1 GB
Valid for 7 days
$6.99
$6.99 per GB
eSIM for Colombia
Colombia runs on a phone. You fill the Check-Mig form online before you fly in and again before you fly out, you call rides through an app because street taxis in Bogotá are not something most visitors want to flag down, and you pay for almost everything else with cash you found on a map. Addresses are written as calles and carreras that make sense once you see them on a screen and not before, so Google Maps or Waze is doing a lot of quiet work on a Colombia trip.
A FairSIM eSIM roams onto Tigo or Movistar, two of the country's main networks. That means 5G in the cities where it has been switched on, solid 4G LTE almost everywhere else people live, and coverage that follows the main roads through the Andes and along the Caribbean coast. You install it over Wi-Fi at home, land at El Dorado or Rionegro, turn the line on, and skip the queue and the passport photocopy at the SIM counter.
One local rule worth knowing: Colombia keeps a national IMEI registry, and operators can block handsets whose IMEI is not on the approved list. Visitors who buy a local prepaid chip sometimes have to get their phone's IMEI registered with the operator to keep it working. A roaming travel eSIM comes in as a visitor on the host network, so that paperwork is not part of your trip.
Colombia eSIM plans
Wholesale rates in US dollars, with nothing added at checkout. Buy in the FairSIM app and the plan is on your phone in seconds.
How long is your trip?
All plans. Pick a trip length to narrow the list.
- Get it in the app for Colombia
3 GB
Valid for 30 days
Get it in the app for Colombia$14.99
$5.00 per GB
- Best value
10 GB
Valid for 30 days
Get it in the app for Colombia$29.99
$3.00 per GB
Unlimited
Valid for 15 days
Get it in the app for Colombia$69.99
Speed policy shown in the app
Coverage in Colombia
- 4G LTE
- 5G
- TigoNationwide 4G LTE with 5G live in Bogotá, Medellín and other large cities. Strong in Medellín and the Antioquia region, and a common host for travel eSIMs.
- MovistarWide national 4G LTE footprint with 5G in major urban areas, and good reach on the Caribbean coast and along main highways.
Typical speed: Fast enough in Bogotá, Medellín, Cali, Barranquilla and Cartagena for maps, video calls and streaming. 5G service started commercially after the 2023 spectrum auction and is still expanding, so treat 4G as the realistic baseline outside city centres.
Cities, the coffee region, the Bogotá–Medellín–Cartagena corridor and the coastal road to Santa Marta and Palomino are well covered. Expect gaps inside Tayrona and Cocora, on the high páramos, in parts of La Guajira and Chocó, and along the Amazon around Leticia. Download offline maps before those legs.
How much data do you need in Colombia?
It depends on how you travel. Find your trip below, then pick the plan that matches. You can always top up in the app.
Classic first trip: Bogotá, Medellín, Cartagena
Two weeks, three cities, two internal flights.
Why data matters: Ride apps in every city, mobile boarding passes on Avianca or LATAM, Google Maps for calle-and-carrera addresses, and WhatsApp for every tour and hostel.
- 7 days
- 5 GB
- 14 days
- 10 GB
- 30 days
- 20 GB
Coffee region and Andes road trip
Salento, Filandia, Jardín, Guatapé and mountain roads in a rental car.
Why data matters: Waze for the passes, offline maps for the valleys, hotspot for a laptop at the finca, and photo uploads when you get back into 4G.
- 7 days
- 5 GB
- 14 days
- 10 GB
- 30 days
- 20 GB
Caribbean coast and Tayrona
Cartagena, Santa Marta, Minca, Palomino and beach days.
Why data matters: Booking beach huts and shuttles on WhatsApp, checking Tayrona entry rules and park closures, and streaming on long bus legs. Signal drops inside the park.
- 7 days
- 3 GB
- 14 days
- 10 GB
- 30 days
- 20 GB
Remote work month in Medellín or Bogotá
El Poblado, Laureles or Chapinero on the digital nomad visa route.
Why data matters: Zoom and Teams all day, Personal Hotspot when the coworking Wi-Fi wobbles, and a backup line that keeps working in a blackout.
- 7 days
- 20 GB
- 14 days
- Unlimited
- 30 days
- Unlimited
Backpacking and Spanish study
Six weeks of hostels, buses and language classes.
Why data matters: Overnight buses, Rappi orders, class materials, maps in new neighbourhoods and constant messaging with people you met yesterday.
- 7 days
- 10 GB
- 14 days
- 20 GB
- 30 days
- Unlimited
What your home carrier charges in Colombia
Daily roaming passes look small until you multiply them by the length of the trip. FairSIM plans for Colombia start at $6.99 and never bill per day.
