How to buy a SIM card in India
We did OK w/o operable cell phones for the first week of our trip, but we realized that it would be really helpful to have one for the second week when we'd be traveling around, meeting up with hired with drivers etc. We had a phone that Beth thought would work in India, so all we needed was a local SIM. Friday evening after return from Timbaktu, I embarked on my SIM card adventure. At first, the hotel staff told me I would just have to show some ID at the mobile store. But then they started saying that I should really get a local Indian contact to buy one for me, as Indian mobile stores are loathe to sell mobile phones to foreigners who might use them for terrorist acts. I walked to the nearest mobile center to try my luck. The friendly staff there told me I would need a letter from the police Commissioner in order to purchase a SIM. With help from my hotel staff, I found the Jayanagar district police office.
The older gentleman at the front desk of the police station gestured at the spot opposite his desk and told me to sit. There was no chair. Surely he didn’t expect me to sit on the floor. When he saw my confusion, he looked behind the desk and realized his guest chair had been taken. He didn’t seem to know about SIM cards, so he walked me down the hall to a room full of other officers who also didn’t know about SIM cards, and then to another room where no one knew about SIM cards, but where he was able to retrieve a chair for me. Eventually someone showed up who asked me a few questions about how long I was staying in India and winkingly made me promise not to do anything bad with my Indian cell phone.
“Write a letter,” he said, handing me a blank piece of paper and a pen.
“What should it say?”
“I will tell you.”
To: Sub-Inspector, Jayanagar Police Station, Bangalore City
From: (My name and US Address and passport #)
I request your kind permission to buy a local SIM from a mobile store in Jayanagar.
and under my signature he wrote:
Local Sim Number can be granted as the person antecedent have been verified and found to be clean
He then stamped and signed it, and pointed at another police officer, saying “you will go with that person to the mobile store.”
The other police officer took me to the mobile shop across the street from the police station where I presented my passport, CA driver license, and the letter. The guys at the store still seemed concerned that I had no Indian address, so they called the head office. Though it wasn’t in English I could make out the conversation pretty well: “She’s got a US Passport and US Driver license,” the mobile store guy was saying. “And a letter from the police department!” the policeman said, tapping vehemently on my letter. Eventually, it was decided that what I had would be good enough, though I would need to get a passport-sized photo taken at a shop down the street to submit with my application. On the way to the photo “studio,” I passed a lovely white Jain temple.
In the end, it turned out that the phone Beth had lent me was not “unlocked” for use in India, but we were eventually able to use the SIM when Tim and Shannon’s neighbor The Colonel was kind enough to lend us an extra phone. It did in fact come in handy as we traveled around south of Chennai and for Beth’s communication with her travel agent friend in Delhi who was helping us out with plane tickets, a driver, and hotels in Agra and Delhi.
The older gentleman at the front desk of the police station gestured at the spot opposite his desk and told me to sit. There was no chair. Surely he didn’t expect me to sit on the floor. When he saw my confusion, he looked behind the desk and realized his guest chair had been taken. He didn’t seem to know about SIM cards, so he walked me down the hall to a room full of other officers who also didn’t know about SIM cards, and then to another room where no one knew about SIM cards, but where he was able to retrieve a chair for me. Eventually someone showed up who asked me a few questions about how long I was staying in India and winkingly made me promise not to do anything bad with my Indian cell phone.
“Write a letter,” he said, handing me a blank piece of paper and a pen.
“What should it say?”
“I will tell you.”
To: Sub-Inspector, Jayanagar Police Station, Bangalore City
From: (My name and US Address and passport #)
I request your kind permission to buy a local SIM from a mobile store in Jayanagar.
and under my signature he wrote:
Local Sim Number can be granted as the person antecedent have been verified and found to be clean
He then stamped and signed it, and pointed at another police officer, saying “you will go with that person to the mobile store.”
The other police officer took me to the mobile shop across the street from the police station where I presented my passport, CA driver license, and the letter. The guys at the store still seemed concerned that I had no Indian address, so they called the head office. Though it wasn’t in English I could make out the conversation pretty well: “She’s got a US Passport and US Driver license,” the mobile store guy was saying. “And a letter from the police department!” the policeman said, tapping vehemently on my letter. Eventually, it was decided that what I had would be good enough, though I would need to get a passport-sized photo taken at a shop down the street to submit with my application. On the way to the photo “studio,” I passed a lovely white Jain temple.
In the end, it turned out that the phone Beth had lent me was not “unlocked” for use in India, but we were eventually able to use the SIM when Tim and Shannon’s neighbor The Colonel was kind enough to lend us an extra phone. It did in fact come in handy as we traveled around south of Chennai and for Beth’s communication with her travel agent friend in Delhi who was helping us out with plane tickets, a driver, and hotels in Agra and Delhi.