If you have a Lebara UK SIM plan you get the same data roaming in India you'd get in the UK. But no Indian phone number, which creates problems for various things.

On the recent trip to Bangalore I was able to recharge my Airtel SIM at a brick-and-mortar Airtel store with cash. But I had no luck at all using any electronic payment method (including Amazon, cited above).

While these days I use my indian bank account ( icici ) to top up airtel , it's been an ongoing issue with Uber ..

Uber doesn't like my indian cards for some reason and I hate carrying cash

While i can use my UK uber account with a UK card in India I would rather pay in INR

I now use a spare phone with another uber app set up and use Amazon pay as a funding source

For topping up amazon pay , I logged into Amazon.in using my UK login details and top up using my icici net banking ( doesn't accept my indian cards !! maybe due to OTP issues)

The only foolproof way to avoid OTP issues with indian issued cards for non residents is to change the phone number on the account to an Indian mobile number and leave it on international roaming to recieve the OTP. Many of my friends have done this and it works well..

I will be visiting at the end of this month and have been trying to get good information about the current state of picking up a PrePaid SIM. I am intending to get an airtel from Delhi Airport T3 upon arrival. Having read about issues with this here and on Reddit; I've asked our accommodation (in Aerocity) to tell us about it. They say
Does this seem accurate?

Of course, I will update with actual experiences next month!

Please be aware that the mobile phone kiosks at DEL airpott areoften rip-off merechants. You will get much better deals at any B&M store in town.

Even the official airside airtel kiosk?

The kiosks are not run by the phone companies but are all franchise operations.

Do we have an update? I've been reading this thread and other sites - ouch! Do we have any other updates on sim cards at DEL?

Cheers

Yes; actually the process was not so difficult in the end.

We skipped the Airtel kiosk at the airport. The next day, we went to a real Airtel store (the one nearest Aerocity). We gave over our passports (with the visa details inside), and in about half-an-hour we had a SIM card each (no cost).

However, they cannot load the 1month pre-pay plan! There is basically one option for INR 378, which gives about 2 GB a day, no issues. The store suggested we go to various nearby shops to get the top-up. This wasn't useful; one person told us INR 500, we didn't find any others. What you want to do is to ask one of the staff to top you up using Airtel Friend; and then pay the them cash. Eventually (after we returned for the 3rd time), one of the staff did this for us (we did not know you could do it, so now you do).

It was easier than expected given all the reports of hassle you can easily find on the internet.

Good luck!

The INR 378 for ~ 2GB/day is for how many days or is that the pre-pay that cannot be loaded except by an Airtel friend? 2GB/day for a week would be fine

Thanks

It's for 28days (or 1 month, one of the two).
It can be loaded from a shop if you find one wanting to sell it for the right price! The Airtel Friend way might be quicker.

You can also go online an pick a plan/recharge for Airtel prepaid plans.

i can do it with my indian bank account/ cards but wonder if it accepts international cards . That may be a problem for tourists.

Probably discussed before. Airtel's web page does not take foreign cards; amazon.in takes my foreign cards for recharges, but others have reported problems. Foreign cards must be capable of 2FA.

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...d47e711d8f.jpg

I have an Indian airtel SIM which has a yearly pack that I keep active to receive SMS etc from India while i am in the UK. My dad got it for me due to the aadhar issue as my previous SIms used to get deactivated every few months

This was working well as I didnt have to keep changing my phone number on each trip to India

Looks like I'll have to start paying roaming fees now even for recieving incoming SMS.