Help me for India, please!

RRunner · **Help me for India, please! -** 22-07-2007, 18:17

Hi, I'm leaving in a week for a one month holiday in southern India.
I don't want to pay crazy roaming prices, such as €3/min., so I was managing to find out a local SIM in order to be reached and to call back europe.
What's hard to me to understand is that local sims seems to be only stucked on the city where you bought it, and then if you want to travel in other states all across India you will have to pay roaming costs. Is that true?

I will land in Mumbai, and I will go to Bangalore, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Goa.

Is it possible to buy a prepaid sim covering all those places in a cheap way?
Is it possible to recharge those prepaid sims when you are in other cities?
Which one should I choose? Hutch? AirTel? Others?

Thank you very much, asian experts, because I'm really confused at the moment!

VladS · 22-07-2007, 22:55

I've been using AirTel for quite some time now and never had any issues.

Since I spend time in several states I decided to purchase lifetime SIMs for each one. Lifetime SIMs don't expire.

I would recommend you go to corporate stores as they can process your registration and get your account up and running on the spot. Third party stores don't do this and you have to register yourself by fax or mail before you can use your SIM.

RRunner · 23-07-2007, 17:31

Quote:

Originally Posted by VladS

I've been using AirTel for quite some time now and never had any issues.

Since I spend time in several states I decided to purchase lifetime SIMs for each one. Lifetime SIMs don't expire.

I would recommend you go to corporate stores as they can process your registration and get your account up and running on the spot. Third party stores don't do this and you have to register yourself by fax or mail before you can use your SIM.

Thanks a lot for the infos.

Just another one. Do you think is it possible to go in a AirTel corporate store, let's say in Hiderabad or in Kochi, and recharge my Mumbai AirTel sim?

Thanks again, I know I'm a noob but this will be my first indian experience...

VladS · 23-07-2007, 17:57

Quote:

Originally Posted by RRunner

Thanks a lot for the infos.

Just another one. Do you think is it possible to go in a AirTel corporate store, let's say in Hiderabad or in Kochi, and recharge my Mumbai AirTel sim?

Thanks again, I know I'm a noob but this will be my first indian experience...

The top-up cards are not region specific. You can use the same top-up cards everywhere you go.

RRunner · 25-07-2007, 20:54

Nice, thanks again.
Now I'm just little bit worried because on the net I read that you must have a local address, not an hotel, in order to get a brand new sim working for more than 4-5 days...
But I'll check it out next week in Mumbai.

petkow · 31-07-2007, 23:58

From what I experienced with Airtel in Tamilnadu, even with a local address it would take a few days to activate. This was in a big corporate store! On my next trip, I got a friend to sign one up in his name before I got there and I had no problems.

However, India being India all of these sort of requirements change all the time. All I can say is good luck once you are there!

	(#1)
RRunner (Offline) Junior Member Newbie Posts: 6 Join Date: 05 Jul 2007 Country:	Help me for India, please! - 22-07-2007, 18:17 Hi, I'm leaving in a week for a one month holiday in southern India. I don't want to pay crazy roaming prices, such as €3/min., so I was managing to find out a local SIM in order to be reached and to call back europe. What's hard to me to understand is that local sims seems to be only stucked on the city where you bought it, and then if you want to travel in other states all across India you will have to pay roaming costs. Is that true? I will land in Mumbai, and I will go to Bangalore, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Goa. Is it possible to buy a prepaid sim covering all those places in a cheap way? Is it possible to recharge those prepaid sims when you are in other cities? Which one should I choose? Hutch? AirTel? Others? Thank you very much, asian experts, because I'm really confused at the moment!

	(#2)
VladS (Offline) Senior Member Prepaid Pioneer Posts: 590 Join Date: 22 Jun 2004 Country:	22-07-2007, 22:55 I've been using AirTel for quite some time now and never had any issues. Since I spend time in several states I decided to purchase lifetime SIMs for each one. Lifetime SIMs don't expire. I would recommend you go to corporate stores as they can process your registration and get your account up and running on the spot. Third party stores don't do this and you have to register yourself by fax or mail before you can use your SIM. VladS Mobile phones: iPhone 5, Blackberry 9900, Nexus S, Samsung S3322 duos Mobile data cards: Huawei E587u-5, Huawei E583c, Huawei E160 Postpaid SIMs: CA: Fido, Wind; INTL: Telna Prepaid SIMs: DE: Fonic, Lidl; AT: yesss!, bob; UK: O2; US: AT&T; RO: Orange, Vodafone; FR: b&you, Lycamobile; NL: Lycamobile; BE: Lycamobile, Jim Mobile; CL: Entel; MX: Telcel; INTL: eKit Blue, eKit Yellow Dead SIMs: too many to list

	(#5)
RRunner (Offline) Junior Member Newbie Posts: 6 Join Date: 05 Jul 2007 Country:	25-07-2007, 20:54 Nice, thanks again. Now I'm just little bit worried because on the net I read that you must have a local address, not an hotel, in order to get a brand new sim working for more than 4-5 days... But I'll check it out next week in Mumbai.

	(#6)
petkow (Offline) Senior Member Prepaid Pioneer Posts: 696 Join Date: 01 Aug 2006 Location: Madrid Country:	31-07-2007, 23:58 From what I experienced with Airtel in Tamilnadu, even with a local address it would take a few days to activate. This was in a big corporate store! On my next trip, I got a friend to sign one up in his name before I got there and I had no problems. However, India being India all of these sort of requirements change all the time. All I can say is good luck once you are there!