Bucharest eSIM
In Bucharest you connect to Orange or Vodafone, whichever is performing better where you are standing. The typical speed across the country is 89 Mbps. Your data starts working the moment you land, before you reach the immigration hall.
- Networks
- Orange and Vodafone
- Typical speed in Romania
- 89 Mbps typical, 26 Mbps at busy times
- 5G
- yes, non standalone
- Throttle
- None on metered plans
- Tethering
- Allowed on every plan
Plans that cover Bucharest
| Data | Validity | Price per GB | Price | Buy |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 GB | Never expires | $5.89 | $5.89 | |
| 3 GB | Never expires | $2.63 | $7.89 | |
| 5 GBMost travellers | Never expires | $1.98 | $9.89 | |
| 10 GB | Never expires | $1.49 | $14.89 | |
| 20 GB | Never expires | $1.19 | $23.89 | |
| 50 GB | Never expires | $1.54 | $76.89 |
How Romania compares across Europe
- Regional typical speed
- 71 Mbps
- Upstream networks
- 2, Orange, Vodafone
- 5G
- Yes, non standalone
- Next fastest nearby
- Sweden, 91 Mbps
- Next slowest nearby
- Denmark, 88 Mbps
- Cities with their own page
- 3: Bucharest, Brasov, Cluj
Landing at Bucharest Henri Coandă International Airport (OTP)
- Airport
- OTP / LROP
- Distance
- 17 km from the centre of Bucharest
Getting into Bucharest
- CFR and Transferoviar Călători trains to Gara de Nord, running 24 hours a day every 40 minutes (OTP), about 20 minutes
- Express bus line 100 to Piața Unirii, running 24 hours a day (OTP)
Underground and on the metro
Bucharest Metro (Metroul din București) runs 5 lines. It opened in 1979. The operator does not publish whether the tunnels carry a mobile signal, so we do not claim either way.
Worth knowing about Bucharest
- The Bucharest Metro does not reach Henri Coandă airport; the M6 line to it is still under construction, with partial opening expected between 2026 and 2028.
- The airport does have a 24-hour rail link to Gara de Nord, every 40 minutes, taking about 20 to 25 minutes.
- The Bucharest Metro is almost entirely underground: as of 2023 only the stretch between Dimitrie Leonida and Tudor Arghezi on the M2 line runs on the surface.
- Orange is rolling out 5G+ in the Bucharest metro on platforms and inside the tunnels, with speeds quoted up to 1 Gbps and full coverage of the network targeted by the end of 2026.
- That rollout started as pilots at Preciziei and Pacii, then reached Piata Victoriei 1 and 2 and Aviatorilor, so underground coverage varies by station rather than being uniform.
- Surface transport takes a contactless bank card straight at the validator. Any Mastercard, Maestro or Visa issued anywhere in the world works, as does a phone or watch wallet.
- Tapping a bank card on a Bucharest surface validator charges the standard fare with no extra fee, and buys travel within a 90 minute window.
- The 24pay app activates tickets automatically once the card transaction is confirmed, so a ticket bought in the app is not validated on board and is shown to inspectors from the app history.
- Metro access gates also take contactless cards. BCR announced that any Mastercard or Visa issued anywhere in the world works, with no app and no local transport card needed.
- To pay for a second person at a metro gate you press the plus key on the turnstile screen before tapping the same card again.
- The metro is 80.1 km long with 64 stations and carried 142,783,000 passengers in 2023. Twelve more stations are under construction.
- Bucharest also runs 23 tram lines over 332.2 km of routes on 143.9 km of line, alongside two light rail lines.
- Romania has no mandatory SIM registration law in force. EDRi reports the Constitutional Court unanimously struck down a September 2019 registration ordinance on 18 February 2020, the second such ruling.
- Henri Coanda handled 17,001,578 passengers in 2025, up 6.61 percent on 2024, on two parallel 3,500 m runways.