If you are staying in Romania for two weeks or more and not leaving the country, buy a local card. Nothing else in Europe is priced like this. Orange currently turns a 5 euro PrePay top-up, about 26 lei, into 250 GB of national data over 28 days, and its 6 euro tier removes the cap altogether. Digi, the operator most Romanians actually use, sells 100 GB a month for 2.5 euros before tax and 150 GB for 4. Those are not typos and they are not promotional stunts, they are the standing retail offers of a market that competed itself into the ground. The reason this page is not simply a one-line recommendation is the fine print on roaming: European law lets operators size your roaming allowance to the price you paid, so Romania's cheapest bundles carry little or no data outside the country. Our Romania eSIM guide covers the no-shop route, the Holafly review looks at uncapped plans for a driving week, and the eSIM Finder will size something against your route.
What This Guide Covers
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Three Networks, Not Four: What Changed in 2025
Any guide that tells you Romania has four mobile operators is out of date. On 1 October 2025 Telekom Romania Mobile was broken up and sold for 70 million euros. Vodafone Romania paid 30 million for the postpaid and business customers, the shops and most of the technical infrastructure; Digi paid 40 million for the prepaid base, the spectrum and the towers. The absorption into Vodafone was completed legally at the end of June 2026. What is left is a three-way market between Orange Romania, Vodafone Romania and Digi, the mobile arm of RCS and RDS.
Each has a different personality. Orange holds the deepest low-band spectrum position and took the national coverage measure with 7.3 out of 10, which is why it is the one you want in the Carpathians. Vodafone inherited Telekom's spectrum and used it to roughly double its 5G speeds inside a year, reaching median downloads near 180 Mbit/s in early 2026, the fastest in the country. Digi wins on the boring metrics that actually govern daily use: nearly 98 percent 4G availability, the lowest latency and the quickest page loads of the three. National 5G availability is only around 39 percent because the 2022 auction handed out just 30 MHz of 700 MHz spectrum, so treat 5G as a city bonus and 4G as the thing you are genuinely buying.
The number that decides your purchase
Forget speed tests for a moment. The question that determines whether a Romanian SIM is brilliant or useless is how many kilometres of your trip happen outside Romania. Inside the border, a local card gives you more data than you can physically consume for the price of a coffee. Outside it, the fair-use formula in EU roaming law scales your allowance to what you paid, and what you paid was almost nothing. A traveler basing themselves in Bucharest or Cluj for a month should buy locally without hesitation. A traveler doing Bucharest, Sofia and Istanbul in ten days should not go near it.
Orange Romania
Orange: Absurd Volume and the Widest Reach
The country's best-covering network, sold at prices that read like errors
Orange is the default recommendation for a visitor who is staying put. The 5 euro option is the sweet spot: 250 GB over 28 days is more data than a heavy user consumes in a quarter, and 2,000 minutes covers every restaurant booking and guesthouse call you will make. Stepping to 6 euros removes the cap entirely and unlocks the 5G tier, which is worth it if you intend to tether a laptop for a month in a Cluj or Timisoara apartment.
The 9 euro tier is the one worth understanding properly, because it is the only Orange prepaid option that carries a serious European roaming allowance, at 17 GB, with a smaller bundle usable in Albania, Serbia, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Kosovo, Bosnia and Turkey. If your Romania trip has a Bulgarian or Serbian tail on it, that extra four euros is the cheapest travel insurance on this page. Below that tier, assume you are buying a domestic-only product.
Strengths
Weaknesses
Digi (RCS & RDS)
Digi: What Romanians Actually Carry
The cheapest mobile data in Europe, sold by the country's most consistent network
Digi is the operator that dragged Romanian prices to where they are, and it is the one locals reach for. The structure is different from its rivals: you pick a national option, then bolt a roaming option on top if you need one, rather than buying a bundle that quietly includes or excludes it. That is more honest than the alternative and it makes the trade-off visible. Two and a half euros for 100 GB is the entry point, and there is a variant sold as an eSIM at 2 euros for 200 GB if you would rather not handle a card at all.
Digi's network reputation deserves the nuance. It is not the fastest on paper, held back by a thinner spectrum position, but it delivers the lowest cloud latency and the quickest page loads of the three, which is what you actually notice when a map tile or a payment page has to load. In cities and along main roads it is excellent. In the high Fagaras or a Maramures side valley it gives ground to Orange, and Digi's own subscribers will tell you the same thing.
Prices are quoted in euros and charged in lei
Every Romanian operator lists prepaid options in euros and then bills the leu equivalent at the National Bank rate on the day, which hovered around 5.23 lei to the euro through July 2026. So a 5 euro option costs roughly 26 lei and a 2.5 euro Digi bundle roughly 13. Digi additionally quotes its option prices before VAT, so add nineteen percent when comparing against an Orange or Vodafone shelf price. None of this changes the conclusion, but it explains why two guides can quote different numbers for the same product.
