Indian SIM card
 

I know there are a few posts about this already, but they are all a few years old so I want to see if anything has changed.

I will be traveling in U.P. for about two weeks and want to be able to make and receive calls with my cell phone. Previous posts have suggested that the best thing to do is to have my local hosts buy a prepaid SIM card (Airtel? Hutch?) for me. The second option would be to buy one in the airport (Delhi? Lucknow?), but that I need to present a copy of the identity page of my passport and two photographs.

Is all this still true? Any suggestions for the best phone company to use? Would I be able to buy a prepaid SIM in the airport in Lucknow or should I do it in Delhi?

Thanks.

Buying the SIM card at Delhi airport is definitely easiest option (you don't even need the photos, they'll take digital pics), but any phone shop -- and there are, probably literally, millions -- can get you a SIM, so I don't see a reason to trouble your hosts with this. There's little difference between the nationwide operators, but Airtel probably has the best coverage overall.

Yeah not just phone shops. You'll find them sold in drugstores, groceries, supermarkets .. wherever.

Airtel prepaid on arrival into DEL (international) airport is what I generally suggest for such purposes. The Airtel booth for that is right after you exit customs at DEL but before you get to where the hotel drivers are waiting with placards showing their hotel and guest's names.

When I tried to get a SIM in Hyderabad this summer, it was pretty much impossible. They (Airtel, Reliance) asked for proof of residence in India, which I don't have. However, they were willing to issue me one after I used a friend's phone bill, showing address in India.

When I went to Delhi I also tried getting a SIM there. Same story. They wanted to see proof of residence in India.

How exactly is Airtel in DEL issuing these with just your foreign Passport information?

Bizarre. Are you sure you were asking for a prepaid SIM, not a postpaid one? And did you ask in actual Airtel shops or some random mobile phone shop that's never seen a firangi before?

Yup, looking for prepaid SIM. Asked in Airtel showrooms and small local stores. Got the same answers.

My experience was the same. I had to get a friend to get a SIM for me.

That's what I was advised by gracious FTers when I asked about buying a SIM in India. I was already in India, staying with Indians. I did not feel like asking my hosts to do circumvent legal requirements of residence. Occasionally, my hosts would let me borrow of the phones their son had.

Hi, I got my Airtel SIM card at the internaional airport like adviced, no problem there.I suspect I could have gotten away even without the ID photos but the lady at the counter caught sight of the stack of photos I had in the purse so I was 1 shoot poorer.In all, I had to submit
a) proof of residency ( apparently, the address would be best from Delhi) in the form of confirmation letter from hotel.
b) cash (no CC allowed)
c)photo.
And the card cost 500 rupees, non refundable, amount stored also subject to taxes, so for example, if you paid 1000rupees, you only get 900 something value in the card.
but the card was really value for money, we made 20-30 international calls home without depleting the 1000 rupees .

asianmom, that's good to see they accepted the hotel info - that hasn't worked in other locations.

Yaatri - I have a hard time believing this is a sane rule when the phone co. representatives themselves advised me to get friend/relative residency info.

I had to do this in CCU, as they weren't interested in my BOM address.

Further note that when the hotel found out that I went to the phone shop directly (I never knew they had a relationship with each other), a hotel rep condescendingly told me that they could have done it for me - I almost told him to bugger off...

Tried with Airtel at the airport, but then required the passport pix, which I didn't have on me, so I just went to a competing GSM store to see if they had a prepaid SIM I could purchase for my needs.

bombay sim card?
 

I know the thread has talked about Delhi, but i'll be arriving into Mumbai and will be staying at the intercontinental at the airport before i head off to a smaller town in Gujarat. I don't mind buying it in the smaller town, but 1. i want to call home when i get to the hotel, and 2. ill be landing on the night before diwali, so im not sure if the stores will be open.

with a us passport and no proof of indian residency (unless a hotel confirmation will count)....how can i get a sim card?

Are there any locations in the airport (for an international arrival) to buy a sim? Do they sell them at the intercontinental hotel? Do i need to show anything?

I am interested in this also, we will be arriving in Mumbai in oarly Oct and travelling to Anand, we definitely like to know the best way to get a pre-paid SIM on arrival.

Thanks!

Jeff

I'm bumping this old thread to see if anyone has some more recent encounters with purchasing SIM cards upon arrival in Delhi. My family is going to visit various cities across the country and we will all have unlocked phones we just need SIM cards that will work to call back to the US and call each other preferably for cheap and also if possible connect with a BIS or some other data connection.

What should we bring with us when we get to India to make this process easy?

Thanks for your help.

This post is from september and things haven't changed. And you can get BIS activated - though easier if you just get GPRS activated and use that with say a nokia smartphone

asianmom
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Taiwan
Posts: 70

Hi, I got my Airtel SIM card at the internaional airport like adviced, no problem there.I suspect I could have gotten away even without the ID photos but the lady at the counter caught sight of the stack of photos I had in the purse so I was 1 shoot poorer.In all, I had to submit
a) proof of residency ( apparently, the address would be best from Delhi) in the form of confirmation letter from hotel.
b) cash (no CC allowed)
c)photo.
And the card cost 500 rupees, non refundable, amount stored also subject to taxes, so for example, if you paid 1000rupees, you only get 900 something value in the card.
but the card was really value for money, we made 20-30 international calls home without depleting the 1000 rupees .

Hi adambadam,

I went through this in November of this year. I could not find anywhere in the int'l terminal to buy a SIM card. I ended up asking my hotel concierge for help - they not only advised me on options, but actually went out and bought me the card (after I gave them some cash!)

