What SIM card to get for India?
 

I'll be in India for 3 wks and want a SIM card to let me call around India and let Indians call me for a reasonable price. My GSM phone is unlocked. Anybody have an idea on what to do/buy/rent?

1. Determine what kind of bands your GSM phone will cover.

2. Take a photo copy of your passport and visa with you, go to a store and pick up whatever pre-paid GSM company will best cover where you will be travelling in India.

Airtel and then Hutch are pretty good nationally; Idea, not so much so for my purposes nowadays.

Here's some potential picks and which bands they use in various regions of India:

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

SIM for India
 

BSNL has the most extensive network. Till 10-12 years back BSNL was the only (Gov owned) land line telephone service provider. Which left them in the possession of an extensive network including most remote places in India. It was easy for them to ride on that and start providing cell phone services all over India. And they did that. BSNL is still largely owned by Gov of India so don't expect great service but they have definitely improved in last 4-6 years. You can get their SIM at BSNL authorized dealer or at any BSNL customer sevice center. They cover any and every city and town where they have land lines services.

Now slightly bad news once you are outside the cities in no man's land (especially on a trains) they have almost no coverage. They have coverage on major highways. But on secondary highways they cover you only when you are in and around a city / town. Having said that, I didn't find this to be a major problem during my recent visits.

Airtel and Hutch have pretty good coverage at such no man lands, but only in the regions where they have services and network. Except BSNL no other operator operates all across the country.

For most operators incoming call is free in the home area. When you go out of your home area you are on roaming either with same provider or with another provider. You pay for incoming calls also and pay roaming charges on top of it, which makes both incoming and outgoing calls expensive.

On BSNL as long as you remain in the same state all your call are local and incoming is free. When you go to another state you are on raoming with a different BSNL circle. And you pay 2.00 INR for each incoming and outgoing call. And I assume you are billed for incoming call also (like others).

I was recently in India for a month and I used BSNL very extensively (as I pleased) in Maharashtra, MP, UP, Bihar, West bengal, Karnataka, TN etc and my total bill for 1 month was about 1500-1700 INR (about $30-35) which I think is not bad.

I would recommend that you check with local people about the best operators in the place you are going to be in. If you are going to be at several places check all of them and come to a common denominator. And if you are going to be all over India, don't get into hassels and just pick BSNL.

Here's another thread i started in Travel Technology.

Gist : I used Airtel while in India. Worked well. no issues with connectivity. Mostly 900 mhz though. Quad band nokia worked well. Only some areas of India had 1800 mhz coverage, so the Triband (US 850) failed.

While it is certainly true that BSNL has the widest coverage, their networks are oversubscribed. What that means is there will be times when it is impossible for others to get through to you and for you to call. That made it very unreliable for me - I switched to Airtel and it works fine. Occassionally, if you dont have cell phone coverage and need to make a call from a rural area, head to the nearest PCO. Good luck!

As I've mentioned in the earlier thread, I'm fairly happy with Airtel.
Hutch is just as good.

Fast busy signals -- indicator of overloaded system -- has definitely been more common with BSNL than with the other majors recommended here. Also other providers connecting calls (or SMS) to/from BSNL seems to have caused more issue than should be the case. While those conditions still persist to some degree, we've had less issue with BSNL in the last 6 months than in the 6 months prior to that.

Ditto that ^

My understanding was BSNL doesn’t offer prepaid service unless you already have a landline, that’s why i got Airtel.. Good service in Kerala btw… Incoming is free so that’s a plus, but if you plan on sending international txt’s most likely will not go through. BTw at the airports they offer free calls at least Airtel does in COK..

international SMS not going through? never had such issue with Airtel..
can you elaborate?

I texted people in the US and UK and no1 got the SMS, even though I’m being charged for it.. Only one that received my txt was my buddy in AKL.. This was in 05, maybe it works now.

I use Hutch. Prepaid card for 999 INR (about $22) will get you a permanent number, that you can add minutes/rupees too...i usually put 3300INR on (about $75USD) when i enter India and it lasts for about 3 weeks (and i talk locally and internationally as well)...if you are planning to ever return to india, it is probably the best option...otherwise, you can just buy a prepaid card in the amount you want, which you can use for up to about 60 days...

One note to GU Wonder's post...when you go to the HUTCH store, you must also bring 2 passport sized photos (in addition to a copy of your passport) and proof of a local address (hotel bill will do, so if you ask them to print you one out after your first day that will work...)...

You can refill it just about anywhere....if you will be traveling, be sure to activiate roaming so you dont get charged more for time out of the area you purchase the card in...but in areas in your city of origin, INCOMING CALLS ARE FREE...have everyone call you and save $$...

Good luck..

Your experience doesn't shock me. I couldn't believe it myself until I did some hunting around myself, but in late 2004 and for part of 2005, some of my SMSs sent then didn't arrive until months or even a year or more later. (I couldn't believe it myself until I saw it myself and put 2+2 together after my meal companion said "you just texted me???" when I had not done so for months.) For better or for worse, I haven't noticed an SMS issue when using Hutch or Airtel since March 2006.

make sure you use the numbers statring with +

+countrycode-areacode-phonenumber

this works from almost all GSM networks around the world.

"00" or "011" prefix may or may not work in some places.

Also...
GSM to GSM is great.. but GSM to CDMA or TDMA may or may not work.
It has to do with the destination provider.

if you send an SMS to Sprint or Verizon, it may or may not make it...
but to a cingular or t-mobile, it will work just fine.

At Rs 5 per international text and Rs 7 for a minute of international calling (most countries last time I used an Airtel prepaid card in Dec), its better to call...at least you'll know the message got through.