One of the things that excited me the most about our move to India was the chance to get a new Indian mobile. I knew that the USA was behind when it came to mobile phone platforms and I had read online about crazy new phones that were only available on the next generation 3G service in places like Asia. So today we went to pick out our handsets. Without further ado, here it is
Pretty boring, huh?? After browsing in 2 stores this is what I decided on. You see the Indian mobile market is very different in that you buy a SIM card, which is what dictates your number as well as your service provider. Then you can buy any handset and just slip the card in. So the plan I am on is a standard 450 min plan and costs the equivalent of $6.20USD per month. This handset was about $80 USD, and this was one of the cheapest. This is very different than in the US where they give away phones to get you on some expensive monthly plan.
I decided on this phone after much deliberation because I didn't need a camera (I am not going to be picture messaging back to the US) and I didn't need an MP3 player. So this will work fine. They did have some pretty cool phones, including this one that cost 55,000 rupees.
I did get 2 free gifts with my purchase. The first was a scratch card which I immediately won 100 rupees ($2.50 USD). The second was this leather case for my phone that you clip to you belt. It was some crocodile on it like it's a fake Lacoste case but either way people will be impressed to see me pull my phone out of this.
