Bhutan SIM cards and internet

Two networks cover the whole country, both sell tourist SIMs over the counter at Paro airport, and a package with enough data to call home each evening runs Nu. 250 to Nu. 600. Here is what we tell Bhutan Tour Itinerary guests to sort out before their flight into Paro.

Do you need a SIM card in Bhutan?

For four or five nights with a guide beside you, you can get by without one. A licensed guide has to accompany you at all times in Bhutan, and your guide is on one of the same two networks you would be buying into. Paro airport also has free wifi across the arrival and departure terminals, on three networks: DoAT Free-Wifi, BT-Free Wifi and TashiCell (opens in a new tab) Free Wifi. You register through the browser.

For anything longer, or if someone at home expects to hear from you every evening, buy one. The Department of Tourism (opens in a new tab) gives the same advice, recommending a guest SIM for “more convenient access to data and a more reliable internet connection” rather than leaning on hotel wifi.

B-Mobile or TashiCell: which network?

Bhutan Telecom (opens in a new tab) is state-owned and sells under the brand B-Mobile. Tashi InfoComm trades as TashiCell and has been the private alternative since 2007. That is the entire market.

At the regulator’s June 2026 count, BICMA put Bhutan Telecom on 521,281 mobile subscribers and TashiCell on 309,730, roughly 831,000 between them.

Ignore anything you read about Bhutan being a 3G country. The same figures show 419,681 4G subscribers on Bhutan Telecom and 211,868 on TashiCell, against about 15,000 left on 3G. Both operators switched on 5G in December 2021 and it is still the minority: 39,372 subscribers on Bhutan Telecom, 86,053 on TashiCell.

Neither network is clearly better for a visitor in the main valleys. TashiCell sells the unlimited tourist packages. Bhutan Telecom lets you book the SIM before you land.

Planning a trip? Ask us about your dates

Where to buy a tourist SIM

Both operators run SIM counters in the arrival building at Paro International Airport, and the Department of Tourism also points visitors to the airport’s visitor information centre. Bring a copy of your passport (Bhutanese residents show an original CID instead), fill in a short form, and allow 10 to 15 minutes including activation. Pay in Ngultrum cash rather than counting on a card, for the reasons in our money and payments guide.

Three ways to end up with a SIM:

1. At the airport counter when you land.
2. Before you fly. Bhutan Telecom pre-books tourist SIMs through its eKYC portal at bookyoursim.bt.bt.
3. Through your guide. Both operators keep branch offices around the country, and ours will collect a SIM while you are at lunch.

Save the two helplines: 1600 for Bhutan Telecom, 7700 for TashiCell, both 24 hours. On a B-Mobile prepaid SIM, dial *170# for your main balance and the megabytes left in your package.

Do it at Paro on arrival if you can. It is the one place where both counters sit side by side, with your guide there to read the package names with you.

What a tourist SIM costs in Ngultrum

These are the prices Paro airport and TashiCell publish at the time of writing. They move, so read the table as the shape of the market, not a quote.

The B-Mobile packages carry Nu. 100 to Nu. 200 of talk and SMS credit on top. The TashiCell ones carry Nu. 50 to Nu. 100.

TashiCell’s own tourist page lists a slightly different set: Nu. 300 for 2,048 MB and 100 minutes over 14 days, Nu. 500 for 3,072 MB and 200 minutes over a month, and unlimited data at Nu. 1,100 for 7 days or Nu. 1,900 for 14. Tax of 5% is added to both the talktime and the data. Bhutan Telecom lists tourist SIM options from Nu. 100 up to Nu. 1,900.

Two details that save money. Out-of-bundle data on TashiCell is charged at Nu. 0.0004 per KB, about Nu. 0.41 per MB, so top up before you run dry. And a TashiCell SIM stays active for a month after the package expires, so an extended trip can recharge the same number instead of starting again.

Can you use an eSIM in Bhutan?

Yes, from both operators. TashiCell sells eSIM, converts a physical SIM to eSIM online, supports up to 10 profiles on one handset and lists compatibility from the iPhone 11, iPad Air 3rd generation, Samsung Galaxy S20 and Google Pixel 2 onward, with 5% GST applied. Bhutan Telecom offers eSIM as well and asks you to check compatibility in your device settings before you activate.

We can only speak for what the two Bhutanese operators sell themselves. If you arrive with an eSIM bought through an app at home, test it in the arrivals hall on the airport wifi, while both counters are still a few steps away.

Coverage: the valleys, the passes and the treks

4G is steady where you will spend most of your time: Paro, Thimphu, Punakha, Wangdue, Phuentsholing and the Bumthang towns. On the remote valley roads in between it thins to patchy 3G or nothing.

Above roughly 3,500 m (11,500 ft), plan as though there is no signal. Druk Path, Jomolhari and the Snowman have none or close to none for most of their length. Before one of our treks, download offline maps while you are still in the valley and tell people at home which day you walk back out.

Hotel wifi, plugs and power cuts

Most hotels have wifi. Expect something like 5–20 Mbps at the luxury properties, 2–5 Mbps at standard hotels and under 2 Mbps at rural farmstays, at its worst in the evening when everyone is back from sightseeing on the same line. That hour is the real argument for a local SIM.

Power is 230 V at 50 Hz. Sockets are type D, F and G, sometimes two standards in one room, and the Department of Tourism tells visitors to carry adaptors for the British three-square-pin (G), the European two-round-pin (C) and the Indian three-thick-round-pin (D). One universal adaptor covers all three. Ours goes in the bag with everything else on our packing list.

Cuts do happen. Bhutan Power Corporation publishes a live outage dashboard for planned and unplanned cuts and runs a toll-free fault line on 1250. Charge camera batteries and power banks when you get in from the day, not at bedtime.

Does WhatsApp work, and how much data do you need?

WhatsApp works in Bhutan. So do FaceTime and ordinary video calls. Nothing is blocked at the network level here, so what limits you is signal and allowance, not censorship.

Budget by the kind of call. WhatsApp text costs about 1 to 5 MB an hour. A WhatsApp or FaceTime video call burns roughly 300 to 500 MB an hour. That is why 3 to 5 GB covers a normal seven-day trip with a call home every evening, and why the 1 GB package does not.

Your home SIM will probably register on arrival. TashiCell currently holds roaming agreements with 94 partner networks, AT&T, Verizon, Rogers and Fido among them. You pay your own operator’s rate, so look it up before you fly. For five days of maps and messaging, roaming is sometimes simpler than the counter.

It does not work in reverse. Outbound roaming on a TashiCell number is postpaid only and needs a refundable security deposit of Nu. 10,000, so the prepaid tourist SIM you buy in Paro stops being useful the moment you leave Bhutan.

Ask us before you fly

Tell us which phone you carry and whether you have to work while you are here, and we will pick the package and have your guide collect it at Paro. If the route is still open, our tours show where you would be on each day, which is the honest way to choose between 1 GB and 5. Send us the details through our enquiry form.