Daily roaming passes from home carriers are the default alternative to an eSIM. Colombia sits outside the inclusive roaming zones of most UK and EU plans, so check your own tariff before you fly rather than assuming.
| Carrier | Roaming charge | FairSIM |
|---|---|---|
| AT&T International Day Pass (US) | $12 per day per line, $6 for each additional line | from $6.99, no daily fee |
| Verizon TravelPass (US) | $12 per day outside Mexico and Canada | from $6.99, no daily fee |
| T-Mobile International Pass (US) | $5 for 1 day and 512 MB, $35 for 10 days and 5 GB, $50 for 30 days and 15 GB | from $6.99, no daily fee |
| EE (UK) | Colombia is not in EE's inclusive European roaming zone; a Travel Data Pass applies in its wider zone, so confirm the daily price for Colombia on your plan | from $6.99, no daily fee |
| Vodafone UK | Colombia is outside the Roam-Free and Roam-Further lists on most plans, so standard rest-of-world rates or a global pass apply | from $6.99, no daily fee |
| Orange France (EU) | Colombia is outside the EU roam-like-home zone; Orange sells world passes instead, so check the Colombia rate before departure | from $6.99, no daily fee |
| Telstra International Day Pass (Australia) | A$10 per day for 2 GB in its Day Pass destinations; confirm Colombia is on the current list | from $6.99, no daily fee |
Carrier prices as published on their roaming pages at the time of writing. They change often; check your own plan before you fly.
How FairSIM works
- 1
Pick a destination and a plan
Choose the country or region and the data you need. The price you see is the price you pay.
- 2
Tap install
On iPhone (iOS 17.4+) the eSIM installs in one tap, no QR code. Do it at home while you still have Wi-Fi.
- 3
Land and connect
Turn on data roaming for the FairSIM line when you arrive. Your plan starts when it first connects.
Connectivity tips for Colombia
Install the eSIM over Wi-Fi at home and switch the line and data roaming on after you land. Do not leave it to the airport queue.
Fill in the Check-Mig form online in the 24 to 72 hours before you fly into Colombia and again before you fly out, and save the confirmation to your phone.
Follow the local rule of no dar papaya: do not walk around Bogotá or Medellín with your phone out. Check the map, pocket it, and book rides from inside a café or lobby.
Carry cash. Many restaurants, buses, small hotels and park entrances are cash only, and card machines fail often outside the cities.
Download offline maps for Tayrona, Cocora, La Guajira, Chocó and the Amazon before you go. Coverage there is patchy on any network.
Have two ride apps installed. Airport pickup rules change, and what works in Bogotá may not be the cheapest option in Cartagena.
Bogotá sits at about 2,640 m. Take the first day slowly, drink water, and expect your battery to drain faster in the cold evenings.
Keep your home SIM in the phone with its data roaming off so bank one-time codes still arrive by SMS.
Apps you will actually use
- Uber the most used ride app in Bogotá and Medellín; it operates in a legal grey zone, so drivers may ask you to sit in the front seat.
- DiDi widely used and often cheaper than Uber, with a taxi option in several cities.
- inDrive you name the fare and drivers accept or counter; popular on the coast and in smaller cities.
- Rappi the Colombian super app for food, groceries, pharmacy and cash delivery.
- WhatsApp how hostels, tour guides, drivers and restaurants actually talk to you.
- Google Maps the fix for calle and carrera addresses; download city and coffee-region areas offline.
- Waze better than Maps for live traffic in Bogotá and Medellín and for mountain detours.
- Moovit TransMilenio, Medellín metro and metrocable routes and timings.
Ride-hailing has been contested in Colombia for years, so apps occasionally change how pickups work, especially at airports. Have two installed. Check-Mig, the entry and exit form from Migración Colombia, is a web form rather than an app: fill it online in the 24 to 72 hours before each flight and keep the confirmation on your phone.
Can you rely on free Wi-Fi?
Wi-Fi is everywhere in Colombian cities and generally decent: hotels, cafés, malls, coworking spaces and the airports all have it, and Medellín and Bogotá are full of workable cafés. It thins out fast once you leave, and coffee fincas, Minca guesthouses and coastal hostels often share one slow connection among everyone. The bigger issue is practical: you need data on the street to call a ride, check a bus bay or confirm an address, and that is exactly when you are nowhere near a router. Treat Wi-Fi as a bonus for big downloads, not as your connection.
Local SIM card or eSIM in Colombia?
