Botswana's operators sell data at prices that make every travel eSIM look expensive. BTC's 30 GB monthly bundle costs P199, around 14 US dollars at roughly fourteen pula to the dollar, and Mascom's ladder starts at P45 for a week. The cheapest comparable travel eSIM is Nomad's 5 GB for 24 dollars. On money alone, the local card wins easily and it is not close.
What decides it is the shape of a Botswana trip. You need a passport, a staffed shop and a few minutes for the registration, and a line that has not been registered does nothing at all. The shops are in Gaborone, Francistown, Maun and Kasane. They are not on the airstrip at a Delta camp, and many visitors spend less than a day in any town before the light aircraft takes them out of range of every network. So the question on this page is not which is cheaper. It is whether you will be standing in a mall with an hour to spare.
What This Guide Covers
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The Passport Rule and What It Costs You in Time
Every prepaid line in this country has to be tied to an identity document before it will connect, and for a foreigner that document is a passport. Orange Botswana's own support page is blunt about it: you cannot make calls, send messages or use data until your identity has been verified, a line left unregistered is suspended within fourteen days, and it is cancelled after thirty. Mascom and BTC apply the same national rule. There is no online pre-registration for visitors and no way to complete it from abroad.
Go to a company store, not a street vendor
Airtime and bundles are sold everywhere, but the registration itself happens at an operator shop or a properly authorised dealer. A starter pack bought from a roadside stall will not work until a shop has captured your details.
Hand over the physical passport
Orange states that a passport is the only document it accepts from foreign nationals. Bring the book itself rather than a photo of the data page.
Allow fifteen minutes on a quiet day
Traveller reports put the whole process at five to fifteen minutes when there is no queue. Month-end and Saturday mornings in the Gaborone malls are when the queue is long.
Load the bundle before you walk away
Ask the assistant to buy the data bundle onto the line and check that it shows in the balance. Out-of-bundle browsing is charged per megabyte and eats airtime quickly.
The time cost is the honest number to weigh. On a quiet weekday morning it is a quarter of an hour. On a safari itinerary that lands in Gaborone at lunchtime and leaves for Maun first thing, it is an errand that may simply not fit.
BTC: The Cheapest Gigabytes in the Country
BTC is the cheapest place in the country to buy a large amount of data, and its TurnUp bundles are general-purpose data with no app restrictions. These are the prices on BTC's own bundle page, VAT included:
| TurnUp bundle | Price | Approx. US$ | Per GB |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1.5 GB, 1 day | P10 | $0.70 | About $0.48 |
| 5 GB, 7 days | P50 | $3.60 | About $0.72 |
| 5 GB, 14 days | P60 | $4.30 | About $0.86 |
| 8 GB, 30 days | P92 | $6.60 | About $0.82 |
| 30 GB, 30 days | P199 | $14.20 | About $0.47 |
| 50 GB, 30 days | P269 | $19.20 | About $0.38 |
BTC also sells KgwaMollo bundles that combine data marketed as unlimited, unlimited calls to other BTC numbers and a capped allowance of minutes to other networks, at P19 a day, P69 a week or P199 a month. For a visitor the TurnUp 5 GB weekly bundle at P50 is the most sensible single purchase, and the 30 GB monthly bundle is extraordinary value if you are working from Gaborone.
The catch is reach. BTC is strongest around Gaborone and Francistown and is the weakest of the three networks once you head north toward Maun and Kasane. BTC has also announced a commercial 5G launch in selected Gaborone suburbs in October 2026, which will matter to residents and very little to a safari.
Mascom's MyMix Ladder and Why the North Uses It
Mascom is the network most guides, lodge managers and transfer drivers in the north use, and that is the main reason to pick it over BTC despite a higher price per gigabyte. Its general data bundles are sold as MyMix. The standard allowances on Mascom's site, VAT included, run like this:
| MyMix bundle | Price | Approx. US$ |
|---|---|---|
| 1.5 GB, 7 days | P39 | $2.80 |
| 2 GB, 7 days | P45 | $3.20 |
| 3.5 GB, 14 days | P85 | $6.10 |
| 4.5 GB, 30 days | P99 | $7.10 |
| 8.5 GB, 30 days | P149 | $10.70 |
| 17 GB, 30 days | P279 | $19.90 |
Mascom runs promotions on MyMix almost continuously, and at the time of checking its page listed promotional allowances well above these base figures on most bundles, in some cases more than double. Treat the table as the floor and ask in store what the current promotion adds. Bundles are bought by dialling *123# and choosing from the menu, or through the Mascom app once the line is live.
If you want calls as well, Mascom's MyCombo bundles add national minutes and SMS to the data: P245 buys 150 minutes, 100 texts and 8 GB for thirty days. That is worth having if you will be phoning a mokoro poler's agent in Maun or a boat operator in Kasane, because those calls are often voice rather than WhatsApp.
