Ethiopia does something few countries bother with: both of its mobile operators publish a separate menu for foreign visitors, priced in US dollars or euros instead of birr. Ethio Telecom, the state incumbent, will sell you seven days of unlimited data for 5 dollars with the SIM thrown in free. Safaricom Ethiopia, the private challenger, sells visitor bundles from 10 dollars, but only at its shop in the Bole airport arrivals hall. Against a cheapest worthwhile travel eSIM of 15 dollars for 3 GB, there is no contest on price.
The real choice is therefore between the two networks, and for most itineraries that choice is Ethio Telecom. It has the older and wider network, it is the one most likely to have a signal at the rock churches of Lalibela or in a village in South Omo, and its visitor plan can be bought at any of its shops nationwide, not just at the airport. Safaricom is a fine second line for the cities. A travel eSIM is still useful for the first hour after landing and for anyone who never leaves the transit zone at Bole.
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Ethio Telecom's Visitor Plan, Line by Line
Ethio Telecom's International Visitors Plan is listed on its own website with prices that include tax, and the terms state that the SIM card is free with a new sale. There are two families of product. The first bundles data with local calls, texts and some birr airtime; the second is pure unlimited data. Every package is sold in US dollars or euros at the same face value, so a 10 dollar plan is also a 10 euro plan.
| Package | Price | What you get | Valid for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Weekly | US$10 | 30 GB, 300 all-net minutes, 300 SMS, 100 ETB airtime | 7 days |
| Bi-weekly | US$20 | 60 GB, 300 minutes, 300 SMS, 30 international minutes, 300 ETB airtime | 15 days |
| Monthly | US$40 | Unlimited data, calls and SMS, 90 international minutes, 500 ETB airtime | 30 days |
| Unlimited data | US$5 | Unlimited data only | 7 days |
| Unlimited data | US$10 | Unlimited data only | 15 days |
| Unlimited data | US$15 | Unlimited data only | 30 days |
Two lines in the small print are worth knowing. The terms say no fair-use policy applies to the unlimited data, which is rare anywhere in the world, and that the plan can be 4G or 5G, with 4G customers able to move up to 5G where it exists, mostly in Addis Ababa. The validity runs from the moment you subscribe, not from the start of a calendar month, and you can stack several visitor plans on one card or add ordinary local packages from other channels later.
For most visitors the data-only unlimited plans are the sensible buy, because hotel and restaurant bookings are made by message and few people make many local calls. If you want to ring guides, drivers and guesthouses in rural areas, which is common in the north where arrangements are still made by phone, the 10 dollar weekly bundle with 300 minutes is the better fit.
Safaricom's Airport-Only Visitor Bundles
Safaricom Ethiopia publishes a separate visitor package in its terms and conditions, and the key restriction is in the first sentence: it can only be bought at the Safaricom shop at Bole International Airport, paid in US dollars or euros, after you have registered for a Safaricom SIM. Walk into a Safaricom shop in Bahir Dar or Hawassa a week later and you will be offered ordinary birr bundles instead.
| Bundle | Price | Data | Calls and texts | Valid for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weekly small | US$10 | 30 GB | 200 min, 200 SMS, 100 birr credit | 7 days |
| Weekly large | US$20 | 60 GB | 300 min, 300 SMS, 300 birr credit | 7 days |
| Monthly small | US$30 | 90 GB | 500 min, 500 SMS, 400 birr credit | 30 days |
| Monthly large | US$40 | 120 GB | 700 min, 700 SMS, 500 birr credit | 30 days |
These are generous allowances by any standard, but notice that Safaricom has no 5 dollar unlimited entry point, and its month costs at least twice Ethio Telecom's 15 dollar unlimited data plan. The reason to choose Safaricom anyway is network quality in the places it covers. Every Safaricom site in the country is 4G, there is no legacy network to fall back onto, and it is the operator behind M-Pesa Ethiopia. It also means a Safaricom card and a Safaricom-based travel eSIM give you the same coverage, so buying both is pointless.
If you want two networks
The combination that makes sense is an Ethio Telecom card plus either a Safaricom card or a Nomad eSIM. That gives you both of Ethiopia's networks in one dual-SIM phone, which is the closest thing to a backup in a country where one network can be strong and the other absent a few kilometres down the road.
What the Counter Will Ask You For
Ethiopian citizens now register SIM cards against the Fayda national digital ID, but foreigners register with a passport. Ethio Telecom's terms say visitors buy with a copy of their visa or passport, and in practice the counter staff take the passport itself, record the details and photograph or scan the data page before activating the line. Plan for the time this takes rather than the money: the price is fixed and printed, but registration is manual, and the queue in front of you is the real cost.
Carry the passport, not a photo of it
Have the physical passport and your Ethiopian visa or e-visa approval to hand. A passport is what both operators register against, and a counter may refuse to work from a screenshot.
Bring small US dollar or euro notes
The visitor plans are priced and sold in foreign currency. A clean 5, 10 or 20 dollar note avoids an argument about change in birr, and older or torn notes are sometimes turned away.
Name the plan you want
Ask for the visitor plan by its price, for example the 5 dollar unlimited week. A counter can otherwise default to a standard birr package that costs more for less data.
Test before you walk away
Have the assistant confirm the package is active, then load a page with WiFi switched off. Ask for the number to be written on the SIM packet, because you will need it for hotel and tour bookings.
