They are correct, this is a tourist SIM with finite life---tourists aren't supposed to stay in India for a year.

The problem is that they took your money for one year anyway. They will never ever give it back. But if you had read previous posts in this thread, you would have known about the finite life.

Quoting prices isn't informative if we don't know what you got for it. One pays for a plan that typically includes unlimited calls and essentially unlimited texts, but varying amounts of data. The plans last for various periods, which in this case was presumably 28 days.
Quoting prices isn't informative if we don't know what you got for it. At the airport they probably charged quite a bit more than the price of the plan they gave you. This SIM will also stop working after 3 months.
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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.

Airtel no longer available for foreigners?
 

I have read on another forum that as of 1st January a new law that requires a reference and an OTP from an Indian Citizen when buying Sim cards. The person reported that the Airtel stall at Delhi airport refused to sell them a Sim card without this reference?

Given I'm arriving at around midnight, I don't want to be stuck without a Sim card. Can anyone advise if this is correct and also is there any workaround I can do? I don't really want to buy an eSim from Airalo because they're so much more expensive.

The 2012 procedures were completely revised in late 2023 and went into effect on Dec 1:

https://dot.gov.in/access-services/s...r-verification

Under the new rules the KYC has to be verified using the UIDAI system, which of course doesn't work for visitors. Back in 2018 the 2012 process was updated to include the needs of visitors, so I suppose the outcry of NRI/OCI will force an amendment soon.

In case you are planning on using Airalo then you may want to check this thread as well:

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/indi...ban-india.html

Thanks for reply both. So is there any way around it, or is it simply not possible for a tourist to use local data services there? I saw that thread but it seems to suggest that eSims still work, just that they cannot be bought in the country?

It does. You can still get the sim from a non-Indian app store.

So is it impossible for foreigners to buy an Indian SIM upon arrival in DEL airport? One of us has an OCI but no Adhaar...

There were a lot of people huddling around the Airtel stall at T3 when l was there a few weeks ago, but they all looked very stressed so cannot say if they were sold one or not.

ln the end l bought a Simcard from the UK which included free roaming in lndia. lt was only GBP 6 so not much more than Airtel charge at the airport and avoided all the stress and queueing.

Please enlighten us as to the SIM provider, cost of data usage and calling rates when roaming. I once had a "free roaming" SIM but the data, SMS & voice calling rates when roaming were astronomical.

BLR does not have a phone company kiosk that I could find in T2.
I talked to a Jio and Airtel store in the city.
Both were willing to process and issue a physical SIM under an Annual pre-paid plan. Without an Aadhar.
Unfortunately when we reached the payment step, both failed to accept US issued credit cards. I didn't have UPI or an India issued credit card to process the tx.
I ran out of time to chase this down, but it seems possible to get an Indian SIM without aadhar with an annual validity.

Don't understand how it can be free roaming if it then charges you? In any case its Lycamobile which offers 12 GB (or less if your plan is for less than 12 GB) free data roaming in India. Non-data roaming is not included in India, but it does have free minutes to call lndia from the UK.

Yes, I ran into this "Catch-22" after arriving on the Dulles flight in early February. I did have a local friend who could get the OTP for me, but the OTP they sent never reached her.

I ended up going to an Airtel brick and mortar store with a local friend and buying a "permanent" Airtel pre-paid SIM.

Also, Airtel seems to no longer accept "international" credit cards (like AMEX) for payment on pre-paid SIM cards so I am not sure how to recharge the SIM each month apart from asking a local friend to use their UPI to do so.

It's a real headache for visitors because you need a cell phone for everything there.

https://www.amazon.in/hfc/mobileRecharge
Usually accepts my amazon.com account Visa/MC with 2FA verification via PayU (also known as PayUp). However, it does not always work. AmEx always works.

Generally easier to pay for a year at a time.

But (crucially!) did it work without patience-defeating tweaks in India.

Slam in the SiM at BOM and summon an Uber sounds too good to be true :D