Mobile Store and Idea Cellular – SIM Card Buying Experience

So, I am scheduled to get my hands on the Google Nexus One later today. Friend lands here in India at 2AM Sunday. I am currently using a CDMA phone with a Tata Indicom connection. So, I needed to get a GSM Sim Card. I read about the Aircel 100 Rupee unlimited GRPS connection here on the forum. I thought great. I went to Aircel Showroom with a Reliance Postpaid Mobile Bill, PAN Card Photocopy, Photos... The Aircel representative told me: Prepaid connection would take 24 hours. Postpaid connection would take 3 days! In both cases, I would have to collect the SIM Card after the 'specified period'. And they would not accept Reliance bill as an address proof. Airtel/BSNL Landline bills needed. I needed to the connection to be active today... So, I left. I went to Vodafone store. Prepaid connection can be activated in 2 hours. But they also won't accept Reliance postpaid bill as a document. I knew the guy at this Vodafone store. So, asked him for a solution. He directed me to the nearby Mobile Store. I thought... What the hell. I went to the Mobile Store. Noticed that they had a stall in front of the shop and they were giving away Idea SIM cards for free! FREE! Instant Activation! They accepted the Reliance bill along with photocopies of my driver's license and PAN Card.I got the SIM Card for free. They required me to put on some charge from their shop. I put in Rs. 100. I got Rs. 88 worth of talk-time. NO GPRS option for now. And the number was activated within 5 freaking minutes.Now, I can only hope that the device works as intended. AND. The Indian edition of 3G is compatible with this device. Google Nexus One currently does not work on AT&T 3G networks in USA. It uses a different band... I am not sure what band/type of 3G would be launched in India... So, that is a major hassle.

Haha. Moral of the story - Reliance cannot be trusted. Never.

ah well. i had a reliance mobile postpaid bill. it was not a landline bill. they wanted a landline bill i think... the point i was trying to raise was the different standards adopted by different mobile service providers. vodafone and aircel. very strict. but then i checked their official dealers/franchise. idea? not at all strict. but i checked it at mobile store. it is hard to tell if idea itself 'promotes' this kind of connection distribution. while i was standing there, i actually saw a couple of people coming in and buying SIMs in bulk. the store had a policy... one person 3 SIMs maximum! the paperwork was done so shabbily... i am pretty sure my SIM would get disconnected if proper verification is done. but then i only need it to work for 1-2 days. i would get an aircel connection with unlimited GPRS pack... need to find an airtel landline bill first.

Airtel had some huge 98 Rs Unlimited GPRS banners near my house , isnt that a better option considering its better network .

i dont think airtel and vodafone have ANY unlimited gprs package 🙂 i hate airtel (mobile) by heart. i tried checking out their packages today. but their official store was so jammed with people... i simply decided to move on. 🙂checking airtel.in for delhi... option 1: 1: Zero Rental , 30 p/ 50KB download charges. 2: Rs249 - 125 MB(50 KB pulse) free/month, thereafter charges 20p/50KB. 3: Rs599 - 600 MB(50KB pulse) free/ month, thereafter charges 20p/50KBoption 2: 1: Rs149 - 100 MB(50 KB pulse) free/month, thereafter charges 30p/50KB. 2: Rs299 - 300 MB(50KB pulse) free/ month, thereafter charges 30p/50KB.option 3: Daily Rental of Rs.10 for 8 MB data download free, and henceforth charges of 20p/50kb of download.option 4: Daily Rental of Rs. 20 for 20 MB data usage free, henceforth 20p/50kb of downloadsomeone give me some suggestions!

:: Airtel :: Prepaid Mobile - Tariffs.

2GB , i guess that decent enough for GPRS .

Recharge with Rs 98 and get 2GB free data download. Validity - 30 Days. Post free usage charges are 30p/50KB. Offer from (10th Jan 2010 to 23rd Feb 2010)

i hate airtel for this simple reason when it comes to mobile services. too many complications. too little clarity. and finding a guy at their center with enough time to explain me all the possible options? going to be rather tough. i would try on a weekday.

i have a working idea sim for now. no GPRS on that... i would decide on a GPRS connection in the coming days. Google N1 has to arrive first. And it has to work too! there are just too many 'ifs' in my mind right now. 🙂

frankly speaking i can manage in 500MB per month. considering i stay at home most of the time. i am going to get the GPRS connection solely for email access and the power to reboot the server when i am out. there have been too many instances when i come back after watching a movie or anything else. just to find out that server was down for the last couple of hours. that really hurts.

working gmail on my cell would be great...

funny thing. i cannot make or receive calls on this newly bought idea sim. it shows call failed on any attempt to make a call. it worked earlier today after i left the shop. i can think of only one possibility... idea has disabled calling till the time it is verified. verification would be tough as i now live in a flat and the address proof is of my parent's place. 😀

have you used aircel gprs? i tried and gave up after 1 week.money spent on the sim went down the drain.

a guy in some other thread said that it worked well. 😀i am not sure. i have heard that almost all gprs connections suck generally. i just need basic connectivity that can download my emails and let me access the server reload page. i guess that is too much to ask for 🙁 let's see what happens. for the time being... the non-gprs idea sim has stopped working 😀

for me idea worked 100 times better than aircel.frequent disconnection and slow speeds are the issues marring aircel.sometimes webpages won't load at all.i used it about a month back and have switched to mtnl 3G since then.

hmm... i will try to find out about the airtel 2GB plan. their plan detail does not clarify whether the the package is available for two months or it works only for two months.

yey, idea has started working again. i guess the calls were not working because of the crappy network. 😀

here is a cool message i got after making a test call:



this call was for 1 minutes and 8 seconds. so they are charging what? around 1 paisa per 2 seconds? i do not even know the name of the plan it has. 😀

alright. i am confused about the icon that is coming just next to the signal bars. i do not remember what this icon stands for. anyone here who can help me out here? 😀

Congrats adminji on your newly acquired device. waiting for some detailed review and cool snaps ...

mmm never mind. i meant to say... lack of 3G/Edge/GPRS options in India means that it would probably be as functional as the iPod Touch my wife owns.