Airtel pre-paid 4G SIM activation while roaming internationally

T

toi_classified

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Dear Airtel forum gurus - I have a strange problem with 4G SIM activation. I was using an Airtel pre-paid SIM card for the last year while I was roaming outside India (currently in Europe). The SIM card worked perfectly. Last month, I had some issues with the SIM card being recognized on a new phone. I ordered a new 4G SIM card to my home in India and had the inactivate SIM card shipped to me by my relatives in India. I have the new SIM card and followed the activation procedure. The new SIM card does not latch on to any network now. The worst part is that even the old SIM is not recognized on the roaming network. Any ideas on how to solve this? I have opened a ticket with Airtel and waiting for a call back.
 
The new blank sim card (before activation) will latch only on airtel network within India (if the new sim number ends with letter U). Once, you follow the activation procedure by sending the SIM swap sms from the old sim, the network deactivates your old sim and sends some SIM configuration to the new sim (sim number ending with U). Since you are outside India (or simply put - outside airtel's coverage), the new sim cannot be configured by the network for activation. Hence, you are left with no service.

So you have 2 options now.
1. Get another 4G sim delivered at your home in India and ensure that it is activated before you ship it outside the country.
2. Send the new 4G SIM you have, back to India and ask some one to put it in any handset for the initial activation/configuration. Once activated, you can ship it
 

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