It was very inexpensive and the card works great. The only problem I am having is how to put more $$ on the card as I can't do it on the Airtel website (they won't take a non-Indian credit card).

Bring 2 passport photos, a photocopy of your passport and your visa, and some rupees. If you can go through your hotel, they should take care of the proof of residency for you.

Also you might do some research on the Airtel or Reliance websites so you know what kind you want (there are multiple plans).

Good luck!

Truly

When you come back to India - or if you have a friend or colleague in India, just buy a recharge coupon. That has a recharge code (you'll have to scratch the card with a coin to display it). The coupon also has instructions on how to recharge it.

Thanks hserus!

What rates are you all paying per min back to the US? Is Airtel the only or best company?

plenty of companies - airtel, vodafone, etc. most of them with reasonably similar service.
calls back to the USA are relatively cheap from indian cellphones (though i'd suggest use skype out from your laptop for longer calls)

Thanks.

reasonable for short calls as hserus said. I think airtel was 12 INR/min and Reliance was 8 or 9 INR per min when I used it last summer. rates may have changed a bit.

I too have been seeing 8-12 rupees per minute if not using a call-back service or other arrangement.

There are three main carriers: Airtel, Reliance, and Vodaphone. I would pick the one that has the best coverage in the area you're going to be traveling in the most.

You can now buy cell phone service by the second, not the minute. For my service, local calls are 1 paise (1/100th of a rupee) per second, so, rs .6 per minute. Calls to the US are around rs 15 per minute - roughly 30 cents. Quite an improvement over the $2.49 ATT is charging me.

I do try to Skype for longer calls, but for when I am away from the laptop, the local SIM card is the way to go. It's invaluable for coordinating with drivers, etc.

Truly

I use Airtel... it costs me 6.5 INR per minute to Canada... for what that's worth.

Thanks everyone. My main areas will be Delhi, Bombay and Goa with a few days in Chandigarh.

Any SIMs that have internet access for a windows mobile phone?
 

I will be traveling to Andhra Pradesh in April and would like to pick the best SIM as far as price to call the US and that has internet service as part of a prepay scenario.

Thank you,

Dr. Steve

Use any sim card that you get - they're much the same in terms of service in the big cities. Airtel / Vodafone etc are should work just fine and the costs too are about the same. Internet service - you can call the helpdesk (you'll find the number automatically added to your phone address book) or walk into a service center for the carrier, and ask them to turn it on for you.

Thanks for your reply. I just got back from a trip to Tanzania and South Africa and was amazed how cheaply I could call the US with local SIMs. I had been using Telestial a UK based World-SIM on previous trips to UK, Italy, Peru, etc. and would always end up spending $75/trip on calls home.

My family just completed a trip to India and we had the concierge at our first hotel in Delhi get us some SIM cards. It took him less than an hour, basically while you eat breakfast the first day. He needed some passport photos that we brought with us and a copy of our passport. We ended up with two cards on AirTel and two on Idea. We put Rs 1000 on each card and they last a little more than 2 weeks, the duration of our trip. We used them fairly frequently and traveled all around the country. The local calls in Delhi when we got there were billed at 1p/sec, Rs6.4/min to the US (about USD 15 cents/min. When we were in other parts of the country it was Rs1-1.5/min for local calls and 9.4/min for calls to the US.

Thanks for the info. Im heading there tomm, ill try for a vodaphone card.

Place to buy Sim Card at MAA?
 

Is there a store that sells pre-paid Sim cards in the arrivals area of MAA airport? I'm assuming that Airtel or Hutch would be easiest to find. For what its worth, my flight arrives around midnight.

I've read that the requirements are copy of passport, passport photos, and proof of residence. Will a hotel reservation suffice as proof of residence?

Anything else I should know?

Thanks!

Nothing in the airport arrivals area I'm afraid. However, if you drive out of the airport you'll find several stores .. none of which are likely to be open at midnight.

You might wait for the next morning and buy it yourself from almost anywhere in the city (you'll see shops with signs advertising Airtel, Vodafone <- new name for Hutch, Tata Docomo, Uninor etc etc SIMs), or if you've scheduled a pickup from your hotel, you can have the hotel concierge send you a SIM along with your driver. If you want the SIM to be in your name you can just fax / scan + email them your details.

Yes - passport + 2 photos should do the trick.

I had good luck buying an Aircel SIM at Big Bazaar in the Ambiance Mall yesterday.

I know that I overpaid for the SIM (it's labeled Rs. 49 and I was charged Rs. 250+90 and then sold an Rs. 500 refill), but I managed to walk in with nothing but my passport and a locked iPhone and have my photos taken, phone unlocked and everything taken care of in about ten minutes. I've bought SIMs in the states and had a harder time.

They were perfectly happy with my hotel address and multiple-entry business visa. They photocopied everything and had me sign each of the copies (and across the photo). Even had a nice chat with the guy about the new unlocking method for the iPhone that only requires browsing a website.

good stuff....its normally very easy to get a sim in india so you were never bound to have much problems....

But arent we supposed to give address proofs and then tht is verified .. they call and verify the address with many getting physical visits..maybe I am not updated but thts what i know..
:o
:eek: u mean u got ur iphone which was locked to a specific provider unlocked in an aircel shop.. and without any charge.. did they unlock ur phone and activate it for the new aircel sim u brought ?? I thot this was only possible in the back alleys of the cities, not in any prominent shop, atleast not openly :confused:..

not for pre-paid connections....

my airtel guy does this as well....not officially of course....

thts wht.. am aware of the unofficial way, but as it was mentioned below tht he got it done in an aircel shop in a mall , i was surprised..

i think he said it was big bazaar & not an aircel shop....