Bolivia eSIM
Data for Bolivia on Entel and Tigo, from $18.89. It never expires, tethering is included, and refills land on the line you already have, with nothing new to install.
- Networks
- Entel and Tigo
- Typical speed
- 27 Mbps typical, 6 Mbps at busy times
- 5G
- 4G only
- Throttle
- None on metered plans
- Tethering
- Allowed on every plan
Plans for Bolivia
| Data | Validity | Price per GB | Price | Buy |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 GB | Never expires | $18.89 | $18.89 | |
| 3 GB | Never expires | $14.96 | $44.89 | |
| 5 GBMost travellers | Never expires | $12.98 | $64.89 |
Every plan works the moment you land. Unused data returns to your wallet when the line closes, and customers get at least 100 MB of free rescue data a month even at zero balance.
What 27 Mbps actually means in Bolivia
Typical download speed on Orbislo in Bolivia: 27 Mbps. That is below the South America median of 34 Mbps, so plan around it rather than being surprised by it.
The tenth percentile is 6 Mbps. That gap between the median and the floor is normal and it is where the frustration lives: the connection is quick most of the time and noticeably slow in the busiest few percent of moments, typically at transport hubs at peak hour.
Maps, messaging, ride hailing and payment apps all work without complaint. Video calls connect but will drop resolution, and streaming is better set to standard definition than left on automatic. Tethering a laptop works for email and documents rather than for calls.
Which networks you will be on
Orbislo carries traffic in Bolivia on Entel and Tigo. Your phone is not tied to one of them. When the network you are attached to congests or drops, the profile moves you to the other, and it happens without a prompt and without you noticing anything except that the connection kept working.
This matters more than the headline speed. Almost every travel eSIM sold today resells a single upstream agreement per country, so when that one network has a bad hour you have a bad hour with it and your only option is to buy a second eSIM from somebody else. A profile with more than one network behind it can make a decision you never see.
5G in Bolivia: 4G only. A well provisioned 4G cell comfortably outruns a congested 5G one, which is why the figure above is throughput rather than a network generation.
What data costs in Bolivia
A 100 MB plan for Bolivia starts at $0.63, which is $0.01 a gigabyte. That is the number to compare between providers, because a headline price attached to a different allowance tells you nothing.
The comparison most providers would rather you did not run is cost per gigabyte actually used. Independent surveys of travel data put the share of purchased data lost to expiry between 20 and 35 percent, because a plan that expires on day thirty deletes what you did not get through. Orbislo data has no expiry date, so the gigabyte you paid for is still there on the next trip. At the same headline price that is 25 to 40 percent more usable data, and in Bolivia it means the effective cost is nearer $0.00 a gigabyte than $0.01.
Because nothing expires, the cheapest way to buy for Bolivia is to buy slightly less than you think you need and top up if you run out. Topping up takes about ten seconds and does not involve installing anything. Buying too much is the expensive mistake everywhere else and merely a neutral one here.
Landing in Bolivia
Install before you fly, on your home wifi. The profile downloads while you still have a connection you trust, then sits dormant until you land in Bolivia and it attaches to Entel.
On landing there is one thing to check: data roaming has to be switched on for the Orbislo line. It is off by default on both iOS and Android, and it has nothing to do with roaming charges here, because the plan is prepaid and there is no bill to run up. Turn it on for the Orbislo line and leave it off for your home line, and your home number keeps working for calls and bank codes without costing anything.
Coverage across Bolivia
The figures above cover Bolivia as a whole, and a national figure hides real variation. We publish separate figures for La Paz and Uyuni, because the difference between a capital and a coastal town is usually larger than the difference between two countries.
Outside the cities, coverage follows the same pattern it does everywhere: the main roads and the tourist corridors are well served, and it thins in the mountains and on the water. No travel eSIM changes that, because it is the same physical network the local population uses. What a multi network profile changes is which of the available towers you get to use.
Getting a local SIM in Bolivia
Tigo activates a new prepaid line through registration: the holder enters the line number, confirms a six digit code sent by SMS, then photographs the front and back of an identity card and confirms the personal details before the registration is accepted.
What is restricted in Bolivia
- Apps and internet calling: Internet providers in Bolivia may not block, interfere with, discriminate against or restrict any lawful content, application or service, unless the regulator verifies a technical impossibility. That protection covers lawful calling and messaging apps used over mobile data.
- Scam reports: When a report on the regulator's Bloquea la Estafa platform is upheld, the operator cuts the fraudulent line for 90 days and permanently suspends the handset used with it. A holder who had no part in the fraud can file a claim with documents to have service restored.
- Border roaming: Bolivian mobile operators are required to take measures against inadvertent roaming in border zones, following instructions issued by the regulator, so a phone near the frontier is meant to stay on a Bolivian network.
Worth knowing about Bolivia
- Prepaid credit bought in Bolivia has to stay valid for at least sixty calendar days, and whatever is left when it expires is added to the next top up rather than lost.
- If Bolivian prepaid credit runs out and nothing is added, the line has to stay able to receive calls and to reach free and emergency numbers for a further thirty calendar days.
- Providers of voice over the internet in Bolivia have to give their users free access to the emergency services, at least across the area where the service was switched on.
- A Bolivian provider may not interrupt its network or service for more than 30 continuous minutes without the regulator's prior written approval and at least five days' notice to affected users. Outages longer than 12 hours must be compensated, except in cases of force majeure.
- On prepaid data sold by volume, unused data is added to the next package if the user buys the same or a similar package within two months, and every unused allowance is kept for at least two months.
- On Entel prepaid, how long credit stays valid depends on the top up: 0.50 to 49 bolivianos gives 60 days, 50 to 99 gives 90 days, and 100 bolivianos or more gives 150 days.
- Between 1 January and 17 July 2026 the regulator's anti fraud platform took 16,821 reports, leading to 13,516 handsets being blocked and 10,846 lines cut. The most common scam is a caller posing as staff of the victim's own mobile operator.
How Bolivia compares across South America
- Regional typical speed
- 33.5 Mbps
- Upstream networks
- 2, Entel, Tigo
- 5G
- 4G only
- Next fastest nearby
- Venezuela, 28.2 Mbps
- Next slowest nearby
- Guyana, 22 Mbps
- Cities with their own page
- 2: La Paz, Uyuni
