phones and sim cards - again...

yeshekathy

Dear all,

We leave soon so I guess I have to try and sort this out. There are three of us travelling together I really want to have 2 mobiles to save all those hours waiting and looking for people in markets etc etc...

So please send any current info.
a) does anyone know if we can buy a sim card in Mumbai airport? Is there an Airtel office there?
b) can you recharge airtel in other states/cities(eg Delhi, Varanasi etc) if we buy the card in Mumbai
c) can you buy a card and have it activated straight away?

AND... does anyone know anything about local simcards in Nepal - is it similar to the deal in India. We'll be there for about 2 weeks and NEED to keep in touch while we are there.

brownboy66

Check out these links below....

http://www.indiamike.com/india/elect...etworks-t8434/

How To: Getting Online With Airtel Prepaid and a Macintosh

lots of useful information on prepay sim cards in general, plus some more specific information on airtel. In short - yes you will be able to get a sim card that works all over India (I'm presuming that you are bringing a cell phone from Australia, that it's unlocked, and works on the same band as airtel)? I think you can get a airtel simcard at the airport, but undoubtedly one of the Mumbai locals will be able to answer that one. Re Nepal, there are two GSM operators there - NTC (nepal telecoms corp)and spice mobile - and both operate on the same GSM bands as india. Sorry - I don't know what the story is there for getting a local sim card. Since Spice mobile is available in India, you might be able to get better info re Nepal while in India.

happy travels

yeshekathy

Thanks Brownboy66 - I hope one of those mumbai people does see this and let me know. We have a few hours at the airport on the way through to Goa and then straight down to Agonda where things like this (or anything actually) are a bit limited. Would love to get it organised in Mumbai...

Don't suppose there is someone coming home to Australia from India who'd like to post me their old simcard to get me going??? We went to Indonesia earlier this year and a lovely guy had two which he sent us - it was fabulous! I am wishing I had kept the one I used in India December 2006 - perhaps I could have recharged that. I gave it to the nice waiter at my hotel... drat.

shashank.aggarwal

Warning : Please do not give your SIM card to anyone else, and don't take it from someone as well. They are registered in your name with valid ID documents, and if someone misuses it then, then the person on whose name the SIM is registered will land in trouble.

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setuniket

airtel.in doesnt mention any such outlet in the airport.what you can do is reach mumbai and ask the people in hotel where you are staying

yes definitely...all you need to do is to look for an airtel "easy charge" center in the city(its easy to find not an issue anyways)

depends..but generally it get activated in few hours.depends on the reseller

no idea i guess other members will help or try google..

mama4us

you will be needing ID as my fellow indiamiker has said above, I think 2 passport size photos,proof of domicile in India and smetimes a foreigner can be aked for proof of rsidence in theire own country. It is activated within a couple of hours, but if there are problems you can just be cut. Ithas happened to 2 foreign friends of mine. If you become registered in Mumbai you will have to be paying roaming charges outside of that State. Making sure you take xerox of ID to give them and take all documents along so you dont forget a thing - ask first what is needed and donot for get and leave anything behind.

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mama4us

Please excuse the terrible spelling, I have problems with the keyboard.....whoops!

Hello this is William, mama4us's son - she forgot to tell you that you'd best not bother with Airtel - as they can be very fussy indeed with foreigners. There! and I didn't make one single mistake. Oh and also to get pre-paid, as they won't let you have post-paid, obviously.

brownboy66

your welcome. Hopefully you'll have enough time to organise something at the airport - or possibly in Goa? As you'll see in some of the threads - the process for getting a sim can take a while (certainly more than just a few hours in some cases). As mama4us mentioned, you'll need a copy of your passport, copy of your visa, spare passport photos, and proof of residence (hotel or home address, something like that). Even then depending on the service/ shop you do this at and how well they know what they are doing - it can still take ages.

Shashanks advice re this is valid - the reason the process for getting a sim card is so long winded is due to security requirements - so there may be unexpected complication from using someone else's sim.

SueJ

We had problems around buying from a small office & them not forwarding the id docs to Vodafone, so ultimately we got cut off.

My advice would be to buy in a major city where you can buy direct from the airtime provider - ie a real Vodafone or Airtel shop, not a franchise or agent.

It's also better to be within the state that you bought in for a few days - that way if there are probs you are more likely to find out & be able to fix it. Our real issue became that we were out of state and the 111 (or whatever it was) number for customer service did not work. So then we had to go to a Vodafone owned outlet and queue for an hour to sort it. Would have been far more reliable to have bought from them in the first place.

We provided a photo, copy of passport & copy of UK driving license (for address). I'd suggest carrying more than one of each of these in case of the need to repeat the exercise as we had to. And we had huge difficulty in convincing anyone that a UK passport does not have an address in it. The best was from the guy at our hotel, who was trying to help, who said 'Just look more in your passport, I am sure that if you look more you will find it'!!!!

Wortle

Hi,when we travel now we carry a couple of passport photos each and a couple of spare photocopies of our passports (all organised before we leave the UK as it can be a real timewaster in India) and an unlocked mobile.
The info on the last sim packet says you need proof of address in India but they have always taken it verbally from us. Quite small general goods shops sell sims and all taxi drivers seem to know where to take you to buy one in the resorts.
Idea sims are about 200 rupees, then there is a minimum top up which I believe takes the UK cost to about £7...your Indian number on the sim is then valid for 45 days after then must be recharged or will expire. International sms is 5 rps and I think international calls were about 15 rupees per minute. Calling locally is 1 rp minute as is calling to check the balance. We only used half our call allowance for a 2 week holiday but the peace of mind was huge. A few quick texts to the UK meant anyone we wanted to get us could, and I would never go without again. It meant we could call the same taxi driver, the rep etc etc..a great time saver.

The calls were provided through the Idea network, whose customer service dept number is 9847112345.

Hope this is of use to someone

mama4us

We've got Aircel (changing to Reliance pretty soon for coverage though) and although I think it's only good for TN (then roaming kicks in) it's easy to get an Aircel sim, and they charge 3 rupees for international sms, and for about 200 rupees we can call the UK, USA or anywhere in the West for half an hour. With aircel, there is no charge for your balance enquiry either. But like I say, it's for TN nly, and then you're on roaming and the charges kick in. We got a super deal a year back when if you topped up for 2500 you got a 2 year validity - great!

yeshekathy

Thank you to everyone who is sending info on this . I am still a bit nervous about whether we will be able to get it organised in Goa (down in Agonda) but having checked about global roaming charges on my mobile contract at home, it's worth the work... you'd have to be a millionaire or on a busness account to use that.

So at this stage it looks like set up with airtel or another major company in Goa and then pay a little more in other states - is that right?

We really only want to be able to communicate with each other and with hom by text... and have it for emergencies.

brownboy66

essentially - yes. Check out the airtel website.....

http://www.airtel.co.in/level2_t11.aspx?path=1/6

so that you're pre-armed with some idea of what you want. In any case, don't be surprised if its a bit more of a long winded process than what you're use to!

yeshekathy

on a hunch I emailed the place we are staying in Agonda when we get there - quick as a flash the manager got back to me (what a boy! ). He said I should get a vodaphone sim card which is available in the nearest 'big' town of Chowdi...

Is it sure that I will be able to use it (and if necessary recharge it) in other parts of India? Does anyone know?

SueJ

Yes, you can recharge and use Vodafone all over the place.

You pay roaming charges when you are out of your 'home' State, so there would be a cost for incoming calls and a slighlty higher cost than usual for outgoing ones.

I think it is great to buy in Goa, as if there are any probs you are still there to resolve them.