Internet Broadband and Prepaid Mobile at Delhi Airport -- Tips for Travelers to India

If you have traveled to India in the past, you probably have faced the situation of trying to scurry for a decent mobile phone and Internet connection from the get go. I have been to the UK and some EU countries and like them India has adopted the GSM cellular technology. And you can get a phone over the counter without much ado there ('Welcome to Lebara Mobile'--that British accent female voice is unmistakable..:) )Plus the phones are not locked to the carriers like in the USA. I personally feel, the consumers in USA are fleeced by the 'locked phone' culture. How ironical, in the 'land of the Free'..Funny how Businesses work in USA.

Anyhow, back to India. I used to have a difficult time finding a temporary cellular phone (without having to activate 'Roaming' on my USA phone). Plus Internet connections were always a hassle because most of the services were specifically compatible to Windows OS only (I have been an exclusive Linux-phile for about 15 years now) and I would always have to struggle to find that would work with my Linux laptop.
But that was then. And here's my story of 2014 about the same in India. And I was pleasantly surprised.
As a visitor to India, here are some tips you can find useful to get --

• Prepaid mobile connection 
• Broadband Internet connection that would work with Linux OS.

1) Carry a Xerox copy of your Passport from your home country
2) Carry two Passport size photos from your home country
Note: Well, if you dont have the two above, dont despair, the folks here can help you get that at the airport itself; but its easier if you have the two things handy before you come.

3) After you finish your Customs formalities and get your baggage BUT just before you exit the Airport terminal (T3 for Delhi Indira Gandhi International Airport aka IGI Airport), look for kiosks that advertise Cellular and Internet services--there are many. The one that is most popular is called 'AirTel'--it is India's #1 Telecom provider.

4) Once you arrive at the Airtel (or Vodafone or Reliance kiosk)--I prefer Airtel--ask the person for A) Prepaid Mobile Sim Card B) 3G Internet Broadband connection (4G LTE is expected sometime early 2015).

5) The person will ask for the passport copy, pictures and your Address of stay in India--you can use your hotel address if you want.

Note: If you have an unlocked phone (like me) then you dont have to pay for the phone device (for the Prepaid sim card). They do have the 'Micro-sim' that my Sony Xperia Z1 Compact uses. If you DON'T have an unlocked phone you can buy one at the counter/IGI Airport for less than USD 50.

6) The Service itself is quite in-expensive compare to USA. It cost me about Rs 3000 (which is about 50 USD) for BOTH the Prepaid Cell connection and the 3G USB Internet dongle.

7) It takes about 15 minutes to get paperwork completed and you to get going to your hotel.

8) You may want to ask the contact # of the Airtel representative at the counter, just in case.

9) In my case, I specifically asked if the Internet connection would work with my Linux OS and his answer was 'Yes' and that was good for me. Also the service was functional within 2 hours. Just enough time for me to reach my destination and relax a bit.

10) Quality of service -- I was pleasantly surprised that the Internet speed is comparable to the USA -- upto 21Mbps down and 2Mbps up. ( I got about 15Mbps--see pic below). The customer service is prompt if you call 59059 from your cell for any reason.

11) Yes, again the Mobile Broadband works with Linux. I have Ubuntu 14.04 LTS and it seamlessly detects the USB dongle with the Broadband sim soon after you plug it in.

Sony Android Phone Not working 100% with Ubuntu

Those of you who care to read what I write would note that I have no liking for Microsoft or Apple products. I have been using FOSS specially Linux OS as my laptop/desktp OS since year 2000 and also as the OS for my smartphone (as Android incarnation) since 2010.
Currently I use Ubuntu 14.04 LTS (Trusty Tahr) as desktop OS and Android 4.4.2 (KitKat) as smartphone OS. The hardware for the same is Dell XPS 13 and Sony Xperia Z1 Compact. Occasionally I do use Fedora (on Sony Vaio S laptop) as my 2nd laptop and Amazon Kindle HD running Amazon's derivative of Android (called Silk) as tablet. But truly that is rare. My laptop and my smartphone are my primary devices..
But why am I telling you all this?
Well there is a precise reason for that. If you noticed all of the above OS (be it laptop/smartphone/tablet) are based on the GNU/Linux Kernel. Right?
So you would expect they would get along well together, Right? Wrong..

