Apia eSIM
In Apia you connect to Digicel or Vodafone, whichever is performing better where you are standing. The typical speed across the country is 21 Mbps. Your data starts working the moment you land, before you reach the immigration hall.
- Networks
- Digicel and Vodafone
- Typical speed in Samoa
- 21 Mbps typical, 5 Mbps at busy times
- 5G
- 4G only
- Throttle
- None on metered plans
- Tethering
- Allowed on every plan
Plans that cover Apia
| Data | Validity | Price per GB | Price | Buy |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 GB | Never expires | $12.89 | $12.89 | |
| 3 GB | Never expires | $8.63 | $25.89 | |
| 5 GBMost travellers | Never expires | $7.58 | $37.89 | |
| 10 GB | Never expires | $6.39 | $63.89 |
How Samoa compares across Oceania
- Regional typical speed
- 30.5 Mbps
- Upstream networks
- 2, Digicel, Vodafone
- 5G
- 4G only
- Next fastest nearby
- Fiji, 22 Mbps
- Next slowest nearby
- Vanuatu, 20 Mbps
- Cities with their own page
- 1: Apia
Landing at Faleolo International Airport (APW)
- Airport
- APW / NSFA
- Distance
- 40 km from the centre of Apia
- Also serves
- Fagaliʻi Airport (FGI)
Getting into Apia
- Public bus from the main road outside Faleolo terminal to Apia (APW)
- Taxi from Faleolo International Airport to Apia (APW)
Worth knowing about Apia
- Samoa's international airport, Faleolo, is 40 km west of Apia, an unusually long transfer for a small island capital.
- Fagaliʻi Airport, close to Apia, closed on safety grounds on 31 December 2019 and only reopened on 29 May 2023, now flying to Pago Pago.
- Samoa moved across the International Date Line at the end of 2011, skipping Friday 30 December entirely and switching from UTC-11 to UTC+13.
- Samoa is now three hours ahead of Sydney, having previously been 21 hours behind it.
- The Tui-Samoa submarine cable spans more than 1,470 km and lands at Apia and Savaii in Samoa, at Suva in Fiji and at Wallis and Futuna. It reached Apia on 1 November 2017.
- Tui-Samoa is owned and operated by Samoa Submarine Cable Company Limited, which also holds Samoa's wholesale internet and submarine cable landing station role under the Office of the Regulator.
- Samoa is also on the Manatua One Polynesia Fibre Cable, about 3,600 km long and declared ready for service in July 2020, linking Samoa with Niue, the Cook Islands and French Polynesia.
- The Manatua consortium is made up of Samoa Submarine Cable Company, Avaroa Cable of the Cook Islands, Telecom Niue and OPT of French Polynesia, one member per country served.
- Under the Telecommunications Act 2005 no telecommunications service may be provided to the public in Samoa without a licence, and any provider using radio spectrum must hold both a spectrum licence and a telecommunications licence.
- Samoa's country code is 685, dialled after the international prefix from outside the country. Mobile numbers are seven digits starting with 7 or 8, and the mobile country code is 549.
- Samoa's national numbering plan sets aside the three digit number 999 as a single emergency number covering police, fire and ambulance, with a central operator redirecting calls.
- Vodafone Samoa sells a Paradise SIM aimed at international tourists and visitors, and states that a valid international ID or a boarding pass is required for registration.
- The Samoa Airport Authority states that public buses to Apia run regularly from the main road outside the terminal, a short walk away, for a fare of WST 5, and that a taxi to Apia costs about WST 80.
- Samoa Tourism Authority puts the airport bus fare to Apia at about ST$5 for daytime arrivals before 5pm, and a taxi at ST$60 to ST$80, with cash in local tala required either way.
- Samoa switched to driving on the left on 7 September 2009, so that residents could buy cheaper right hand drive vehicles from Australia, New Zealand and Japan.
- Faleolo International Airport has a single runway of 3,000 by 45 metres.