Using an eSIM in Delhi

What Delhi is like on a phone

Delhi is where most India trips begin, usually a night or two before a train to Agra, Jaipur or the hills. Across New Delhi the signal is generous and reaches most metro platforms, which is why so much of the day happens on a phone. Turn into the lanes behind Chandni Chowk, though, and the mix of crowds and old masonry pulls speeds down noticeably at peak hours. The heavy use here is navigation and confirming a driver, far more than streaming.

When you land

Almost every international flight lands at Terminal 3 of Indira Gandhi International (DEL); domestic services use Terminals 1 and 2. Switch the line on while you are still on board or on the walk to immigration, because that queue is long enough for a waiting driver to give up. The tidiest way into town is the Airport Express from T3 to New Delhi station, which holds signal the whole way. If you would rather ride, you will be sent to a marked pickup bay and will do the finding by app rather than by shouting across the kerb.

Where coverage changes

The metro carries service through most stations and tunnels, so you can re-check an interchange mid-ride. What changes is the bazaar belt — Chandni Chowk, Khari Baoli, Lajpat Nagar — where sheer density slows things down through the late afternoon. Around the wide government quarter, Lodhi Garden and Humayun's Tomb the air is clear but walking navigation across those distances quietly eats more than you would guess. Heading out past the ring roads to Gurugram, Noida or onto the Yamuna Expressway, coverage stays steady because those are the arteries everyone commutes on.

What a day here costs in data

A normal Delhi day runs about 1–2GB, because the map stays open and you order an auto or a cab several times over. Photographing signboards and menus into a translator, or resending your pin to a driver who cannot find the gate, nudges that up. If you upload a full set of pictures from Qutub Minar or India Gate each night, budget closer to 2–3GB a day. Save video calls home for the hotel, where the line sits steadier than it does in the middle of a market.

Districts travellers ask about

• Connaught Place — The central arcade rings look identical block after block, so a map pin often lands one segment off; read the inner and outer circle numbers as well.
• Chandni Chowk & Old Delhi — Lanes too narrow for a car, with GPS bouncing between tall shopfronts; agree to meet a driver at the main road rather than sending him into the gullies.
• Hauz Khas & South Delhi — A restaurant and café belt where people work all afternoon; steady enough for a short online meeting outside the evening rush.
• Aerocity & Mahipalpur — The airport hotel cluster for red-eye arrivals and pre-dawn departures; it has its own Airport Express stop, so you can check the next train from the room.

Day trips out of the city

• Agra and the Taj Mahal — The Yamuna Expressway takes roughly three and a half hours and holds signal for most of it, thinning across the open farmland in the middle; save the entry ticket to the phone before you pull out.
• Jaipur — Five to six hours by road through small Rajasthan towns; the signal follows the settlements and drops briefly where the highway cuts through rocky ridges. The train is the steadier option if you need to work en route.
• Rishikesh and Haridwar — Six or seven hours north to the foothills. Both towns behave normally, but the suspension bridges and the riverside trails heading further upstream wobble with the valley walls.