Looking for ways to activate ISD on your Airtel number? International Subscriber Dial (better known as ISD) is what you need to talk to people abroad. Telecom operators charge significantly more for ISD calls than regular local and STD calls. However, Airtel and other telecom companies have some prepaid recharge packs and postpaid plans that offer discounts on ISD calls or some free minutes that allow you to make international calls from your mobile phone.
How to activate ISD on your Airtel number
Basic ISD service is activated by default on all prepaid and postpaid connections on the Airtel network. This means that if you want to call someone abroad over your home network, you don’t need to take any steps to activate ISD on your Airtel number. The FAQ page provided by the telecom operator also mentioned that there is no way for customers to deactivate ISD services.
Since the basic service is activated by default, all you need to do is prepend the phone number with a “+” and the country code from which you want to call the ISD. The process is the same for Airtel prepaid and postpaid connections. However, with Airtel postpaid connection, if you want to make calls to countries where the call charges are higher than Rs. 15. You need to activate the advanced ISD service. You can do this by visiting a nearby Airtel store or calling the customer care helpline 121.
Airtel has different ISD call rates for prepaid and postpaid customers. Additionally, call rates vary by area code.
You can check the different ISD call charges applicable for Airtel prepaid and postpaid connections from the ISD website.
Prepaid customers on the Airtel network have ISD recharge packs worth Rs 100. On the 18th, ISD call rates were reduced for 28 days. Likewise, there is Rs. 1,599 postpaid plan including 200 ISD minutes and 200GB high-speed data. Detailed information about the country codes covered by the special postpaid plans is available on the Airtel website.
Airtel postpaid customers can also pay Rs. 50 “Umbrella” add-on packs offering discounts on ISD calls to 33 popular destinations. The plan is valid throughout the billing cycle and is available in countries such as the US, UK, UAE, Afghanistan, Thailand, Bahrain, Bangladesh, China, Hong Kong, Italy, Nepal, Singapore and Sri Lanka, as well as select area codes in Australia and New Zealand. However, the feature doesn’t work if you call someone in countries like Canada and Switzerland.
The umbrella package can be easily activated through the AirtelThanks app and added to the customer’s monthly bill.
Check out our mobile top-up plans page to find the best plan for your mobile operator.
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