Guides
SIM cards, eSIM and coverage
Information as of 2026-09-21
Mongolia's country dialling code is +976. Every sizeable town has mobile coverage, but the open steppe between towns often has none at all, which is the single biggest difference from travelling in Korea or Japan.
Country code +976
Unitel sells a dedicated Tour SIM in three sizes, issued either as a physical SIM or as an instant eSIM delivered by QR code.
15 GB / 10 days for 25,000 MNT (about 7 USD); 25 GB / 20 days for 40,000 MNT (about 11 USD); 50 GB / 30 days for 70,000 MNT (about 19 USD)
Mobicom is generally reckoned to have the widest coverage of the Mongolian networks, though it is fiddlier to set up than Unitel. It has a counter at Chinggis Khaan International Airport, but it only opens in normal business hours and its self-service kiosk is unreliable, so late arrivals should plan to buy in the city instead.
As of 2026, 30 GB for 30 days at 30,000 MNT (about 8 USD)
A travel eSIM bought before departure runs on the Mobicom network and is data-only, with no local number for calls or SMS. It costs several times what a local tourist SIM costs, but it works from the moment you land.
Airalo unlimited-data plans priced in yen: 3 days 2,900 JPY; 5 days 4,700 JPY; 7 days 5,650 JPY; 10 days 6,900 JPY; 15 days 9,500 JPY; 30 days 14,300 JPY (roughly 18-91 USD)
You need your passport to buy a local SIM in Mongolia.
Skytel and G-Mobile are the other two national operators. G-Mobile describes itself as a national operator and has historically focused on rural coverage, but neither published tourist package details that could be retrieved and confirmed for this file.
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- Buy the local tourist SIM in the city rather than at the airport counter, which keeps office hours and often has no staff on late arrivals.
- If you land at night or want data the instant you switch your phone on, buy an eSIM before you fly and treat the local SIM as an optional upgrade.
- Download offline maps of your whole route before leaving Ulaanbaatar; large stretches of the countryside have no signal at all.
- Tell family at home that silence for a day or two is normal, not a sign of trouble, once you are out on the steppe.
- A data-only eSIM cannot receive SMS one-time passwords, so keep your home SIM available for banking codes.