Daily Traveller Pass / International Roaming not working in India

[Mogsdad]

I'm traveling in India, and cannot get any mobile service for my Videotron Daily Traveller Pass. 

I've contacted support, and learned that the only Indian carrier they have an agreement with in-country is Tata Docomo. Despite being in the middle of a large city supposedly in that carrier's territory, I cannot get service, and that carrier does not show up as an available Cellular Network in settings / Cellular / Network Selection.

Has anyone had success using Videotron roaming in India? What's the trick?

iPhone 6S Plus, iOS 12.1.2

The carriers I can see currently are:

IDEA
404 999
CellOne
IND airtel
Vodafone IN
Reliance
IND-JIO

None of those provide service when selected manually.

The last word from Videotron support was: get a local SIM card. Seriously.

[Ipse]

I haven't tested personally (currently fighting to get VoWIFI working on Huawei Mate 20Pro for my next India t.r.i.p) but I don't have to tell you that getting a local SIM (you need friends/business associates to get it or else you'll wait forever) will be 100x cheaper.

10$ is what the daily pass is and it would buy you 3 months of unlimited voice and 1GB/day locally.

PS Someone REALLY needs to look at what gets "blipped"....last I checked an English dictionary t.r.i.p was not an offensive word.

[Mogsdad · Accepted solution]

The Indian carrier that Videotron has their roaming agreement with, Tata Docomo, is effectively shut down in most of the country, and began shifting its own users to Airtel since November 2017, according to this story in the Economic Times of India.

[Mogsdad]

Important to note: Wifi hotspots in India frequently require you to have a functional mobile phone to connect, as login depends on entry of a passcode that they will send to you via SMS. (Related article.) Unless you're traveling with someone who has an Indian phone (...or Rogers, or Bell, or Telus...) you may find yourself without the ability to reach the internet when you may need it most.

[PatrickM]

Hello! We understand the importance of having access to mobile services during your travels and we are currently negotiating with other mobile carriers to obtain coverage agreements at this location.  We hope to resolve this situation as quickly as possible. Have a nice day!