[Microsoft and Apple sauce fans: desist from saying "switch to us". No wont, you are not Free. I may be a bit uncomfortable but I'm Free..So dont even start..]
Anyway I digress..

It so happened that I recently switched to my new Sony Xperia Z1 Compact (from my previous HTC Evo LTE). The reason for the switch was upgrade to a new, powerful, goodlooking, waterproof, feature packed phone. To make the best of the phone's 20.7 megapixel camera, I got it loaded with a SD card to store all my pics. And then I gleefully went on clicking pics.
After a while, I wanted to transfer my picture files to my Ubuntu 14.04 laptop. Just like I used to do with my old (HTC) phone simply by connecting with a USB cable. But this is where my horrors start.
To my surprise, Sony Xperia detects the USB connection and immediately prompts you to install an file transfer software (called ominously 'PC companion') that works only with (hold your breath) Microsoft Windows or Apple (s)Mackintosh. What?? Why?? Arent you Android Sony Xperia OS? And if so arent you a derivative of Linux OS? So isnt it logical for you to work seamlessly with any Linux OS (in this case Ubuntu) using an open standard USB? Well apparently not. The developers and designers at Sony didnt have the foresight and vision to think beyond Windows and sMacintosh eventhough they are themselves based on a Linux OS. What a shame.
After a bit of twiddling, I do see a link under 'Settings > Storage' that prompts me to transfer files from 'Internal storage'(here, builtin phone storage) to 'External storage' (here the SD card). And I accept this option thinking that its only fair--I can transfer the files and then plug the SD card to my laptop directly (ie without the phone via USB). But another goof up on the software designers. They very conveniently forgot to mention that the 'Transfer' is actually a 'move' not a 'copy' (ie after transfering the files it will wipe out the original files. Who designed this? Can they at least warn the End user before doing such a one way transfer? Poor thinking Sony!!
Anyhow, I transfer the files and try to connect the SD card directly onto my laptop but as if all the prior misery was not enough, now the SD card is not recognized by Ubuntu OS because the SD card was formatted by the Phone OS (in this case unbelievably a Linux derivative called Android) in a format which is understood only by Windows and NOT by Linux. Why? This never was a problem with the previous Android phone (from HTC).

So what to do now?
I had to jump through these hoops to finally be able to transfer the files:

0- Put the SD card from my Sony to my older HTC phone (while my Sony phone sat useless like a plastic POS)
1- Transfer ALL files (including pics, songs, etc) from SD card in the HTC phone to the Laptop
2- After Transfer Format the SD card (while its in the HTC phone) so that the format is now recognizable to Linux (Remember, Sony formatted in a way only to be understood by Windows - the evil proprietary "extFAT" while HTC formats it into a universal Linux readable "vFAT" format)
3- After Format, put the SD card back into my Sony phone
4- Connect the Sony phone back to the laptop
5- Copy back the files from the laptop to the SD card that I did NOT want to transfer originally(like songs etc)

So as you see it was 6 step hassle. Why?
Because some genius in Sony decided that it was a wonderful idea to totally ignore Linux compatibility eventhough the phone OS in use (Android) is itself a Linux derivative and as such should talk the same language and be seamless..But no.. Great Sony!! (puns intended)

Sony here's the lesson for you. You are great hardware maker. No doubt. I have long been your fan. So have millions of others like me. But you are losing the smartphone battle to Samsung and iOS. Arent you? Do you want to keep losing market or do you want to win back again? If you want to win back then...Dont be stupid and restrictive. Dont be anti end user comfort. Only those companies who give utmost importance to End-user convenience succeed and are actually succeeding as we speak. Dont you see? If a savvy end-user like myself had to go through so many hoops to get something as simple as file transfer from phone to laptop then think of Grandma or Aunt Tilly. You have already scared them and lost their business. Come on Sony give us a better deal and DONT ignore Linux. Period.