Kuala Lumpur eSIM
In Kuala Lumpur you connect to Maxis or Celcom, whichever is performing better where you are standing. The typical speed across the country is 61 Mbps. Your data starts working the moment you land, before you reach the immigration hall.
- Networks
- Maxis and Celcom
- Typical speed in Malaysia
- 61 Mbps typical, 18 Mbps at busy times
- 5G
- yes, non standalone
- Throttle
- None on metered plans
- Tethering
- Allowed on every plan
Plans that cover Kuala Lumpur
| Data | Validity | Price per GB | Price | Buy |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 GB | Never expires | $5.89 | $5.89 | |
| 3 GB | Never expires | $2.96 | $8.89 | |
| 5 GBMost travellers | Never expires | $2.18 | $10.89 | |
| 10 GB | Never expires | $1.59 | $15.89 | |
| 20 GB | Never expires | $1.19 | $23.89 | |
| 50 GB | Never expires | $0.94 | $46.89 |
How Malaysia compares across Asia
- Regional typical speed
- 42.95 Mbps
- Upstream networks
- 2, Maxis, Celcom
- 5G
- Yes, non standalone
- Next fastest nearby
- Japan, 74 Mbps
- Next slowest nearby
- Brunei, 58 Mbps
- Cities with their own page
- 3: Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Langkawi
Landing at Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) (KUL)
- Airport
- KUL / WMKK
- Distance
- 45 km from the centre of Kuala Lumpur
- Wifi on arrival
- Free wifi in the terminalFree Wi-Fi across public areas of both terminals, with sessions capped at 240 minutes.
- SIM on arrival
- SIM counters or vending in the terminalMobile operator counters (Maxis/Hotlink, CelcomDigi) are in the arrival halls near baggage reclaim.
- Also serves
- Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport (Subang) (SZB)
Getting into Kuala Lumpur
- KLIA Ekspres non-stop to KL Sentral (KUL), about 28 minutes
Underground and on the metro
Klang Valley Integrated Transit System (Rapid KL) runs 12 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 Kuala Lumpur
- KLIA is about 45 km south of Kuala Lumpur; the KLIA Ekspres covers the 57 km of track non-stop in 28 minutes from Terminal 1 and 33 minutes from Terminal 2.
- Malaysian prepaid SIMs bought by tourists are capped at three months validity and require an original passport at registration, with no photocopies accepted.
- Airport Wi-Fi sessions at KLIA are limited to four hours, which is shorter than many long layovers there.
- KLIA Ekspres runs every 20 minutes all day, including weekends and public holidays, and the hop between KLIA Terminal 1 and Terminal 2 takes three minutes.
- The operator lists free 5G wifi among the onboard features of KLIA Ekspres trains, so the ride into the city is covered even before you have a local SIM.
- KLIA Transit is the stopping service on the same track, calling at Salak Tinggi, Putrajaya and Cyberjaya and Bandar Tasik Selatan, and taking 39 minutes between KL Sentral and KLIA Terminal 2.
- KLIA Transit runs every 15 minutes in weekday peaks and every 30 minutes off peak and at weekends, so it is the thinner option late in the evening.
- You need not buy an airport train ticket in advance: the operator says you can use a credit card or a Touch n Go card and tap directly at the gate before boarding and on exit.
- Malaysia's regulator caps prepaid registration at five SIM cards per customer, a limit service providers and their representatives must apply.
- MCMC requires prepaid registration through a secure automated platform such as optical character recognition, biometrics or a MyKad reader. Manual registration by dealers over SMS is no longer allowed.
- Any Touch n Go card pays for Rapid KL services, not just the MyRapid version, and the cashless fare rate is lower than the cash fare rate.
- The MRT Kajang Line runs 9.5 km of its 47 km underground beneath central Kuala Lumpur, and opened in two phases, in December 2016 and July 2017.
- A distributed antenna system carries 2G, 3G and 4G for multiple operators through the Kajang Line's underground stations and tunnels, so the signal survives the underground stretch.
- The Klang Valley network reaches 216 stations over 593.3 km, but the airport express lines run their own ticketing and integrate only with each other.