No pretty pictures, you know what they look like.
Everyone here but the dirt poor walks around clutching a mobile and
usually talking into it. The land lines are pretty unreliable, so it is
worth getting one. According to Orange, my English phone should have
roamed here, but it hasn't, and I hate to think what the cost of calls
would be if it did. Getting a phone is easy and costs about £30, but I
think it could be much cheaper.
- First, if you ask for a pay-as-you-go mobile phone, you will get a
blank look. They are called prepay cell phones here. There are shops
selling them everywhere.
- You have got to buy the phone and a SIM card, which came with Rs100
of calls. I think that would give you about half an hour of local calls.
- You need your passport and you have to fill in a form, but I only
filled in half and they didn't even look at it, but they did photograph
me!
- To top up, you go into any shop displaying your network logo (I
bought a Hutch, because they are sponsoring all of the cricket here, so
assumed they were big. Shows sponsorship works.) Say how much you want
and they fiddle with their phone and after a moment you get a message
saying you are being credited, please pay the vendor.
- Be warned I bought Rs300 top up from a very grumpy guy. First
the message said Rs300 was being processed. Then a second message said I
had been credited with Rs140! I went back to Grumpy and said "Where's
the other Rs160?". "Taxes and handling charges!!"
- But, I think all you really need to buy is a SIM card pack, and put
it into your own phone if you have one. That would only cost about
Rs200. I didn't think of that until after I had bought the phone. Its
dimbos like me who keep the economy afloat.
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