International roaming long term?

[Wealth is my birth right!]

Airtel I would choose too, but the coverage even with my parents corp plan is trash af. Calls don't come even in the middle of the damned city.

hope 5g migration resolves this jam

 

[hks789]

Might port over to BSNL for this, seems quite manageable in this case

Make sure you get the roaming enabled sim card. Normal sim won't work.

 

[avishj]

hope 5g migration resolves this jam

Yeah, they haven't sorted it out for years, doubt if they ever will for lower tier cities.

 

[avishj]

Make sure you get the roaming enabled sim card. Normal sim won't work.

Yes, for sure! Thanks for the reminder!

 

[Sudarshan61]

Yes, but only if you take a roaming plan.

Message comes free without any pack.

Kept Vi(5 years) and Jio(2 years) overseas..only minimum Recharge required to keep number active. For Jio we need to recharge 1s with international pack for roaming to get enabled

 

[Sudarshan61]

I can confirm Airtel prepaid allows you to recieve SMS, friends used it in Canada for 3ish months no issues. I on the other hand in Jio, didn't get shit, atleast they have coverage via international partners, I got 0 network.

That's because you didn't enable International roaming in Jio(need to recharge 1 with one of their international pack).
Post that it works like charm

 

[avishj]

Message comes free without any pack.

Kept Vi(5 years) and Jio(2 years) overseas..only minimum Recharge required to keep number active. For Jio we need to recharge 1s with international pack for roaming to get enabled

That's because you didn't enable International roaming in Jio(need to recharge 1 with one of their international pack).
Post that it works like charm

So, if I am understanding this right, I buy an international pack once? And after that expires as well, I can do minimum domestic recharge and it will continue to receive SMS abroad?

 

[Sudarshan61]

So, if I am understanding this right, I buy an international pack once? And after that expires as well, I can do minimum domestic recharge and it will continue to receive SMS abroad?

Yes.
International pack is just needed 1s with Jio to activate the roaming..without that it won't even latch on to overseas network

 

[avishj]

Yes.
International pack is just needed 1s with Jio to activate the roaming..without that it won't even latch on to overseas network

Ohkay, makes a lot of sense, thanks for sharing!

 

[bengaltiger]

Any hacks for international roaming? We will need roaming enabled for banking transactions and OTP etc. Cost is approx 7k per month. We are 4 of us and will be abroad for 3-4 months. That's 28k per month or a whopping 1L+ total roaming cost.

Any hacks or tricks to avoid this? Any sms forwarding service or similar? Can't change number with all banks etc.

roaming is free. meaning you will get OTP for free. (keep recharging minimum amount to keep the service alive)

cheapest is JIO for calls. with wifi calls recharge around rs 1100 call rate 1 rupee per min.

all depends on country.

jio , airtel, voda for OTP no issues.

sms forwarding doesnt exist. call forwarding possible.

 

[M2222]

I can confirm Airtel minimum validity recharge will work fine for getting the OTP and calls(Just don't pick the calls) internationally.
if you want to pick the calls too then they have one recharge of 2997 which will give you 1 year validity with 100 min. calls incoming/local.
FYI: Regularly using since last 3 years.

 

[vgarg]

International roaming is not by default enabled on airtel. So either activate it in India. If you buy an international roaming plan it gets activated automatically. You can activate it without buying the plan.

 

[M2222]

International roaming is not by default enabled on airtel. So either activate it in India. If you buy an international roaming plan it gets activated automatically. You can activate it without buying the plan.

I never activated any roaming plans. It was automatic for me and I never recharged any international roaming plans either. I only recharge the minimum validity plan whenever I am out of India which is like 11 months in a year.

 

[bengaltiger]

I think its new rule, by default its NOT activated.

I can confirm this. My 2nd JIO number , roaming was not enabled.
Luckily myJio app was set in india so I was able to do it online using the app.

I think by email or twitter , this can be enabled.


for quick or emergency call, JIO is cheapest.

 

[WandereR]

Any idea about VI international roaming? I see unlimited plans on their websites(Calls+data) which is an overkill for my use case. Also, is it better to port to airtel?