Buying a SIM Card or eSIM in Colombia

Colombia is a treat for travelers. After decades of unrest, the country is now becoming one of South America’s favorite destinations.

Wedged between the Caribbean, the Andes, and the Amazon jungle, Colombia has a varied landscape, with something to offer every visitor.

With such diverse geography, I feared keeping in touch could be tricky. Thankfully, my worries were unfounded: Colombia has a robust mobile network, and more than decent data speeds.

It’s easy to buy a local SIM card there, and it’s the cheapest option as well. Travel eSIMs are also available: I’ve used them in several South American countries and loved the convenience, but in Colombia at least, they’re quite a bit more expensive.

Whatever approach you take, here’s what you need to know about staying connected in Colombia.

Claro has the largest network in the country, with the widest LTE coverage and nearly 50% market share. It’s the most reliable option.

The other main companies are Tigo and Movistar, which also have good coverage, albeit not quite as extensive as Claro. ETB and Avantel have a smaller presence, and resellers like Virgin Mobile and Móvil Éxito round out the picture.

Claro, however, will likely be the first carrier you come across, since it has the most customers and vendors selling its services.

As I mentioned, travel eSIMs are by far the most convenient way to stay connected in almost any country these days. In Colombia, however, you’re paying quite a bit more for that convenience than you would with a local SIM card.

Unless your phone can’t take a physical SIM, I’d suggest only using them for short trips, if you don’t need much data, or just to tide you over until you can track down a local SIM.

Of the better companies out there, I found Airalo and aloSIM to have near-indentical pricing, but aloSIM had more options available, so that’s the one I’d recommend.

Like most travel eSIMs, it’s data-only: you don’t get a local number. I use apps for everything from communication to transport these days, so the lack of a local number very rarely matters to me, but you might have different needs.

If you’re new to eSIMs, they offer big benefits to travelers in terms of how quickly, easily, and (often) cheaply you can get connected when you arrive in a new country. Most recent phones support them, and you can read all about them here.

I didn’t see any official store or kiosk to buy SIM cards at Bogotá’s international airport, although as I discovered later, you can apparently do so at one of the gift shops in the arrival hall. In the end, though, it didn’t cause much of a problem.

The most reliable place to get one is in the carrier’s official retail stores. In the case of Claro, though, you can also drop into an Oxxo (the Mexican convenience store chain, which is also present in Colombia).

Many Oxxos will have a little booth selling Claro SIM cards, but I didn’t see any for other networks.

I chose to go this route, in the historic neighborhood of La Candelaria, and it was extremely simple. The sales attendant explained my options, and helped me set up the SIM card. I showed my passport and gave my hostel address to register the account.

The whole exchange was done in Spanish (since that was both our native languages), but while I was paying, I heard another traveler start his own SIM card purchase in English with no problems.

A note of caution. You may run into informal kiosks offering SIM cards for a discounted price. When I asked at my hostel where to get a SIM card, they specifically warned me against them, saying the cards have often been stolen and blocked by the owner. It’s not worth the risk.

Claro

My starter pack with Claro set me back 18,000 COP ($5). The SIM card cost 3,000 COP, plus 15,000 COP in credit. I chose a plan which included 5GB to use within a week, plus free use of WhatsApp (including WhatsApp calls), Facebook, and Twitter.

There’s an upgraded version of this plan, costing 21,000 COP for 10GB to use within 15 days. These plans have no airtime or text messages included, but I didn’t miss them at all.

In fact, apparently even locals don’t miss airtime. Many Colombians don’t make calls from their phones at all, using them mostly for data, or for people to ring them.

Around the country, many people set up informal call centers, in which they sell calls by the minute. They usually have three phones, one for each network. Whenever locals need to call, they just go to these “call centers”, and so can you, should you need to!

However, if you do want your own airtime, Claro offers a vast number of other packages to choose from.

aloSIM

As I mentioned, as much as I love using travel eSIMs elsewhere in the world, they’re not great value in Colombia. Even the cheapest option cost more than I spent for 5x as much data, and things don’t really improve from there.

Still, if you need to be connected as soon as you land, it’s not the end of the world if you have to buy a small data pack to tide you over: it’s unlikely to break the bank!

While I’m recommending aloSIM, Airalo prices are normally very similar, and there are other options as well. We’ve compared many of them in the past: here’s how the best ones stack up in Colombia.

Topping Up

Local SIMs

You can add credit to your account in any Oxxo, convenience store, or supermarket, regardless of which provider you’re using. Just go in and ask.

aloSIM

Topping up with aloSIM (or any of the other travel eSIM companies) is done by logging into the website or app. You just select your Colombia eSIM, hit the top-up button, and buy the same package again.

The top-up packs have exactly the same pricing and duration as the original eSIMs: there’s little difference between topping up your current eSIM and buying a new one, other than not having to activate it.

Claro boasts LTE coverage throughout much of the country, and in general I found it to be super-reliable.

Service and speeds were good in Bogotá, Medellín, and Cartagena de Indias. The only problems I had were during the occasional thunderstorm in Cartagena, where service was disrupted for a while.

I expected it though, since I knew I was cutting it close to the start of rainy season (which I’ve had problems with in the past.)

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Check out our guides to SIM cards and eSIMs in 70+ other countries here.

Main image via juniorlink (Cartagena)