SIM Continuity from India

[NiSn]

I had bought the sim in India. You cant buy airtel in canada. Yes incoming SMS are free. I never pick up calls and infact keep the number turned off. Only switch it on when i need the OTPs. For canada, i use local sim from Koodo mobile which costs around $40/month

 

[nidhivinay94]

I usually feel Jio is best for this scenario. Once you have a plan on your sim (I usually get a yearly plan), and you enable IR ONCE WHILE YOU'RE STILL in India, you're good to go. You get all incoming messages for free & you can basically add some balance to your account, and calls from and to India will be charged at 2 rs per minute. Pretty good deal if you ask me. I have a dual sim iPhone, and I always have the Jio running on it, so even if someone from India calls me on that number, i end up paying just 2 rs per min.

First time enabling IR must be done from within India. They say it wont activate outside India at all (I was able to do this by jumping thru hoops but is not guaranteed).

Also, the wifi calling will not work like you'd expect. Jio will connect to WIFI Calling, but will not allow you to place any calls. You'll get an automated message saying "Wifi calling only available in India"... so that is that.

What did you do to get it activated from outside India? I have a Jio sim, but no International Roaming on it. As such, I do not get a network and can't receive any incoming messages/OTPs. Please do share. I need it urgently. Any input would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

[sundeep_s_]

What did you do to get it activated from outside India? I have a Jio sim, but no International Roaming on it. As such, I do not get a network and can't receive any incoming messages/OTPs. Please do share. I need it urgently. Any input would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

I was on an iPhone. Despite of them confirming to me that there's no way to activate IR while outside India, I bought an IR plan, turned on the wifi calling on on my phone and waited patiently for 12 hours. Somehow I got signal after that. I think I might have played with the wifi calling setting turning it on and off occasionally, hoping that it would somehow reach out to Jio Servers initiating contact. I don't exactly remember it was back in 2019.

So if you'd like to give it a shot, buy an IR plan on the JIO app and hope that it'll work! (again, I don't think it's guaranteed, but worth a shot).

 

[nidhivinay94]

Thanks a lot! I will definitely give this a try. If it still doesn't work, I will have to send my SIM back to India somehow, and hope it reaches my family on time before it gets deactivated.

 

[DesiPikachu]

Just use a virtual number from Doosra instead - it supports incoming calls and SMS (Google it). I also recommend switching to an eSIM in India before coming here because if the physical SIM gets damaged or stops functioning here and the SIM is in your name then you'll have a lot of problems getting it replaced...