eSIM and SIM cards in Macao

The local options

• CTM, Hutchison Telecom (3) and China Telecom (Macau) are the three networks. All sell prepaid tourist SIMs at the airport, the ferry terminals and their own shops.
• If you are coming from Hong Kong, check what you already have. The csl tourist SIM - HK$88 for 7 days, HK$118 for 15 - carries an allowance shared between Hong Kong and Macao, so a two-city trip often needs no second SIM at all.
• A mainland Chinese SIM does not roam here on a domestic plan. Macao is foreign to it, exactly as your passport is.

An eSIM instead

• Macao is a two-night city for most people, which is precisely the case where an eSIM beats a plastic SIM: no shop, no deposit, no leftover credit.
• Buy a Macao plan, not a China plan. They are different products and the wrong one gives you no signal at all.

Free wi-fi genuinely covers the place

• FreeWiFi.MO is the government network. Look for any network name containing - it runs in public buildings, squares, ferry terminals and libraries.
• Every casino and hotel lobby has open wi-fi, and there is a casino roughly every 300 metres.
• Macao is 33 square kilometres. Between free wi-fi and the fact that you are rarely more than ten minutes from a hotel, going without mobile data here is more realistic than almost anywhere.