Cusco eSIM
In Cusco you connect to Claro or Movistar, whichever is performing better where you are standing. The median across the country is 35 Mbps. Your data starts working the moment you land, before you reach the immigration hall.
- Networks
- Claro and Movistar
- Real speed in Peru
- 35 Mbps median, 8 Mbps for the slowest tenth708 travellers across Peru, rolling 90 days
- 5G
- 4G only
- Throttle
- None on metered plans
- Tethering
- Allowed on every plan
Plans that cover Cusco
| 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 | $5.18 | $25.89 | |
| 10 GB | Never expires | $4.39 | $43.89 | |
| 20 GB | Never expires | $4.04 | $80.89 |
How Peru compares across South America
- Speed rank
- 5 of 10 destinations we sell in South America
- Regional median
- 34.5 Mbps
- Consistency
- The slowest tenth still reaches 23 percent of the median
- Upstream networks
- 2, Claro, Movistar
- 5G
- 4G only
- Next fastest nearby
- Colombia, 38 Mbps
- Next slowest nearby
- Ecuador, 34 Mbps
- Cities with their own page
- 3: Lima, Cusco, Arequipa
- tenth percentile
- 8 Mbps
- Behind these figures
- 708 travellers, rolling 90 days
Landing at Alejandro Velasco Astete International Airport (CUZ)
- Airport
- CUZ / SPZO
- Distance
- 4 km from the centre of Cusco
Getting into Cusco
- Authorised airport taxis and door-to-door shuttle services (CUZ)
Worth knowing about Cusco
- Cusco's airport sits at 3,310 m above sea level and only about 3.7 km from the historic centre, effectively inside the city.
- The city itself lies at around 3,400 m above sea level.
- There is no railway station at the airport: travellers heading for Machu Picchu must take a taxi to Wanchaq, San Pedro or Poroy station.
- A replacement airport at Chinchero is under construction, after which Velasco Astete is due to close.
- OSIPTEL Resolution 000135-2025-CD, article 8.1, says a foreign national must take out a Peruvian mobile service in person at a centre or point of sale, after biometric verification against the Migraciones database.
- The same OSIPTEL resolution makes it a breach for an operator to activate a line for a foreign national through any channel other than a service centre, or without that biometric check first.
- A Peruvian prepaid line that carries no incoming or outgoing voice or data traffic within three calendar days of activation must be cut off by the operator, so a SIM bought and left unused can die.
- Article 10.1 limits an individual to at most one mobile service per operator per calendar month, whatever the payment type and whatever channel is used. Lines gained through number portability are excluded.
- OSIPTEL and Migraciones agreed a bulk identity cross check of up to 1,594,327 foreign mobile subscriber records, with correction or disconnection where the data does not match.
- PeruRail lists eight stations around Cusco. Besides San Pedro, Wánchaq and Poroy it uses Urubamba and Pachar in the Sacred Valley, plus Hidroeléctrica at rail kilometre 122 and Machu Picchu Pueblo.
- Inca Rail has no station in Cusco at all. It sells from offices at Portal de Panes 105 on the Plaza de Armas and Av. El Sol 843, and its bimodal service buses passengers about two hours to Ollantaytambo.
- CORPAC records Velasco Astete as having a single asphalt runway, 10 and 28, measuring 3,400 by 45 metres, at an elevation of 3,310 metres or 10,860 feet.
- The Cusco passenger terminal is small for the traffic it takes. CORPAC puts it at two floors and about 8,306.80 square metres, with 18 check in counters and 322 seats.