Vodafone Romania
Vodafone: The Fastest 5G, and the Easiest English
Now carrying Telekom's old spectrum, with roaming switched on by default
Vodafone is the practical choice for a visitor who wants the least friction. Roaming sits switched on out of the box rather than needing an add-on, staff in the Bucharest and Cluj stores handle English routinely, and the network is now the fastest in Romania on 5G after inheriting the Telekom holdings. If you want a phone that streams properly on a Bucharest terrace and still works on a weekend hop to Vienna, this is the least fiddly local route.
Two things to watch. The headline data volumes are smaller than Orange's or Digi's for the money, because Vodafone is the one operator in the market not competing purely on litres of data. And the cheap data-only card sold in shops, the Cartela cu Net, is explicitly excluded from EU roaming, so do not grab that one off the counter assuming it behaves like the standard prepaid product. Ask specifically for a normal prepaid card with a national option if roaming matters to you.
Strengths
Weaknesses
Do You Need ID? The Honest Answer
Romania is one of the few countries in Europe where mandatory prepaid SIM registration has repeatedly failed in court. The Constitutional Court struck down a registration requirement in September 2014, then struck down a second attempt in February 2020, both times on privacy and data-protection grounds. Successive governments have kept trying. The practical consequence for a visitor is a slightly odd situation: there is no blanket national rule forcing an operator to record your identity, but individual operators routinely ask for a document anyway as part of their own contract and anti-fraud process, and the airport kiosks in particular will want to see something.
Carry your passport regardless
Whether or not the law compels it that week, the person behind the counter may want it, and arguing constitutional case law in a mall on your first afternoon is a poor use of a holiday. An EU national ID card works equally well if you have one.
Buy in a company store, not a corner shop
Orange, Vodafone and Digi all run their own branded stores in every Romanian shopping centre, and those are the places that can activate an option, explain what roaming is attached, and fix it when something does not stick. Kiosks and supermarkets sell the card but often cannot do the rest.
Have the option activated in front of you
A Romanian prepaid card is credit plus an option, and the two are separate. Loading 26 lei of credit does nothing on its own. Ask the assistant to activate the specific national option you chose and to confirm the data allowance on screen before you leave the counter.
Ask the roaming question out loud
The single most useful sentence you can say is a request to confirm how many gigabytes of the option work outside Romania. Staff know the answer immediately and it is frequently zero. Better to learn that in Bucharest than at a petrol station in Ruse.
Romanian Prepaid Options Compared
| Option | Data in Romania | Data outside Romania | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Orange 5 euro top-up | 250 GB over 28 days plus 2,000 minutes | None | About 26 lei |
| Orange 9 euro top-up | Uncapped, 30 days | 17 GB across the EEA | About 47 lei |
| Digi National 2.5 | 100 GB plus 300 minutes | None without an add-on | About 13 lei before VAT |
| Digi Complet 9 | 100 GB plus 1,000 minutes | 15 GB across the EEA | About 47 lei before VAT |
| Vodafone prepaid bundle | 10 GB to uncapped depending on tier | Domestic rates under fair use | Roughly 47 to 73 lei |
| Travel eSIM, metered | 5 to 20 GB typical | Same allowance region-wide on a Europe plan | $12.50 to $20 |
| Travel eSIM, uncapped | Unlimited | Depends on the plan bought | About $27.50 for a week |
Read that table column by column rather than row by row. On the domestic column the local cards win so decisively that there is nothing to discuss. On the cross-border column they mostly score zero, and that is the column that matters if your trip is a European loop rather than a Romanian stay. The eSIM is not competing on gigabytes here and never will. It competes on the fact that the same allowance behaves identically in Bucharest, Belgrade and Budapest, and that it is working before you reach passport control.
Where to Buy a SIM in Romania
Shopping centre stores, the best option
Orange, Vodafone and Digi all keep proper staffed stores in the big Bucharest malls, including AFI Cotroceni, Baneasa, Promenada, Mega Mall and Unirea, and in Iulius centres in Cluj, Timisoara and Iasi. They open late, they take cards, and they can activate an option properly. This is where a visitor should go.
Henri Coanda airport kiosks
Prepaid cards are sold from kiosks in the arrivals and departures halls at Otopeni and from the Relay shop on the walkway that links the two buildings. It is convenient and it costs more than town, with a narrower menu of options. Fine as a fallback, not the place to buy your month of data.
Supermarkets and neighbourhood kiosks
Cards and top-up vouchers turn up in Carrefour, Kaufland, Mega Image and Profi, at Inmedio newsagents and at the small kiosks by metro entrances. They are everywhere and they are cheap, but staff usually cannot activate a data option for you, so you finish the job yourself in the operator's app.
