Dominican Republic coverage

What the Dominican Republic numbers mean

Two numbers matter and only one of them is the one every seller quotes. The typical speed, 43 Mbps, tells you what a good moment looks like.

The tenth percentile, 10 Mbps, is the one that matters. It is the speed in the worst tenth of the day, when the cell above the station is full and everybody around you is on it too. A country with a high median and a low floor is a country that works beautifully right up until the moment you actually need it.

If the trip depends on video calls or tethering, plan around the busy figure rather than the typical one.

What happens in Dominican Republic when the network is busy

Congestion is not a fault, it is a Tuesday evening. The question is what your eSIM can do about it, and for most travel eSIMs the answer is nothing: one wholesale agreement per country, one network, and no way out except buying a second eSIM from somebody else while standing in the street.

Here, Orbislo traffic runs over Claro and Altice. When the network you are on degrades we move you to another one, mid trip, without you asking, and tell you afterwards rather than interrupting you at the time.

Mobile operators in Dominican Republic

• Claro: Claro, the trading name of Compañía Dominicana de Teléfonos, had 7,010,974 of the country's 11,003,354 active mobile lines at the end of 2025, a 63.7 percent share of the market.
• Altice: Altice Dominicana had 3,684,072 active mobile lines at the end of 2025, a 33.5 percent share, making it the second largest mobile network in the Dominican Republic.
• Viva: Viva, run by Trilogy Dominicana, had 308,308 active mobile lines at the end of 2025, a 2.8 percent share, and its mobile internet subscriptions fell by about 20 percent during the year.
• Viettel: In August 2026 the regulator awarded Viettel 240 MHz of spectrum on a 20 year concession: 40 MHz at 700 MHz, 100 MHz at 2.3 GHz and 100 MHz at 3.6 GHz. Viettel must set up a Dominican company to hold the licence.

5G in Dominican Republic

• In the 2021 5G auction Claro and Altice each won 70 MHz in the 3.5 GHz range. The regulator then rearranged the band so each holds 100 contiguous MHz: Claro from 3,300 to 3,400 MHz and Altice from 3,400 to 3,500 MHz.
• The 700 MHz blocks offered in the same 2021 auction drew no bids and were declared void, while Onemax and SATEL were moved within the 3.5 GHz band and 3,540 to 3,560 MHz was left free for a later award.
• Claro launched commercial 5G on 1 December 2021. Altice followed on 22 February 2022 in Santo Domingo's Colonial City and Santiago de los Caballeros, both on the 3.5 GHz band.
• In the 2026 spectrum auction Claro added 20 MHz in the 700 MHz band for the 15 years left on its concession, while the 30 MHz of AWS spectrum on offer drew no bids and was declared void.

Network notes for Dominican Republic

• Apple's carrier list shows both Claro and Altice supporting 5G, eSIM and VoLTE on iPhone in the Dominican Republic, with Wi-Fi Calling listed for Claro only. Viva does not appear on the list.
• Under the national roaming regulation, Resolution 070-2023, a provider without coverage in an area can carry its customers on a rival's network there at no extra charge to the user. The Constitutional Court upheld the rule in February 2025.
• In February 2025 a major fault left Viva customers without mobile data or internet for five consecutive days, and the regulator said it would require the company to compensate affected users.
• The 20 year concession contracts signed with the main providers include minimum expansion plans that require coverage to grow in remote areas with low network penetration.
• Active mobile internet accounts in the Dominican Republic rose from 7.2 million in 2020 to 8.9 million at the end of 2022, an increase of 24 percent.
• International submarine cables land at Punta Cana, Puerto Plata, Santo Domingo, Haina and Cacique, including ARCOS and SAm-1 from 2001, AMX-1 from 2014, the East West cable from 2011 and Firmina from 2025.