Unregistered or casually resold cards are not worth chasing. Ethiopia enforces registration and the number belongs to whoever registered it, so a card bought from a stranger near Meskel Square can be cut off without notice. Buy from an operator shop or an authorised dealer with signage.
Where to Buy After You Leave the Airport
The two operators are not equally easy to find. Ethio Telecom has shops in every regional capital and most district towns, and its visitor plan is not restricted to the airport, so if you skipped the Bole counter you can still buy it in Lalibela, Gondar, Axum or Arba Minch when service there is running. Small kiosks selling airtime cards are everywhere, though not every one can register a new SIM.
Safaricom is expanding fast, with company-run shops in Addis and a growing list of regional cities. It opened another shop in Gondar in August 2026, its tenth in that city, which says something about how quickly the network is spreading in the north. But remember that the dollar visitor bundles are an airport product. In town you will be buying standard Safaricom packs in birr, which are fine value but require you to work in local currency.
Shops close, kiosks do not
Operator shops in Addis keep normal business hours and close on public holidays, and Ethiopia has many of them, including Timkat in January and Meskel in late September. Top-up vouchers are sold by street kiosks and corner shops into the evening, so once you have a registered card, topping it up is easy. Getting the card in the first place is the part that needs a shop to be open.
Ethiopia also uses its own calendar and a twelve-hour clock that starts at dawn, so a shop sign saying it opens at two may mean eight in the morning by your watch. Ask which clock is meant when someone gives you a time.
Coverage Limits and Shutdowns No SIM Fixes
Buying the right card solves the network problem but not the political one. Ethiopia has a long record of switching off mobile data in regions with unrest. In Amhara, which holds Lalibela, Gondar and Bahir Dar, mobile internet was cut from August 2023 until July 2024, and renewed blackouts were reported in several zones from early February 2026. In Tigray, home to Axum and the cliff churches of Gheralta, phone and internet service went down again on 25 September 2026 when fighting resumed, and Ethiopian Airlines had already suspended Tigray flights earlier in the year.
What a local card does help with
What it cannot help with
The practical answer is preparation. Before leaving Addis, save your domestic flight tickets and hotel confirmations as files, download offline maps for every region on your route, and share your itinerary with someone at home. If you are relying on a tour operator in the north, ask how they contact clients during a blackout; most keep a landline or satellite fallback.
Where the eSIM Still Fits
With a 5 dollar unlimited week on offer, the eSIM case in Ethiopia rests on three situations rather than on price. The first is transit. Thousands of passengers a day change planes at Bole without passing immigration, and they cannot reach either counter; a small eSIM is the only mobile data available to them. The second is a late arrival or a long queue, when you simply want to order a RIDE car and message your hotel before dealing with paperwork. The third is a short business trip to Addis where a few gigabytes on Safaricom, the stronger city network for many users, is enough and nobody wants to register a phone line.
For those cases, Nomad's 1 GB for 9 dollars or 3 GB for 15 dollars is the plan to buy. Airalo's equivalents cost 12 and 31 dollars. For everyone else, and certainly for anyone flying north to Lalibela or driving south to the Omo Valley, the Ethio Telecom visitor plan is the core of the trip, with an eSIM as an optional bridge for the first few hours. That puts Ethiopia firmly on the local-SIM side of the line, closer to Kenya's cheap-bundle economics than to the island markets where the counter rarely wins.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the 5 dollar Ethio Telecom plan really unlimited?
According to Ethio Telecom's own published terms for its International Visitors Plan, yes: the unlimited data packages carry no fair-use policy. The 5 dollar plan lasts seven days, the 10 dollar plan fifteen and the 15 dollar plan thirty, all tax-inclusive with the SIM free for new sales. Real speeds depend on how busy the local mast is and on whether you are on 4G or one of the 5G areas in Addis.
Can I buy Safaricom's dollar visitor bundles in Bahir Dar or Hawassa?
No. Safaricom's terms restrict the visitor package to its shop at Bole International Airport, paid in US dollars or euros. In regional Safaricom shops you can buy a SIM and ordinary birr bundles, which are reasonable value, but not the 10 to 40 dollar visitor plans. If you specifically want Safaricom on a visitor bundle, buy it on arrival at Bole.
Which network should I pick for a Lalibela and Gondar itinerary?
Ethio Telecom. It is the older network with the deeper rural footprint, and we could not confirm Safaricom coverage in Lalibela from a 2026 source. Safaricom does operate in Gondar and Bahir Dar. Be aware that both operators are affected when the authorities cut mobile data in Amhara, which happened for most of 2023 and 2024 and again in parts of the region from February 2026.
What happens to my Ethiopian line after the visitor plan expires?
The card itself stays registered to your passport and can be topped up with ordinary airtime, and Ethio Telecom's terms say recharging airtime extends the SIM's validity under its normal rules. You can also buy another visitor plan on the same card, since several can be stacked. If you return to Ethiopia within the validity window, the number may still be yours; after a long gap, expect to register a new one.
Do I need a local card if I am only in Addis for two nights?
Not necessarily. For a short city stay, a Nomad eSIM with 1 GB for 9 dollars or 3 GB for 15 dollars on Safaricom covers maps, ride-hail and messaging with no registration, and hotel WiFi covers the rest. The local card becomes the better choice the moment you stay longer, travel outside the main cities, or need a number so that drivers and guides can phone you.