Topping up later
Once the line is live you never need a store again. Reload through My Orange, MyVodafone or the Digi app, at any supermarket till, or at the orange self-service machines in metro stations. Bank cards are accepted everywhere and contactless is close to universal in Romanian retail.
eSIM or Local Card for Romania?
| Factor | Travel eSIM | Romanian prepaid card |
|---|---|---|
| Setup | Installed at home, connected on landing | Twenty minutes in a mall store once you are in town |
| Cost of a fortnight | Roughly $12.50 to $37 depending on data | 26 to 47 lei, so around $5 to $9 |
| Data volume | 5 to 20 GB, or uncapped at a price | 100 to 250 GB, or uncapped for 31 lei |
| Crossing a border | Works identically on a Europe regional plan | Often nothing, unless you bought a 9 euro tier |
| Romanian number | No | Yes, useful for guesthouse and taxi callbacks |
The split is unusually clean here. A long, Romania-only stay, especially one involving remote work, a rented flat or a laptop that lives on a tethered connection, should be on a local card. There is no honest argument for paying a travel provider thirty dollars for ten gigabytes when the shop downstairs sells 250 for a fifth of that. A short, multi-country or mountain-heavy trip should be on an eSIM, because you are buying border-proof behaviour and immediate connection rather than volume, and because Airalo's Orange routing gives you the coverage that matters once the road starts climbing.
Practical Romania Connectivity Notes
Things worth knowing before you buy
Credit and options are two different things: money on the card buys nothing by itself. The data only appears once a national option is activated against that credit, which is why some visitors think they have been sold a dead SIM.
Ignore any guide that lists Telekom: the brand's mobile business was split between Vodafone and Digi in October 2025 and legally merged away by mid-2026. A Telekom card is a historical artefact now.
Free WiFi is genuinely everywhere: Romanian cafes, restaurants, guesthouses and even many intercity trains give away fast connections, which is part of why a modest data plan stretches further here than the raw numbers suggest.
Card payments beat cash almost everywhere: contactless works in village bakeries and mountain guesthouses, so you rarely need a Romanian number to settle a bill. The one place cash still rules is small monastery donations and roadside produce stalls.
Save the mountain routes offline: the Transfagarasan and Transalpina both cross ground where every operator gives up, so download the map area while you are still in Sibiu or Brasov.
Do not assume airport pricing reflects the market: the Otopeni kiosks charge a premium that would be unremarkable elsewhere but looks steep against Romanian high-street prices. Wait for a mall store if you can.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is ID legally required to buy a prepaid SIM in Romania?
There is no settled national requirement. Romania's Constitutional Court struck down mandatory prepaid SIM registration in September 2014 and again in February 2020, both times on privacy grounds, and later attempts have not survived either. In practice operators still ask for a document as part of their own process, and the airport kiosks reliably do, so bring your passport or EU national ID card. It takes a minute and avoids an argument you cannot win at a counter.
How much data do you actually get for 26 lei in Romania?
At the time of writing an Orange PrePay top-up of 5 euros, roughly 26 lei, loads 250 GB of national data valid for 28 days plus 2,000 minutes. Digi's entry prepaid option is 100 GB with 300 minutes for 2.5 euros a month before VAT, around 13 lei. Six euros on Orange removes the data cap entirely. These are ordinary retail offers rather than promotions, and they are the reason Romania is regularly cited as the cheapest mobile market in the European Union.
Why does my Romanian data allowance shrink to almost nothing abroad?
Because European roaming rules let an operator size your roaming allowance using a formula based on the pre-tax price of your plan, and Romanian plans cost almost nothing. Orange's cheaper PrePay tiers include no EEA roaming data at all, and it takes the 9 euro option before you get a meaningful 17 GB. Digi sells roaming separately, from about 2.5 euros for 4.55 GB over fourteen days. If your itinerary leaves Romania, either buy the higher tier deliberately or use a Europe eSIM instead.
Which operator should I choose if I am renting a car and heading for Transylvania?
Orange. Its low-band spectrum position is the strongest in the country and it took the national coverage measure with 7.3 out of 10, and low-band is what carries signal over a ridge and down into a valley. Vodafone will give you faster 5G in Bucharest and Cluj, and Digi will give you lower latency and more data per leu, but on the DN1 above Comarnic, on the roads out to Viscri, or anywhere near the Fagaras, Orange is the one still showing bars.
Can I get a Romanian SIM the moment I land at Otopeni?
Yes. Prepaid cards are sold at kiosks in both the arrivals and departures halls at Henri Coanda, and from the Relay store on the connecting walkway between the two buildings, with most kiosks open from roughly 6am to 11pm. The trade-off is a narrower selection of options and prices above what the same operator charges in a Bucharest mall. If you land late or want the good tariffs, an eSIM covers the first day and you can buy properly the next morning.