Male eSIM
In Male you connect to Dhiraagu or Ooredoo, whichever is performing better where you are standing. The typical speed across the country is 47 Mbps. Your data starts working the moment you land, before you reach the immigration hall.
- Networks
- Dhiraagu and Ooredoo
- Typical speed in Maldives
- 47 Mbps typical, 11 Mbps at busy times
- 5G
- yes, non standalone
- Throttle
- None on metered plans
- Tethering
- Allowed on every plan
Plans that cover Male
| Data | Validity | Price per GB | Price | Buy |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 GB | Never expires | $24.89 | $24.89 | |
| 3 GB | Never expires | $19.96 | $59.89 | |
| 5 GBMost travellers | Never expires | $18.58 | $92.89 |
How Maldives compares across Asia
- Regional typical speed
- 42.95 Mbps
- Upstream networks
- 2, Dhiraagu, Ooredoo
- 5G
- Yes, non standalone
- Next fastest nearby
- Kazakhstan, 51 Mbps
- Next slowest nearby
- India, 46 Mbps
- Cities with their own page
- 1: Male
Landing at Velana International Airport (MLE)
- Airport
- MLE / VRMM
- SIM on arrival
- SIM counters or vending in the terminalOoredoo Maldives has a shop and a self service kiosk at the airport where a tourist SIM can be collected or bought.
Getting into Male
- Sinamale (China-Maldives Friendship) Bridge from Hulhule airport island to Male (MLE)
- Airport-Male passenger ferry across the channel (MLE)
Worth knowing about Male
- Velana International Airport is on Hulhule, a separate island from Male; until the Sinamale Bridge opened in 2018 the only link was a ferry.
- The 1.39 km Sinamale Bridge, opened in August 2018, was the first inter-island bridge in the Maldives and now carries road traffic between Male, Hulhule and Hulhumale.
- Male is the most densely populated city in the world, packing about 212,000 people into 1.9 square kilometres.
- The airport has four water runways for seaplanes alongside its single asphalt runway, because most resort transfers continue by seaplane or fast boat.
- The Communications Authority of Maldives caps a foreign national at three mobile numbers from each service provider, under the SIM regulation that took effect on 24 August 2023.
- Ooredoo Maldives sells tourist SIMs from a shop and a self service kiosk inside Velana International Airport, and sells an eSIM that can be downloaded before you fly.
- Ooredoo's tourist plans start at USD 40 for 20 GB of data, and a USD 100 plan sold only at the airport shop comes with a MiFi device.
- Velana's new passenger terminal opened in July 2025 and is built for 7.5 million passengers a year, against the one million the old terminal was designed for.
- The airport's asphalt runway 18/36 is 3,400 m long and lets the airport take 21 flights an hour, against eight an hour on the runway it replaced.
- A separate seaplane terminal and dock opened in October 2022 with room for more than 100 seaplanes and around 300 flights on an average day.
- Male drinks desalinated water. The waterworks pumps brackish water from wells 50 to 60 m deep, because the island has no fresh surface water.
- Male's minibus network is three routes, the Orchid R10, the Ameenee R11 and the Sosun R12, with 41 stops between them.
- Hulhumale, the reclaimed island beyond the airport, has been settled since 2004 and now forms part of the capital's administrative area.
- The Greater Male Connectivity Project, or Thilamale Bridge, is a 6.74 km link from Male through Villingili and Gulhifalhu to Thilafushi, with 3.6 km of it bridge or viaduct over water.
- Maldivian international internet has historically run through Sri Lanka and India. The country joined the SMW6 consortium to build its first directly owned submarine cable.