SIM did not work at all in Kashmir, but was already expecting that having researched this prior to travelling. Everywhere else it has worked fine.

All I needed to register it was my passport and the Airtel guy took a photo of me on his camera phone. No visa or any other documents required.