flyingwish

I am leaving tomorrow and will be arriving at Delhi airport 7AM on Dec. 20, 2006. I am visiting India after 12 years and realize a lot has changed. I would like to rent a cell phone at the airport before travelling on to Agra. Does anyone have any info as to if I can rent a cell phone at the airport and what will be the best way to do it? Thanks for all the info in advance.

SuiJuris

There will be better answers than mine, I'm sure, but I can tell you that there are booths that will rent phones or sell you a pre-paid SIM chip for your unlocked phone (my recommendation), located in the hall once you get through customs (but before you head out into transportation). There may be more, but the ones I recall were on the right, exiting customs.

Be prepared for it to take a long time, copy your passport, have your picture taken (really), etc. They guy in front of told them that, after all that trouble, he was expecting them to issue him a wife to go with the phone. I wish I could recall prices, but that's long since escaped me (my trip was in January). I do recall it seeming quite reasonable, though.

GUWonder

If you have an unlocked GSM tri-band or quad-band phone, take it along and simply buy a prepaid SIM card, either at the airport or a local marketplace electronics store in India. For making things a bit faster, take along a photocopy of your passport (one that you don't mind leaving behind).

Yaatri

A triband with 850 and 1900 MHz is not preferred as the third band would be one of 900 or 1800 MHz. More servcies in India operate on 900 MHz.

GUWonder

You're correct, India's GSM is mostly 900 MHz and then followed by the 1800 MHz band.

For in and around DEL, however, having just either the 900 or 1800 MHz band is sufficient.

http://www.gsmworld.com/roaming/gsminfo/cou_in.shtml

Yaatri

Agreed. I think IDEA has an 1800 MHz network.

flyingwish

Thanks for all the useful advice. I have already made copies of my passport and have a couple of extra passport photos. I don't have an unlocked phone. So, I guess I will just buy the phone there or rent it. Hope it does not take too long because I have to go to the railway station to catch a train the same day to Agra.

cpx

Here are some sites of the local provider and their plans:

www.airtelworld.com
www.hutch.in

these two IMO are better providers.

GUWonder

For me too, Airtel and Hutch are definitely the better GSM providers in India. (IDEA has more issues when it comes to roaming around India, but it works well enough around DEL.)

cpx

And if you want a national coverage without roaming charges... you can use
the CDMA service from Reliance.