mobile phone for a stranger in india

[bibberlam]

hello,

Next month, my brother will stay for 4 months in india (dehradun, uttaranchal).

We want to know if someone can give us some more information about using mobile phones in that region.

Wich gsm does he need? A dual 900/1800? or a tri-band?
Can he buy prepaid cards, specially for tourists (with cheaper mobile to belgium rates)? What are the possibilities? Were can I find some more information?

Any help is welcome
thank in advance
dries

[jayesh]

any standard gsm phone that is 900/1800 or more will work. India is mostly GSM 900 with only the fourth operator being 1800 . Prepaid is not a issue its available with many pan country networks like airtel and bsnl are present there so are others.

He should be able to pickup the sim at the airport itself

[manav]

But jayesh any pre-paid card will require the following documents.

1. Valid photo ID (Passport)
2. Residential Proof (If your brother is staying at a relative's place tell him about it and it can be arranged i.e, electricity bill, telephone bill etc..)

Authorities are really causing problems now-a-days I would reccomend that he asks the local contact to get it as it would be much much cheaper and if you need a phone just for basic use buy the Nokia 1108. Moreover international call's arn't cheap at all around 18 INR a minute. I'd rather he talk through VoIP here available throughout India.

If you need any more help holla!

[brad]

You guys need proof of residence for prepaid over there? In Australia, you can buy a prepaid SIM anywhere, call a number, and it activates itself. All you need is a name, not even any proof that the name is your own.

[jayesh]

brad u dont exactly live in a country that has fought 4 wars of attrition over a state which has been part of your country for thousands of years. Nor are you the continuous target of terrorism from across the border for over 4 decades now. We are just coming off 7 blasts which left 200 people dead and thousands injured. Funny part is .. we are so used to the violence the city has shrugged it off and moved on with its regular life in less than 10 hours. People are at work and children in school

So i can forgive my govt if they want to check proof of residence in such cases.

@manav

the prepaid situation is not that bad. Passports are enough to suffice for international travellers for now. not only that you do need to check the prepaid outgoing rates. A lot of countries in europe can be taken with the isd packs available liberally across networks and they really drop the calling rates

As for Voip dont even get me started on that. Indian Voip is in a nascent stage. What the idiots over here call voip is an insult to an ex voip services company owner like myself ( formerly before i joined the media )

[brad]

@jayesh - Don't get so touchy, I wasn't saying it was a bad thing. It just surprised me, I'm not used to prepaid being so restricted. I have no problem with the government requiring it.

[manav]

@Brad : Bro quite some time back when I first bought my phone around 1998 we didn't need any kind of documentation. And it was the same thing we could just call up a number and get it activated. It was just as simple. But due to the resaons jayesh cited the government made it mandatory for all this. Its just day before yesterday a terrible tragady happened in jayesh's city I even had a talk with him about this. It really disguists you that hundreds of people died who were innocent. Now lets just forget about it.

@Jayesh ; Bro relax I know what you are going through but anger and disguist make way for a sad feeling when I just think about the people who work so hard day in and day out and their lives ended for no reason. We even had a Black day here in colleges in pune where all the students wore black to pay respects to fellow citizens who lost their lives in the incident.

Getting back to topic, you're right in saying that the VoIP services in India suck bad. But the Satyam iWay cafe's are everywhere and they offer good quality calling. More or less. And I don't know about the ISD packs so that I can't comment on. And I have many friends here who are from abroad and they've had many complications in getting Prepaid connections remember in the news they recently said that the addresses submitted in the Provider's database are to be confirmed by postal authorities etc..

PS : You were in VoIP ??

[ruben]

@jayesh - Don't get so touchy, I wasn't saying it was a bad thing. It just surprised me, I'm not used to prepaid being so restricted. I have no problem with the government requiring it.


I was surprised too. Getting a prepaid in the Philippines is as easy as buying a candy or something.

[jayesh]

brad sorry for going off like that. my bad. .. its as manav put it we were the latest targets of al-qaeda and its local arms here in my city after london from last year.

200 people dead and 1000's injured. I was in office when this began to break and seeing the raw footage of body parts in 300 diff directions broke my spirit totally.

manav did call me up ( thanks for that bro ) but its going to take a while to digest this. I lost a person i had known closely and respected as a mentor of sorts in that blast. he was blown into 3 different pieces.

Yeah manav i was into provision of VoIP services in India for soho's

[carcomptoy]

I don't want to come off as being a jerk, but how does terrorism make it necessary for prepaid to be so restrictive?

[ruben]

terrorists use cell phones as a triggering device.

[brad]

@Jayesh - Forget it buddy. My thoughts are with you after such a heinous act. I think I speak for the whole forums when I say we are here for you and anyone else effected by tragedies like this.

[jayesh]

its not restrictive in the least. you can still pick it up from your local dept store and it will be active almost within the hour. ( i just did this manav before u can argue :p ) its just that the checking since the last few times when terrorists have used disposable sims to coordinate attacks has the govt been forced to take such extreme steps

[hzs_id]

Hi Guys,

@ Jayesh & Manav I know how things are here in India, with terrorism & communal riots happening here like it is just a routine part of life. I too have personally experienced the horrors of the terrorist acts & the communal riots when I was in Mumbai during the early 90’s.

I surely appreciate the people of our country who have always stood by one another in the time of crises & always shown the people responsible for the wrong doing party that no matter what we will not go down as we will fight it out & come stronger.

Anyways the original query put up by bibberlm/Dires, you can surly opt for a prepaid connection from Airtel as they have a prepaid connection specially designed for international callers. Here is a link to their website which will give you details of the current prepaid packages available, the outgoing cost in various tariffs, documents required for obtaining the connections, all their terms & conditions, as also any other details you may need. You will also get contact info to get in touch with their customer care & clarify any doubts or quires you may have http://www.airtelworld.com/9/prepaid_tariff.htm

Cheers!

Husein.

[manav]

its not restrictive in the least. you can still pick it up from your local dept store and it will be active almost within the hour. ( i just did this manav before u can argue :p ) its just that the checking since the last few times when terrorists have used disposable sims to coordinate attacks has the govt been forced to take such extreme steps

LMAO bro, but it does get de-activated if you dont submit the documents soon.

[carcomptoy]

terrorists use cell phones as a triggering device.
I thought about that after posting:o