eSIM and SIM cards in Oman

The local SIM

• Omantel and Ooredoo are the two networks. Both sell tourist prepaid SIMs at Muscat airport and in every mall.
• Registration needs the passport and is done at the counter.
• Coverage is good along the coast and the main highways, and along the Muscat-Nizwa-Sur triangle where most visitors go.
• It disappears in the Hajar mountains, the wadis and the Empty Quarter. That is not a network failure, it is the terrain.

An eSIM instead

• Fine for a city-based trip. Oman's networks are well supported.
• A local SIM is worth having if you are driving into the interior, because being able to call for help matters more here than in a city, and a local number is what a rescue or a hotel will call back on.

Why the connection matters here

• Flash flood warnings are issued by the authorities and spread by phone. Between October and March a wadi can go from dry to lethal in minutes after rain that fell somewhere you cannot see.
• Download offline maps before you leave Muscat. The mountain tracks are not reliably mapped and the signal is not there to load them.

Wi-fi

• Hotels and malls have it everywhere and it is good.
• Desert camps have satellite or nothing. Assume nothing.