What do they mean by "including data, calls,..."? If that means no additional charges beyond what you've already paid for the plan in India, then Rs. 98 per 28 days is a steal.

Otherwise, my Jio postpaid plan (~Rs.500/mo.) comes with free incoming sms while roaming internationally.

For 98 a month all you get is free incoming SMS .. You cannot spend your indian call / data / outgoing sms allowance overseas by just paying an extra 98 a month .
Data / calls / outgoing sms are charged at roaming rates

Hello - based on years of travel in India and lots of frustration with SIM cards. Almost all the popular delivery apps (Zomato, etc) require a local indian number. Also for basic things like using UPI payments and ride-apps. Having a local Indian SIM makes things so much easier. But the process of getting a SIM as a foreigner is incredibly difficult. Here are some insights:

• Getting a prepaid SIM card as a foreigner is painful. Almost impossible unless you have an Aadhar card or a relative/close friend who will get one in their name for you.
• Only exception is that the SIM card booths at the international airports will have reps who know how to process a SIM card for foreigners (DEL, BOM)
• The kiosk (Airtel) in DEL is located in Terminal 3, outside baggage claim, but prior to exiting the airport. Do not leave the airport as it is much harder to get a SIM from one of the vendors in town.
• They will ask for INR 500 cash to process the SIM. You'll get a 28 day validity package. You do not need to bring a copy of a passport or photo. They will take a photo of you, and also do scans of your paperwork.
• The paperwork requires a valid address (foreign is OK). Indian passports and OCI cards have a separate page where the address is listed. They need some type of address proof. The US passport only has a page which allows handwritten entries. They will likely not accept that. So suggest to bring some other proof of address with your name on it. They need this to enter in their system. A utility or phone bill will probably work. I used my OCI card address, even though it was outdated, but they accepted it without hesitation.
• It takes about 10-15 mins for the SIM to be activated. Make sure you stick around at the kiosk to make sure it is working before you leave. You might need to reset your phone. The data activates almost immediately but the ability to send/receive text messages are vital because of the OTP system in India.
• Topping up the pre-paid sim can be done at any Airtel location in India with cash. Download the Airtel app to your phone and if you have a local Indian bank account, you can top up using any of the UPI apps. If you don't have an Indian bank account, not sure if a foreign card will work.
• But you can indefinitely keep renewing the SIM via the methods above. I've read stories on Reddit where some NRIs have had their prepaid card active for 10+ years. Just make sure you add funds and renew the validity before the expiration date. You'll need the international roaming pack so that you can renew the plan from abroad.

You can also try your luck and venture into one of the big shops (Jio, Airtel, etc) in the big cities. But the babus there won't know how to process SIMs for foreigners. They will ask for Aadhar and the process will get stalled. I've tried this several times and each time got denied. So highly suggest you sort this out at the airport kiosk.

Hope this helps someone in the future

This is not correct for the tourist SIMs you describe earlier in your post. Those have a finite life and their validity cannot be extended. Yes, of course some NRIs have kept their prepaid SIMs active for 10+ years (in my case, longer than that). But those are normal SIMs, not tourist SIMs.
I top up on amazon.in using my US credit card. (No, foreign cards will not work on the Airtel app.)

Agree, the post is not accurate at least with respect to Airtel sims bought at Delhi airport.

After two months you will receive an SMS that your SIM will expire unless you bring an extended visa to an Airtel office. But checking my SIM's details on the Airtel app I saw it was not actually registered in my name, so why bother.

(And I was not asked to provide any address proof when I bought the SIM.)

It's not just Airtel, any SIM sold to tourists has an expiration of 45 to 60 days. (Was 45 days when they first announced the availability to tourists, not sure if all providers have moved to 60 days now.)

Arriving at BLR with family in December, we found the (sole) SIM card place right after you come out of the customs area was unmanned. Asking at the nearby prepaid taxi kiosk elicited a vague nod and something about the person being "on break". ??!! At 3am when it's a busy time with a lot of international arrivals? Whatever. We decided not to bother and wait, and made do with roaming on family's home cell plans for the duration of the trip. I know from prior experience that trying to get a tourist SIM at a shop in town is really difficult, so we did not even try, no point wasting hours on that out of a short pleasure trip. It sure is a nuisance for international visitors that getting a SIM is so challenging.

Just get an eSIM via Airalo et al. Works fine in India. Everyone mostly uses WhatsApp to call you when they notice you have a phorein number.

Yes, if you have roaming data of any sort (either from your home phone or a data SIM like Airalo) you are 99% set. The 1% case is the annoying issue of some places asking for an Indian number to send you an SMS OTP. I've even seen some restaurants do this to buzz you when a table is free, also some office complexes and residential complexes have these obnoxious apps you have to register on to visit anyone inside, and 9 times out of 10 they require a local number. But generally speaking data & WhatsApp will be sufficient for hotel, taxi, tour guide, etc.

One note of caution - some time back India passed some law limiting access to data eSIMs like Airalo, Holafly, etc., for locals. I have not checked this in a while, but it effectively meant that you could not download and install the apps for these products while you were in India. However, if you install the app before you land in India, it's totally fine to reload or get new data eSIMs through those apps in India.

Here is my recent experience: I have an Airtel pre-paid SIM I got from a friend in Delhi. I cannot recharge the SIM with a foreign credit card, nor can I recharge the SIM when the phone/SIM are in the US (even using Amazon Pay on Amazon.in).

What does work is to have the SIM in the phone and on the Airtel network in India. Then Amazon.in allows me to use Amazon Pay and my US credit card to recharge the Airtel SIM while I am in India. Mine is now charged for the next year.

Last, I found the tourist Airtel SIM a hassle because sometimes the airport kiosk at DEL wouldn't sell me a SIM, and the local Airtel stores took time to get the SIM to me (wait in a line at the store and always bring your passport, visa and local and foreign address and phone number to their store). Also many Airtel stores are closed on Sunday.

This is the link to recharge via Amazon that works for me to recharge Airtel from anywhere and on any network:

https://www.amazon.in/apay/landing/mobile-prepaid

The only possible issue is that all online payments to Indian merchants require 2FA. If a foreign card does not do 2FA, it won't work. My US Visa works about 50% of the time, with erratic verification by PayU. My Amex works 100% of the time, they verify every online transaction.

Just as a general rule, both pre- and post-RBI rule changes on cards a few years ago, foreign Amex cards almost always work, Visa and MC not so much for electronic transactions. Whether any foreign card works in person is highly dependent on how the seller has set up - some places, they have simply decided to not accept foreign cards. Luckily, we have local debit cards tied to NRI accounts that work if we need them.

I found it pretty funny back in the day, and we happened to be in Delhi a couple of weeks after Dunkin opened, and they wouldn’t take a US card.

That's interesting and I wonder if it's an Airtel restriction rather than a systematic regulation by TRAI, etc. I have a Vi SIM and have never had a problem recharging it when I'm outside India. Also, USSD codes (# codes for getting billing info, etc.) work from everywhere, which is helpful when planning how/when to recharge.

I couldn't get a foreign credit card to work recharging Airtel so I used DING. It worked, though there is an added fee.