Arusha eSIM
In Arusha you connect to Vodacom or Airtel, whichever is performing better where you are standing. The typical speed across the country is 24 Mbps. Your data starts working the moment you land, before you reach the immigration hall.
- Networks
- Vodacom and Airtel
- Typical speed in Tanzania
- 24 Mbps typical, 5 Mbps at busy times
- 5G
- 4G only
- Throttle
- None on metered plans
- Tethering
- Allowed on every plan
Plans that cover Arusha
| Data | Validity | Price per GB | Price | Buy |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 GB | Never expires | $13.89 | $13.89 | |
| 3 GB | Never expires | $9.96 | $29.89 | |
| 5 GBMost travellers | Never expires | $9.18 | $45.89 | |
| 10 GB | Never expires | $7.69 | $76.89 |
How Tanzania compares across Africa
- Regional typical speed
- 29.5 Mbps
- Upstream networks
- 2, Vodacom, Airtel
- 5G
- 4G only
- Next fastest nearby
- Nigeria, 26 Mbps
- Next slowest nearby
- Zambia, 24 Mbps
- Cities with their own page
- 3: Zanzibar, Arusha, Dar es Salaam
Landing at Kilimanjaro International Airport (JRO)
- Airport
- JRO / HTKJ
- Distance
- 60 km from the centre of Arusha
- Wifi on arrival
- Free wifi in the terminalThe airport's own site says free Wi-Fi covers the terminal building, that you select Kia Hotspot, and that you don't need a password. It asks users to avoid large downloads or streaming.
- SIM on arrival
- SIM counters or vending in the terminalThe airport lists a mobile services point offering new mobile phone line registration and mobile money. It states the service is available after the passenger building, near the car parking area, so it is outside the terminal.
- Also serves
- Arusha Airport (ARK)
Getting into Arusha
- Road transfer from Kilimanjaro International Airport to Arusha (JRO)
- Airport taxis at Kilimanjaro International (JRO)
Worth knowing about Arusha
- Kilimanjaro International Airport is about 60 km east of Arusha, roughly halfway to Moshi, so the long-haul arrival is followed by a substantial road transfer.
- Arusha Airport, in the west of the city, is a domestic-only field handling around 87,000 passengers a year; safari and bush flights to Zanzibar, Dar es Salaam and the northern circuit leave from there, not from Kilimanjaro.
- Kilimanjaro International is the largest airport in northern Tanzania and the gateway to Kilimanjaro National Park, so it is the arrival point for both the mountain and the Arusha safari circuit.
- Free Wi-Fi at Kilimanjaro International is called Kia Hotspot. The airport's own page says the service is free of charge and you don't need a password, so no local number or SMS code is involved.
- Kilimanjaro International lists a mobile services counter handling new mobile phone line registration and mobile money. It sits after the passenger building near the car parking area, not inside arrivals.
- Tanzania's 2025 SIM registration rules, Government Notice No. 59 of 31 January 2025, define a short term visitor as a non citizen who is not a diplomat and expects to stay in Tanzania for no more than four months.
- Under regulation 12, a short term visitor hands over a copy of their travel document and the operator registers the SIM biometrically by verifying the visitor's fingerprints through the Immigration Department system. The SIM is issued in the visitor's name.
- The same rule ties the line to the visa. A visitor's SIM stays live only for the period the visitor is permitted to stay in Tanzania, and the operator extends it only after re checking the visitor's details with Immigration.
- Regulation 12(2) covers the fallback. If the visitor's biometric or passport data is not in the immigration database, or that database is unreachable, fingerprints are not taken, the operator keeps a copy of the passport, and the visitor may register only one line.
- Regulation 35 caps an individual at one SIM per mobile network for voice, SMS and internet, plus up to five per network for machine to machine use.
- The regulator TCRA states in its consumer FAQ that no charge may be levied on the user for biometric SIM registration, and that you can confirm your line is fully registered by dialling *106#.
- Arusha has its own internet exchange point, the Arusha IXP, one of six run by the Tanzania Internet Service Providers Association. TISPA says TCRA initially funded the Arusha facility.
- Arusha is the headquarters of the East African Community, whose secretariat sits at EAC Close off Afrika Mashariki Road. The bloc has eight partner states since Somalia joined fully in March 2024.
- Arusha sits at about 1,400 m on the southern slopes of Mount Meru, on the eastern edge of the eastern branch of the Great Rift Valley, and had 617,631 residents at the 2022 census.
- Arusha hosted the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda from 1994 to 2015 and now holds a branch of the UN International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals.
Sources for this page
Other cities in Tanzania we cover
- Zanzibar
- 418 km from Arusha, nearest airport ZNZ
- Dar es Salaam
- 479 km from Arusha, nearest airport DAR