Medellin eSIM
In Medellin you connect to Claro or Movistar, whichever is performing better where you are standing. The typical speed across the country is 38 Mbps. Your data starts working the moment you land, before you reach the immigration hall.
- Networks
- Claro and Movistar
- Typical speed in Colombia
- 38 Mbps typical, 9 Mbps at busy times
- 5G
- yes, non standalone
- Throttle
- None on metered plans
- Tethering
- Allowed on every plan
Plans that cover Medellin
| Data | Validity | Price per GB | Price | Buy |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 GB | Never expires | $9.89 | $9.89 | |
| 3 GB | Never expires | $6.30 | $18.89 | |
| 5 GBMost travellers | Never expires | $6.38 | $31.89 | |
| 10 GB | Never expires | $5.19 | $51.89 | |
| 20 GB | Never expires | $4.59 | $91.89 |
How Colombia compares across South America
- Regional typical speed
- 33.5 Mbps
- Upstream networks
- 2, Claro, Movistar
- 5G
- Yes, non standalone
- Next fastest nearby
- Uruguay, 48 Mbps
- Next slowest nearby
- Peru, 35 Mbps
- Cities with their own page
- 3: Bogota, Cartagena, Medellin
Landing at Jose Maria Cordova International Airport (MDE)
- Airport
- MDE / SKRG
- Distance
- 20 km from the centre of Medellin
- Also serves
- Olaya Herrera Airport (EOH)
Getting into Medellin
- Tunel de Oriente highway to Medellin (MDE), about 20 minutes. Runs through tunnels, where a signal drops
Underground and on the metro
Medellin Metro runs 2 lines. It opened in 1995. The operator does not publish whether the tunnels carry a mobile signal, so we do not claim either way.
Worth knowing about Medellin
- Medellin's international airport is not in Medellin: it sits in Rionegro, about 20 km southeast, over the mountain ridge from the city.
- The Tunel de Oriente, opened in 2019, cut the airport road journey from almost an hour to about 20 minutes - but it means the transfer now runs through a long mountain tunnel where a mobile signal can drop.
- The Medellin Metro is built at grade and on elevated viaduct, with no underground running, so trains stay in the open air across the whole network.
- The metro system also includes five Metrocable aerial cable-car lines feeding the hillside neighbourhoods, all of them above ground.
- A second airport, Olaya Herrera (EOH), sits inside the city itself and handles domestic and regional flights, so a Colombian connection may land you much closer to the centre than MDE.
- Medellin's metro lines A, B, T-A, H, J, K, M, O, P, 1 and 2 run from 4:30 am to 11 pm Monday to Saturday, and lines A, B, T-A, O, 1 and 2 from 5 am to 10 pm on Sundays and holidays.
- The Metrocable Arvi line L to Parque Arvi runs Tuesday to Saturday from 9 am to 6 pm and from 8:30 am on Sundays and holidays, and does not operate on the first working day of the week.
- Jose Maria Cordova airport, which serves Medellin, sits in the rural area of Sajonia in Rionegro and operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week, according to its operator Airplan.