Orange, and the P10 Local eSIM
Orange Botswana is the second network and the one Nomad's travel eSIM uses. In Gaborone it is as good as Mascom, and it is present in Maun, Kasane and every larger town. Its prepaid bundle prices are published through a page that loads them dynamically, and we could not capture a reliable list for this guide, so price it in store against the Mascom and BTC figures above rather than trusting a number from us.
The local eSIM option
Orange is the operator that clearly sells a local eSIM to visitors. Its stores issue an Orange Botswana eSIM for P10, with the same rule as a plastic card: you present your passport at an Orange shop and the assistant registers it there. That is useful if your phone has no physical slot free, or if you want to keep your home SIM in the tray. It does not help you arrive connected, because the purchase only happens in person.
Out-of-bundle data on Orange prepaid is listed at P0.69 per megabyte, which is about 690 pula a gigabyte. That figure is the reason to buy a bundle the moment the line is registered, and to switch off data on the local line if a bundle runs out while you are in town.
Where to Register One: Gaborone, Maun and Kasane
All three operators have their own stores in Gaborone's big shopping centres, and those are the places to register a line. Game City in the south of the city, Riverwalk on the Tlokweng road, Airport Junction in the north and the Main Mall in the old centre all have operator shops or authorised dealers within a short walk of each other. Francistown has branches in the town centre malls.
For safari travellers the two towns that matter are Maun and Kasane. In Maun, the operator outlets sit in the small shopping centres a short drive from the airport, close enough to walk to between a commercial arrival and an afternoon charter flight. Kasane has operator outlets along the main road through town, which is where most riverfront hotels send guests for errands. Both are towns where shops keep normal weekday hours, close earlier on Saturdays and are quiet or shut on Sundays.
Timing it around a safari
If you have a night in Maun before flying into the Delta, register the card that afternoon, not the following morning, because charter check-in is often early and the shops may not be open yet. The card will sit unused for the camp nights and be ready again when you come out, since data bundles run on calendar days rather than days of use, so buy the bundle for the days you will be in range.
Airport counters are less dependable than the town stores. Travellers report Mascom or Orange representation in arrivals at Sir Seretse Khama in Gaborone and at Maun, but hours are limited and nobody guarantees a staffed desk for every flight.
Local Card or Travel eSIM, Decided by Your Itinerary
Set the two side by side and the local card wins on every measure except the first few hours and the paperwork.
| Option | Price | Data | Before you land? |
|---|---|---|---|
| BTC TurnUp | P50 / about $3.60 | 5 GB, 7 days | No, passport in store |
| Mascom MyMix | P149 / about $10.70 | 8.5 GB or more, 30 days | No, passport in store |
| Nomad eSIM (Orange) | $24 | 5 GB, 30 days | Yes |
| Airalo eSIM (Mascom) | $35 | 5 GB, 30 days | Yes |
| Holafly eSIM | $46.90 | Unlimited, 10 days | Yes |
Three kinds of traveller should simply buy local. Anyone spending a working week or more in Gaborone. Anyone self-driving who will pass through Maun or Kasane in shop hours before turning off the tar. And anyone on a long overland trip who wants a Botswana number that guides and campsites can ring.
Three kinds should buy the eSIM and skip the counter. Anyone landing in Gaborone and connecting to Maun or Kasane on the same day. Anyone flying straight into the Delta from Johannesburg via Maun, where the gap between the scheduled flight and the light aircraft is measured in an hour or two. And anyone arriving on a weekend evening. For them, the extra twenty dollars is the price of not losing half a day to an errand.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I register a Botswana SIM without a passport, using a driving licence?
No. Orange states that a passport is the only document it accepts from foreign nationals, and the other operators work to the same national registration rule. A driving licence or a photocopy will not do. Carry the passport itself to the shop.
What happens if I buy a SIM from a street vendor in Gaborone?
You get a card that does not connect. Vendors sell airtime and bundles, which is useful once your line is active, but a new line has to be registered against your passport at an operator shop or authorised dealer before it will make calls or use data. Orange suspends an unregistered line within fourteen days and cancels it after thirty.
Which network should I register if I am heading to Maun and Kasane?
Mascom. It is the network the north runs on, it holds a signal furthest along the roads between towns, and it is what most guides and transfer drivers will have. BTC is cheaper per gigabyte but is the weakest of the three outside the Gaborone and Francistown areas. Orange sits in between.
Will a local bundle still be valid after five nights in the Delta?
It depends on which bundle you buy. Weekly bundles keep running while you are in camp, so a seven-day bundle bought in Maun on the way in may expire before you are back in range. Buy a thirty-day bundle if your camp stay sits in the middle of the trip, or buy a small bundle on the way in and a fresh one on the way out.
Can I buy a Mascom or BTC data bundle without visiting a shop each time?
Yes, once the line is registered. Mascom bundles are bought by dialling *123# or through its app, and BTC sells bundles through its online account and USSD menu. Airtime vouchers for all three networks are sold in supermarkets, fuel stations and small shops across the country, so topping up in Kasane or Maun is easy.