Are you planning to India because you want to feel the beauty of this beautiful country and it will not take much from your pocket or any other reason. You will face the few hurdle in your journey, the one problem every traveler face of mobile network that you will also face. And without good network you will not be able to contact with your closed ones, it will be frustrating to not have the well stable internet that is very much required for work, contact. I can solve your problem by telling you How to Buy a SIM Card for Foreigner in India ?
As I have tried all the sim network of India, from my own experience I can guide you in selecting the right local sim card for your use that will provide the stable internet connection, great calling experience. At the end of this blog, you will get the complete knowledge of buying the sim India.
What is sim Card- All about sim card
SIM stands for Subscriber Identity Module. Sim card contain a small chip that connects from the telecom network. The sim cards varies in the size, you can accommodate the size of sim card as per your mobile requirement. Generally there are 3 size of sim card in India i.e Standard, Micro & Nano. In India cellular number has the code +91 and then followed by 10 digits unique number. To use the service of network you will have to pay the amount as per your recharge plans also depends on whether you buy prepaid sim or a postpaid sim. Every network operator have their different plans at different prices.
What is Prepaid and Postpaid Sim ?
In India, there are two types sim one is prepaid and another is postpaid. Prepaid means pay before use you will have to pay before using the services. In postpaid you will have to pay the amount at the end of every month depends upon your usage, one disadvantage of postpaid is that you will have to pay a fixed amount every month whether you use it or not. Postpaid sim requires the paperwork and there is company policy that you will have to use it for atleast 4 months. If sim card is for foreigner then go ahaed with prepaid one over postpaid.
E-Sim or Digital Sim
E- sim can also be prepaid or postpaid sim card. You can use all the network services without having a physical sim card. All four network provider have e-sim service. E-sim is the great option if your phone have only one sim card slot. You can even buy e-sim before landing to India. The both option of sim card for foreigner can be good.
Age Requirement for getting a Sim Card
In India according to rules, person below 18 can not buy a sim card. Only the person of 18 or above the age of 18 can get a sim card in India. However, Airtel also provide sim card to the person of the age of 17 as I purchased Airtel sim card at 17. The rules regarding sim cards keeps on changing. The age requirement for sim card for foreigner will also be 18 or more than 18.
Benefits of Indian Sim Card
These are the advantages that you will enjoy after getting a local sim card:
- The prices of recharge are very cheaper than other country, you will have to pay the nominal price if you buy a prepaid sim card.
- You can use applications which are widely used by the Indian locals such as Zomato, Ixigo train app and many more apps.
- India is a vast country still you will get the benefits of unlimited calls, high speed internet everywhere throughout the India.
- You can easily connect with your local friends, but if you want to connect with your family or friends of your own country then you can use Whatsapp voice call or video call.
- Some recharge plans also give free access to Ott platform such as Amazon prime video, Sony Liv, Disney Hotstar, if you are interested in Indians movies then it is a good deal.
Best Sim Cards for foreigner in India
In India, there are 3 private network operator i.e Airtel, Jio and VI and one government network operator i.e BSNL. Generally local use Airtel or Jio in their daily life. I will suggest you to avoid buying Vi and BSNL as they loose the network connection at lots of place. They generally have good connection in metro cities only.
After established 5G network in India, Jio has raised the price of their recharge plans but the Airtel provides the unlimited calls & unlimited data to their 5G users. You can blindly trust on Airtel or Jio but Airtel have cheaper prices of plans than Jio. If I conclude than best sim card for foreigner in India is Airtel and then Jio.
Documents Required to get A local Sim Card for Foreigners In India
The process of getting a sim card for foreigner in India is very simple and easy. There are few documents which are required to get a sim card such as:
- One Indian Passport size photograph.
- Photocopy of your Passport and India Visa, also keep your original with yourself, you will have to show them original too.
- Also carry anyone document for address proof such as Driving License if your passport does not have the address proof.
You will have to fill out the KYC form and they will ask for your photograph and signature too. But you may face problem in the confirmation of your address of stay in India if you do not live in hotel instead of it you live at your friend’s home or at rent. In this case you will have to provide the owner”s details to verify the sim card.
ALSO READ: 12 Travelling tips for new travelers to India.
Best Places to Buy Sim Cards for Foreigner
1) Airport.
Generally, airport is the very common place to buy sim cards for foreigners. As it reduce the steps of getting a sim cards and the people can talk to you in English so you can easily ask your queries regarding sim card easily. Even they can help you in activating your sim cards.
2) At the Retailer
You can buy the sim card if you have the references of any Indian citizen because while purchasing they ask for the reference number on which OTP is sent. In some Instances they even give their number as the reference. You can also recharge if you already have any sim card.
3) Hotel
In some Hotels you can find sim cards where you can purchase the sim card , they will easily activate the sim card for you by chargin extra fees.
Sim Card Activations and Validity
After getting a sim card, it will get activated within 1 or 2 hour but in my cases it may take upto 24 hours. The sim automatically get activated as soon as the vendor send the request of sim activation. But you will have to activate manually to Jio sim you can ask the person to activate the sim card for you.
As per the source twinsontoes The validity of sim card for foreigner is of 90 Days but you can extend its validity to match your visa period but you will have to recharge the sim card in every 90 days to keep it activate if you have plan too stay for longer period.
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