eSIM and SIM cards in Uganda

The tourist SIM is free, and it is at the airport

• MTN's Tourist SIM costs nothing and is issued at the MTN service centre at the airport on arrival, and through selected tour partners.
• Bring the passport and the visa. An agent registers the card against both documents. That is the registration rule for any foreigner buying any SIM here, so a card handed to you by someone else is registered to them, not you.
• An ordinary MTN SIM costs 2,000 shillings and is sold at any of 167 service centres, on a passport for a foreigner. Cards are only activated after verification, so buying one in the street is not a shortcut.

It expires with your visa

• The tourist SIM is valid for exactly as long as your visa and is deactivated automatically when the visa expires. Extend the visa and the SIM has to catch up; overstay and your phone stops before immigration does.
• Usage is restricted to inside Uganda. It is not a card to carry into Kenya or Rwanda on an East Africa visa.

Bundles and money

• Tourist combo bundles start at 30,000 shillings for 10 GB and 150 minutes over 30 days, rising through 85,000 for 30 GB and 450 minutes to 220,000 for 85 GB. Buy on *160*20#, check the balance on *131#.
• Mobile money is activated on *165#, and topped up in cash at any MTN mobile money agent. In a country where cards are accepted mainly by hotels and airlines, that wallet is the practical way to pay for small things.

At the airport itself

• Free wifi from Liquid Telecom and Airtel covers the arrivals hall and the meeters and greeters area as well as departures, which is enough to tell a driver you have landed.