TRAVELLERS TO INDIA KNOW THIS....

Hello!
I have been in India for quite a time and I want to share my experience on prepaid mobile phones to others...
It was not as easy as I thought, but then that's India, isn't it? :-)

I got a phone with warranty card right away, that was not the problem. But I wasn't prepared to the conditions:
SIM cards are quite cheap, about 150-200 Rupees. But you should know that if you are TRAVELLING around India that you can only recharge your card (for most of the providers) in the area where you bought it!
For example, I had a Delhi SIM card and I went to Agra and could NOT recharge it, so I had to buy a new card, tell all my friends my new number....
But even if you have a provider (like Airtel) that recharges cards in other states, you will have to pay 2-5 Rupees per minute for incoming calls and also the costs for your outgoing calls will rise with the same amount per minute.
That means you won't be able to be called as soon as your amount is gone...
Maybe that's normal in other countries, too, but knowing only the German conditions it was quite extraordinary for me, because "home" you never think where you are, you just get incoming calls for free, recharge your card whereever you like... But, well, let's be fair: Germany is a LITLLE smaller than India!

Okay, so if you travel a lot and want to keep the same phone number all the time, reload for a high sum from the beginning to cover all the costs you might have for incoming calls, too!

Costs for outgoing calls to Europe were - according to my experience - about 17 Rupees a minute and 3 Rupees for SMS (being in the town of purchase of your SIM card...).

Network coverage is another thing to carefully think about!
Most providers have good network in all of the big cities, but it may occur that in some towns you can GET calls but not MAKE (especially international) any.
I had problems in Rajasthan, for example.
As to my experience and what people told me, Airtel has one of the largest and most reliable networks and you will be able to call abroad from all over India. (except on many trains, of course, due to absence of any network)


Recharge cards can often be bought for the following costs:
About 335 Rs, valid for 30 days, pure phone amount 150 Rs
About 650 Rs, valid for 45 days, pure phone amount 360 Rs
About 1225 Rs, valid for 90 days, pure phone amount 950 Rs
About 3300 Rs, valid for 365 days, pure phone amount 2700 Rs
(varies a little according to provider)

Another advice: buy phone cards for 200 Rs (phone amount about 180 Rs, valid 4 months) in your post office - or ask there, they'll send you to the right shop. You will have a secret number and can use the card to call abroad from any fixed network phone, for example your hotel phone. They won't let you use them in ISD shops, of course.
To Germany this option is much cheaper than phoning from your mobile (about half the price) or phoning from ISD boxes (often more than 20 or 30 Rs).

So, that will help you, I hope, to avoid the mistakes I made! :-)

Have a nice time phoning (and travelling) in India!

Bye
Martina

Posted in:INDIAMIKE.COM

http://www.indiamike.com/india/electronics-in-india-f15/prepaid-mobile-phone-in-india-a-starter-s-guide-roaming-sim-cards-networks-t8434/