Gurgaon seems to be the new Kashmir. Mobile operators are not issuing pre-paid mobile sim cards in Gurgaon anymore. I did rounds of Idea, Airtel & Vodafone offices at several locations in Gurgaon only to be told that pre-paid connections are NOT being offered in Gurgaon any more. No one had any explanation for this.
Some Airtel/Vodafone stores though offered me (very kindly) that they can give me a pre-paid SIM card in Gurgaon but would charge double the money for it. I do not know about the fringe operators (DoCoMo, Reliance, Virgin etc.) but the mainstream ones are certainly not offering pre-paid SIMs anymore.
To get some official word on this, I wrote an email to Vodafone care. This is the response I got:
Thank you for your email dated 01/02/10 regarding services on your Vodafone mobile numbers.
We sincerely regret the delay in replying to your e-mail and the inconvenience caused to you.
We would like to inform you that, currently we are not offering prepaid connections in Gurgaon. If you wish to take postpaid connection then you can visit your nearest Vodafone store( list enclosed).
Assuring you with the best of our services at all the times.
In case you need further assistance, please do call or email us. We?ll do our best to help you.
Happy to help,
Does anyone know what is going on?
I think in Kashmir & Laddakh its by govt. mandate that mobile carriers can’t provide pre-paid connections. But in Gurgaon it seems the carriers are doing so by their own will. Still, I think people can buy pre-paid connections in Delhi, they still work at local rates in the NCR region.