eSIM and SIM cards in Bangladesh

The tourist SIM

• Grameenphone sells a tourist SIM aimed at short visits, as a physical SIM or an eSIM.
• You need a valid passport and visa. That is the whole document list.
• The SIM itself is free, with data and call bundles starting around 1,499 taka.
• It is sold at over 40 Grameenphone centres and experience centres, concentrated in tourist areas rather than everywhere.

At the airport

• There is a Bangladeshi SIM card shop in front of the customs green channel at Dhaka, next to the car rental desks and the exchange banks, so you can be connected before you meet your driver.
• Free wifi is available in the arrivals baggage hall, which covers you while you sort the SIM out.

Practicalities

• Registration is in your own name against the passport. Expect biometric capture, so it has to be done by you in person.
• Keep the airport wifi or a roaming SIM as a fallback for the first hour. Dhaka is not a city to be standing outside working out a top-up.