Using cellphones outside India - Airliners-India

ABN397 · Member

Using cellphones outside India

HAWK21M · Member

During my visit to Cranebank in June.At Lhr I used International Roaming.But the ISP asks you for a Rs 5k deposit depending on the operator.Mine was Hutch.But it was worth it.

Some collegues purchased a Phone card locally for around Five pounds,the disadvantage was no Incomming calls unless you had a number.

regds

MEL

karatecatman · Member

Airtel seems to dish out information that has to be cross checked.

A freind went to Australia and was assured by Airtel that he could roam. Had to pay all the charges here and the facility was supoosed to be activated in 48 hours.

He went about the task about 52 hours before his departure.

But nothing worked. Was so livid.

So plz check properly.

Calls are a hefty amt. SMS abt 15 rs. Check anyway.

Hutch seems to be a better choice but crosscheck properly. They have brochuresd saying you can roam internationally prepaid. But a manager in Hutch said that such a facility has still to be cleared.

Hutch sometimes say that there has to be police verification after you apply for international roaming. Hutch also requires about 72 hours to activate.

Another choice is BSNL. The chioce of roaming across the world is much larger becuase of its being Govt of India.

-- Edited by karatecatman at 16:45, 2006-07-26

tayara mechanici · Member

ABN397 wrote:

In case one is vacationing in UK for a few weeks and needs to keep in touch (mainly with local numbers in UK) what do you suggest? 1) Get your existing account (Airtel in my case) converted to International Roaming OR 2) Get a local SIM card there There seem to be a number of experienced travellers here, so their expert comments are awaited. Thanks in advance.

http://www.carphonewarehouse.com/commerce/servlet/gben-Home

1) Check out the rates you'll be paying to recieve the calls in U.K. secondly your contacts in UK will have to dial intl to talk to you while you tour london.

2) Make sure you get the PAC number, local service provider need it for hooking you up. Alternative is to buy a NOKIA 1100 with talk-time, for £20 you can get a phone with SIM plus about £10 worth of talktime, sufficient to keep you in touch with your local contacts in UK, for a month. As for the Indian folks leave a voice mail on your Indian # with the UK mobile # if they think it is worth calling you intl they'll do so. Helps avoid nuisance calls as you are enjoying a perfect English summer........weather here is smashing. Check the weather for appropriate clothing its been doing high 20s for the last 3 weeks.

Have a nice holiday.

Cheers.

Nimish · Member

if it's the UK, you can "rent" a UK SIM from here in India before leaving. In BLR there's a firm called "Vijesh marketing" that rents O2 SIMs - work out quite well - the billing comes to you in India when you're back - receiving calls is free in the UK, but making outgoing is reasonably expensive.

Warning - news from a year ago: What I would suggest is to walk to any "Carphonewarehouse" in the UK, and buy their "Mobile world" pre-paid SIM. Very cheap to call India (probably one of the cheapest) and the UK. More details at Mobile World. You will need a valid credit card that they can attach to your account.

vivekman · Member

The best thing to do is buy a pre-paid SIM card there. I had bought a pre-paid SIM on my trip to Thailand recently. The SIM cost is around INR200 and it works out real cheap if you are going to mainly call local numbers.

Even if you want to call India, it is more convenient than going to a land-based Payphone. And of course, you can always SMS your contacts in India. This would again be very inexpensive

ABN397 · Member

Thanks to everyone who replied.

Fortunately I am having to pay only 2000 to get International Roaming from Airtel, so it doesn't seem that bad.
The Carphone site has an interesting offer of a 25 GBP handset with 10 GBP free airtime-but there must be a catch somewhere. Will look into it once I am there.

tayara mechanici · Member

ABN397 wrote:

Thanks to everyone who replied. Fortunately I am having to pay only 2000 to get International Roaming from Airtel, so it doesn't seem that bad. The Carphone site has an interesting offer of a 25 GBP handset with 10 GBP free airtime-but there must be a catch somewhere. Will look into it once I am there.

None at all, i have gone for the same with a Virgin pay as you go card. You can flog the phone off on e-bay (or equivalent) once back in India, i am sure there are many in India who have the same issue visiting UK or keep it for subsequent trips. You get £5/- top-up cards from any Newsagent in UK.