buying a SIM: confused about validity

RPG

I am studying the web pages of mobile service providers in India, e.g. http://www.hutch.in/prepaid/cost_structure_kol.asp
and I am royally confused.

You can buy SIMs for Rs 99 that have zero days' validity, or for more money you can get more validity. Rs 999 gets you "lifetime" validity, but it expires in 6 months if you don't top it up or use it in that time.

Top-ups have their own various validity periods; some of them have zero validity.

What does all this mean? Why would anyone buy a SIM or top-up that isn't valid? Why would I pay a premium price for a lifetime SIM if its life is actually only 6 months?

Specifically, I'm looking for a SIM that I can use during once-a-year visits to India. Is there some easy way I could do this, or am I out of luck?

capt_mahajan

The lifetime validity is for incoming calls. You still need your sim to have a balance to make outgoing calls, and, in hutch's case, top it up in six months.

If you are looking for a simcard during once a year visits, look at any prepaid card (lifetime incoming or not) and buy a one year validity top up. The whole deal will cost you around 3500 rupees, give or take, and you will get about 3000 rupees of airtime. Validity is 12 months, which means you have to top it up at validity or it will expire after a grace period of a month or so . Balances are carried forward.

Airtel offers this for sure. Don't know about hutch.

The assumption here is that your annual expenses on phone calls through this sim will be around 3000 rupees.

Of course, you already know that you should preferably buy the sim in the city you will use it the most, to keep roaming charges down.

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Outside the machine

RPG

Ah, this makes a lot more sense now.

The phone number remains active either through the validity period of the original SIM purchase, or the validity period of any subsequent top-up (recharge), whichever is later.

Plus you are saying that while the lifetime SIM will be terminated if there is no activity for 6 months, a one-year-validity recharge will remain valid for 1 year even if there is no activity.

Of course, now my problem is that the 1-year validity recharge costs more than Rs. 3000. With call charges so low (about Rs. 7/min to call the USA), it is hard to spend that much in a 2 or 3 week trip. But at least you have told me how it can be done.

Suppose I were to call my mobile number from the US using a landline. Of course there will be no answer since the phone is switched off and in any case it is not in India. But will this count as some activity, thus extending the life of the lifetime SIM?

PS Yes, I know I should buy the SIM where most of my usage will be, and I also know about the docs required.

Nick-H

Unless it is really important to you to keep that same number year after year, I suggest you don't bother about the validity, and just get SIMs on a per-trip basis.

You also have to swallow the fact that quite a lot of each payment goes on taxes and 'service charge'. This last one I find particularly niggling: What? I'm being charged a fat percentage on top of the money the company makes on the calls?

Your money; their pocket. That's the way it is!

capt_mahajan

rpg, I don't think what you say will be classed as activity.

nick, most providers have some freebies at least two or three times a year, where, for lets say about 3200 expense, you get 3800 or so talktime. No hidden taxes. I recharge during one of these times close to the end of my validity. Just did that about a month ago.

Nick-H

I mostly use my mobile for exchanging SMSs with Mrs N. At Rs0.10 each, I'm not really grumbling!

I fell for one of the early 'lifetime' deals: lifetime validity, yes, but your call and text charges have just gone way up .

The company had enough complaints about this that they introduced a better plan for us to switch to.

RPG

I figured out how to do what I want.

I will buy a lifetime SIM from Hutch and keep a Rs. 10 "chhota recharge" card with me. I can recharge the phone via a long-distance call from the US, entering the phone number and scratch-off recharge card number.

As long as I mark my calendar and do it at six months (or I could get two recharge cards and do it every 4 months), then the SIM remains valid. And every 12 months I'll recharge it at least once in India.

(Buying a new card on each visit is a hassle because I don't have local address proof and will have to get a relative to buy a SIM for me. Plus I won't always land in the city that I want as my "home circle".)

Any problem with this plan? Hutch sells physical recharge cards that have to be scratched off, right?

RPG

Actually you don't necessarily need to pay a fat percentage. The problem is that the system is very confusing and no one (not even the web page) will explain it clearly. I am beginning to understand it slowly after starting this thread.

Let's use Hutch Delhi as an example. See http://www.hutch.in/prepaid/how_to_refill_del.asp As you see, some recharge cards have no access fee at all. These all have zero validity, in other words they don't extend the validity period of your SIM.

The amounts that do have access fees (often a high percentage, for example on the Rs. 199 card about 65% is lost as access fee!) also increase your validity period. In other words, the access fee is simply the charge for extending the validity period.

if you have a lifetime SIM, you never need to buy a recharge that has an access fee.

Again, this is for Hutch but I believe the other companies have similar (and similarly confusing) systems.

Anders

You don't need any proof of address for a prepaid SIM, the only thing they wanted from me was a copy of the passport and a passport photo.

RPG

No, this is not correct. Presumably your experience was some time ago.

RPG

See, e.g. Hutch page listing requirements. They take this quite seriously now. The dealer may be eager to make a sale, but then the SIM will stop working if the documents are judged unacceptable.

Anders

The last one I bought was in December. It worked for the month I stayed there.

Nick-H

They not only require proof of address, but will write to you every so often to re-confirm it! Maybe once a year or so.

At least this happened to me about 12 months after the original confirmation.

capt_mahajan

What nick says has happened to my wife thrice in five years. Once Airtel barred outgoing calls arbitrarily pending re submission of documents... fortunately their outlet is closeby but it is very annoying that they can't get their act together.. I have now got a signed statement from them saying that these documents have been submitted; at least we have some proof this was done.

ranjan154

I recently took Airtel's connection with a motorola set all in Rs 2000. Validity two years and talktime of Rs 2000 for airtel to airtel.

Now a big question, Lifetime validity , we need to understand what do they mean by lifetime and who's life time ?

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