Ethiopia eSIM

Data for Ethiopia on Ethio Telecom and Safaricom, from $14.89. It never expires, tethering is included, and refills land on the line you already have, with nothing new to install.

Networks: Ethio Telecom and Safaricom
Typical speed: 21 Mbps typical, 5 Mbps at busy times
5G: 4G only
Throttle: None on metered plans
Tethering: Allowed on every plan

An Orbislo eSIM for Ethiopia starts at $14.89 for 1 GB and runs on Ethio Telecom and Safaricom. Typical download speed is 21 Mbps, fine for maps and messaging, tight for video. Install the line for Ethiopia in one tap before you fly, turn on data roaming when you land, and the data never expires.

Plans for Ethiopia

Data plans for Ethiopia
Data	Validity	Price per GB	Price
1 GB	Never expires	$14.89	$14.89
3 GB	Never expires	$10.96	$32.89
5 GBMost travellers	Never expires	$9.98	$49.89
10 GB	Never expires	$8.39	$83.89

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 21 Mbps actually means in Ethiopia

Typical download speed on Orbislo in Ethiopia: 21 Mbps. That is below the Africa median of 30 Mbps, so plan around it rather than being surprised by it.

The tenth percentile is 5 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 Ethiopia on Ethio Telecom and Safaricom. 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 Ethiopia: 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.

A single carrier provider cannot make this move.

What data costs in Ethiopia

A 1 GB plan for Ethiopia starts at $14.89, which is $14.89 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 Ethiopia it means the effective cost is nearer $10.72 a gigabyte than $14.89.

Because nothing expires, the cheapest way to buy for Ethiopia 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 Ethiopia

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 Ethiopia and it attaches to Ethio Telecom.

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.

Getting a local SIM in Ethiopia

A visitor registering a SIM needs a valid passport plus a local address, which may be the hotel, and a number they can be reached on during the stay, and has to appear before the agent in person.

What is restricted in Ethiopia

Social media: Facebook, Telegram, TikTok and YouTube were blocked nationwide from 9 February 2023 amid a church split and calls for protest, and the block lasted 157 days until mid-July 2023. Only users on a VPN could reach them during that period.
Satellite phones: Bringing a satellite phone into or out of Ethiopia is illegal without prior approval from Ethiopian customs and the Information Network Security Agency. The same rule covers binoculars and drones, so leave them at home unless the permit is arranged first.

Worth knowing about Ethiopia

Ethiopia's SIM registration directive does not extend to cards issued by foreign operators, including users roaming on an Ethiopian network.
On 3 August 2023 the authorities ordered operators in the Amhara region to cut mobile and fixed internet and block WhatsApp, Facebook and X. Service returned to 19 Amhara towns including Bahir Dar and Gondar around 14 July 2024, after 346 days.
Ethiopia has also gone fully offline nationwide, most recently for 23 days from 30 June to 23 July 2020. Businesses that run on the internet, ride-hailing services among them, were badly restricted, so offline maps and saved bookings are worth carrying.
In June 2019 Ethio Telecom cut the whole country's internet several times during national school exams, followed by blocks on WhatsApp and Telegram and disrupted SMS. Exam season in June is a period when access has been restricted before.
The UK government warns that protests and strikes in Ethiopia can happen with little or no notice and can bring temporary closures of roads, internet and mobile networks, and it describes mobile networks as inconsistent and unreliable.
For emergencies in Ethiopia the UK government lists 911 for police and 907 for an ambulance in Addis Ababa. Save both numbers before you travel.
Beyond your passport, the SIM directive lets the seller record a recent photograph and any biometric data available. No one may register a SIM on your behalf, since proxy registration is banned except for a guardian registering a child.
The registration directive applies equally to built-in SIMs and SIM-enabled devices, so an eSIM from an Ethiopian operator cannot be activated until the owner's details are registered. A card left unused for six months is deactivated unless the owner has told the operator in advance that it will sit idle.
An Ethiopian SIM cannot simply be handed to someone else. Transferring a registered number requires an application to the operator, and the new holder must go through the full registration again with their own documents.
Operators pass every registration to the Ethiopian Communications Authority's central National Subscriber Registry within 72 hours. Nobody may access those records without the Authority's permission or a court order.

How Ethiopia compares across Africa

Regional typical speed: 29.5 Mbps
Upstream networks: 2, Ethio Telecom, Safaricom
5G: 4G only
Next fastest nearby: Madagascar, 22 Mbps
Next slowest nearby: Libya, 20.1 Mbps
Cities with their own page: 1: Addis Ababa

Cities in Ethiopia

Addis Ababa

Questions about Ethiopia

Will my phone work in Ethiopia?

If it supports eSIM and is not carrier locked, yes. We check your exact model before you pay and tell you plainly if it will not work, rather than taking the money and leaving you to find out on arrival.

Which network will I be on in Ethiopia?

Ethio Telecom or Safaricom. Orbislo moves you to whichever is performing better where you are standing, without asking you and without you noticing.

How fast is the data really?

Typical download speed is 21 Mbps, and 5 Mbps when the network is busy. The busy figure is the one to plan around: it is what you can expect when the cell is crowded.

Does the data expire?

No. There is no validity window on wallet gigabytes, and anything left over from a country pack returns to your wallet when the pack ends. This is the single largest difference between what you pay here and what you pay elsewhere.

Can I keep my normal phone number in Ethiopia?

Yes. The Orbislo profile is a second line, so your home number stays active for calls and texts on its own line. Turn data roaming off for the home line and on for Orbislo, and set up wifi calling before you fly so bank codes still reach you.

Can I tether a laptop?

Yes, on every plan, at the same allowance as your phone data and at no extra cost. At 21 Mbps expect a tethered laptop in Ethiopia to be fine for email and documents and strained by video calls.

What if I run out of data in Ethiopia?

Customers, meaning anyone who bought from Orbislo in the last 12 months or holds a subscription, get at least 100 MB of free rescue data once a calendar month, loaded onto the line they are using in Ethiopia when the balance runs out. It exists so you are never in the position of needing data in order to buy data. Topping up takes about ten seconds and installs nothing.

Is Orbislo cheaper than the alternatives in Ethiopia?

At $14.89 a gigabyte, the number that matters is what the data you actually use costs you. Expiry destroys 20 to 35 percent of a pack elsewhere. Ours never expires, so on cost per gigabyte used we are ahead almost everywhere.

More of Africa

Angola$32.89500 MB Burkina Faso$16.89500 MB Benin$15.89500 MB Botswana31 Mbps typical$18.89500 MB DR Congo$12.89500 MB Central African Republic$16.891 GB

Africa regional plan Ethiopia coverage See all destinations