Getting a SIM card (prepay) in India

I've already got several Indian SIM cards since the beginning of my trip and it's quite easy and fast. Recharging, though, is a whole another story.

So, to get a, let us say, Airtel SIM, which is free, you just go to any Airtel shop, fill out the form (only one, no copies) and give them one of you passport photos and a copy of you passport and Indian visa (everything just one copy). You get a SIM card which is activated in 15 minutes up to 4 hours (absolute maximum). The most time it took them to activate one of mine was 1 hour and 45 minutes.

And yeah, just write an address of any hotel where you stayed, they don't check it anyway.

For getting a SIM card for mobile internet, the process is exactly the same but you also have to buy a dongle (approximately 1900 Rp) and activation is done immediately if you want a 2G plan or you can wait 15 minutes to 4 hours for 3G (recommended). Airtel's mobile internet apparently has pan India coverage which is true but they don't have 3G available everywhere and in the Andamans speeds are so painful. But data plans are pretty cheap with 10 GB for 1250 Rp now, which is pretty cool.

EDIT: Or just buy a SIM card in the street from the resellers. No paperwork, no trace, no problems (I guess).

I've just got an airtel sim card, and the process was similar to how rlesko described. Short answer is that for Airtel, you need a recent-ish passport photo, a photocopy of your passport details page, a photocopy of your visa, a photocopy of something official with your home address on, and the originals. Should take about 30 minutes to get the sim card and have it work, add another 15-30 for 2G internet.

As things differed slightly to @rlesko's case, I'll let you know how it went for me so you've another data point. Before heading to the store, I got a photocopy taken of my passport details page, and of the visa page, and ensured I had a recent-ish passport photo. What I didn't have was anything official about where I was staying, or my home address. This proved to be somewhat tricky.

When I got to the shop (a small independent Airtel dealer), the owner was a little reluctant to sell me a prepaid simcard, as he though it'd be a lot of work and I wouldn't have the documents needed, but with the help of the taxi driver I convinced him I had all the required copies and originals, so he relented. He checked the copies and the originals, then we hit a snag. He wanted my home address from my passport, but a UK passport doesn't have your home address in it. I offered my driving license, but that wasn't what he was expecting. The passport did have the emergency contact details for my family in it, so the eventual solution was to nip a few doors down, photocopy that page too, and then put my parents address from the contact details on the application form... I think it would've been easier with a photocopy of my driving license to start with perhaps, or maybe a letter from the hotel confirming I was staying there so I could have used that address as the home address. Putting the hotel address down as the current address wasn't a problem, and that bit wasn't checked.

Having got the copies in order, there was a form to be filled out, with some confusion as my passport doesn't have my father's name on it, which was a required field, and the addresses weren't in the right format. Eventually got that sorted, signed the form and copies, and the SIM activated quickly. Got a hard sell on the amount to top up, basically wasn't allowed to go for the cheaper ones, but nothing too unusual there as a foreigner. The shop owner ensured I could make a call and the topup had worked before I left, then added 2G internet for me by text a little later. It all works, and I can text, call, and I'm posting this on 2G!

During all this, people were coming in and topping up their phones, which involved saying their number, it was typed into a phone, they checked, text came through to them and the shop owner, then they paid and were gone. Seemed quick enough! But did delay the sim card buying a bit as we kept stopping so that topups could be quickly sold.

At the moment there seems to be country wide shortage of Sim cards. Everywhere i tried I got "No" then I found one at a small booth in Mylapore (near Sri Ramakrishna Matt).

Had to provide a copy of my passport, a photo of me (70R for 8 in photoshop) AND a letter from the hotel stating I was a resident (they have them pre-typed so are used to it).

SIM cost R250 and a 2GB one month allowance @ R449. In total R700 for card and 2GB Took a few days to get activated though!