Claro, Movistar and Tigo all sell prepaid chips in Colombia, and you will find counters at El Dorado in Bogotá and Rionegro near Medellín as well as in every shopping centre. The chip itself is cheap, a few thousand pesos, and data packs typically run in the tens of thousands of pesos for a week or a month, so roughly $5 to $12 depending on the size. You need your passport, registration is done at the counter, and topping up means finding a store or using an app with a Colombian payment method.
The friction is the paperwork and the IMEI rule. Colombia's registry can block handsets that are not on the approved list, which is a problem visitors sometimes hit after inserting a local SIM, and sorting it out means a trip to an operator shop. A FairSIM eSIM is installed before you leave home, roams onto Tigo or Movistar as a visitor, keeps your home number active on the other line for bank codes, and needs no ID check, no top-up shop and no Spanish at a counter after a long flight.
Good to know before you land in Colombia
- Currency
- Colombian peso (COP); cash is still king outside malls and chains
- Plug type
- Type A and Type B (US flat pins)
- Voltage
- 110 V, 60 Hz
- Emergency number
- 123 for police, fire and ambulance
- Language
- Spanish; English is limited outside hotels and tourist areas
- Time zone
- UTC-5, no daylight saving
- Capital
- Bogotá
Colombia eSIM questions
Does eSIM work in Colombia?
Yes. An unlocked eSIM-capable phone connects to Tigo or Movistar with a travel eSIM. On iPhone that means XS, XR or newer; most recent Samsung Galaxy S and Google Pixel models also support eSIM.
Which network will my Colombia eSIM use?
Tigo or Movistar. Both run nationwide 4G LTE with 5G in the larger cities. The app shows which network each plan uses, and your phone picks the available one automatically.
Is there 5G in Colombia?
Yes, in the big cities. Commercial 5G started after the 2023 spectrum auction and is live in places like Bogotá, Medellín, Cali and Barranquilla, and expanding. Outside urban areas you should expect 4G LTE.
Do I need to register my phone's IMEI in Colombia?
Colombia keeps a national IMEI registry and operators can block unlisted handsets, which mainly affects visitors who buy a local prepaid chip. A roaming travel eSIM comes in as a visitor on the host network, so there is no registration step for you.
Can I use Personal Hotspot in Colombia?
Yes. Every FairSIM plan supports Personal Hotspot, with no separate cap on tethered data.
Do WhatsApp calls work in Colombia?
Yes. Colombia does not restrict internet calling, so WhatsApp voice and video calls, FaceTime and Zoom all work normally on the eSIM. WhatsApp is how most of the country communicates.
Should I install the eSIM before or after arriving?
Before. Install it over Wi-Fi at home, then turn the line and data roaming on when you land at El Dorado or Rionegro. Validity typically starts at the first connection to a Colombian network.
How much data do I need for a week or two in Colombia?
A week of cities, maps and ride apps usually lands around 3 to 5 GB. Two weeks across Bogotá, Medellín and the coast is more like 10 GB. If you work remotely or stream on long bus rides, go for a larger plan or unlimited.
Local SIM or travel eSIM for Colombia?
A local prepaid chip can be a little cheaper per gigabyte but needs your passport at a counter, a top-up routine and possibly IMEI registration. A FairSIM eSIM is set up before you fly, roams on Tigo or Movistar, and keeps your home number live for bank codes.
What is an eSIM?
A SIM card built into your phone. Instead of a plastic chip, you download a profile. Every iPhone since the XS has one next to the physical SIM slot, so your home number stays put while FairSIM supplies the data.
Is my phone compatible?
FairSIM works with eSIM-compatible, carrier-unlocked iPhones: the XS, XR and everything newer, on iOS 17.4 or later for the one-tap install with no QR code. iPhones bought in mainland China do not support eSIM at all, even when unlocked. Not sure yours is unlocked? Check Settings, General, About, Carrier Lock, or ask your carrier. The full list is on the How it works page.
When should I install my eSIM?
Before you travel, while you still have Wi-Fi. Installing does not start your plan; the validity typically starts when the eSIM first connects to a network at your destination.
Do FairSIM eSIMs come with a phone number?
No. FairSIM eSIMs are data-only by design, which keeps costs low. For calls and texts, your physical SIM stays active so you keep your existing number, and WhatsApp, FaceTime and iMessage work over data.
Traveling beyond Colombia?
Get your Colombia eSIM in the app
Plans from $6.99. Install before you fly, track your data live, and top up in seconds if you need more.
Download on theApp Store
iPhone XS or later · iOS 17.4+ for one-tap install
