eSIM and SIM cards in Lebanon

Buying a line

• Alfa and touch are the only two mobile operators, and both are state-owned and managed on behalf of the ministry, so shopping around gets you less than it would elsewhere.
• A new Alfa prepaid line costs 7 US dollars excluding VAT and comes with 1 dollar of credit and an initial validity of 10 days, within which you recharge to keep the number alive.
• The tariffs are published in dollars, which tells you most of what the Money section says: Alfa's own bundles run from about 4 dollars to 17 dollars a month depending on the data allowance.
• A foreigner must present a valid passport showing the entry visa, or a valid residence permit, to subscribe. That is Alfa's published requirement, and it is another reason to make sure you actually received the entry stamp at the airport.

Before you have a local number

• Airport wifi is free for one hour within any 72 hours, so set up anything that needs a login before you fly rather than at the kerb.
• Save your embassy's number, your insurer's line and your accommodation's address offline. A contact that lives in the cloud is not a contact during a power cut.

The thing that actually breaks your connection

• The grid does not carry the country. Power cuts are routine, most businesses run on generators, and Canada's advice notes that outages can affect telecommunications as well as banking. A charged phone and a power bank matter more here than the speed of the network.
• Keep the phone charged deliberately, not incidentally. Both governments make the same point about being able to call for help after dark.