SIM for foreigner in Leh?

Hi, I have heard that the prepaid SIM foreigners can get doesn't work in Leh? Is this true? Is it possible for foreigners to use mobile phones while in Leh or is a subscription required?

I think I have this right, but someone may correct me if i am wrong. Prepaid cards are prohibited here for security reasons.

In the past I have used a spare Sim belonging to a fried whilst in Kashmir.

The rules keep changing every year here in J&K, and the rule Mike Cork heard prohibiting prepaid cards is last year's news.

Prepaid cards from other parts of India still do not work in J&K, and prepaid card for Ladakh don't work outside J&K.

If you are staying in J&K for a while, consider getting a SIM card here. You can get a prepaid AirTel card.

Go to the AirTel office (upstairs in a side alley of the bottom end of Leh main bazaar). Get all the forms, I think there are three or four.

• You need to take one form to a local friend such as your guesthouse proprietor, and he/she has to fill and sign it, and also give you a signed photocopy of his/her ID with address. For that reason, use his/her election card, not other ID like a passport.
• Photocopies of your passport front page and visa, and you have to sign on the copies.
• About five passport photos. One stapled onto the AirTel form and signed.

The people in the AirTel office are incredibly clueless, and both times I did this they failed to tell me all the items (like that the reference person had to sign his photocopy or that it had to have his address in it, or that it was now 5 not 4 photos) so I had to go back several times. They also don't have all the forms themselves, and send you to a photocopy shop to buy them. The one good thing is that the official form from AirTel is not important to fill out all the details -- you can fill it in the AirTel office and they'll tell you to ignore whole sections.