Mobile and Internet in Bali and Indonesia

What is the mobile and internet like in Indonesia and Bali, overview of options

Internet and mobile communications work well in Indonesia, prices are affordable. But to avoid unexpected expenses, you should prepare for this, which we will discuss further.

✔ The simplest and least expensive way to conditionally stay connected in Indonesia and Bali is to do nothing, not connect anything, and most importantly - disable mobile data on your phone. Then you won't pay for communication in international roaming at the crazy rates of Russian operators, and to contact loved ones and 'post' a couple of photos on social media, simply use free WiFi in hotels, at the airport, in cafes and restaurants. After all, hotel WiFi is available even in the cheapest accommodations. This is usually enough for a short 10-14 day trip to one resort on a tour.

If you have a long and complex trip around Indonesia or if you constantly need internet and communication for work and entertainment, then you will have the following options:

• Use international roaming with your home operator (this is always significantly expensive)
• Buy an international tourist SIM card (slightly cheaper, but not suitable for a one-time trip)
• Buy a local tourist SIM card (several times cheaper than roaming)
• Buy a local prepaid SIM card and activate service packages yourself (this is the most economical option)

We talk about each option in detail further in the article, and you just need to choose what suits you best. If you prefer to watch rather than read, you can view our video about mobile communications and internet in Bali:

International roaming with your home operator

Using your home SIM card in roaming in Vietnam is very expensive, especially if you forget to connect options and accidentally go online or make/receive a call. Russian operators offer paid options for saving money in international roaming, but they still cost much more than a local or tourist SIM card.

We have collected tariffs and options from Russian operators as of 2026 in a table, but they may change, so double-check the information via the links before your trip.

Buying a local SIM card

A local SIM is the most cost-effective way to stay connected during your vacation and travels, but there are nuances, so read everything further carefully.

To start using inexpensive local internet and voice call minutes, you have two simple options to choose from:

• Buy a ready-made tourist SIM card at the airport, street travel agencies, or retail stalls. Then for a certain amount of money you will immediately get a ready-made SIM with gigabytes and minutes, sometimes even unlimited, and all this will be valid for a certain time. Yes, you will overpay for this, but you won't have to 'bother' yourself with studying local tariffs in a foreign language, installing the app, etc. That is, the convenience is that you choose what's offered, pay money, and leave with your smartphone already set up with a working internet, and at the end of the vacation simply take out the SIM card and throw it away. Of course, you will have to overpay almost double for this, but you save your time.

• Buy a local SIM card in telecom salons. This will take time, but you save money. If you come to Bali or Indonesia in general for a month or more to travel or work, it's better to choose this option.

Here is a price difference for understanding between these options from personal experience for minimum tariffs:

• SIM card for 30 days at the operator's office for 6GB internet + 25 GB bonus for first connection, i.e., total 31 GB – 48,000 rupees / 2.66 USD.
• SIM card for 30 days at street sales points for a SIM card with 30 GB internet – 200,000 rupees / 11.07 USD.
• SIM card for 30 days at the airport for 18GB + 22GB bonus, i.e., total 40GB – 250,000 rupees / 13.84 USD.

And now we'll tell you in detail how and where to buy, top up, how to use, etc.:

• Where to buy a SIM card

  You can buy a tourist SIM card in telecom salons on the street, in travel agencies, in mobile phone shops, at the airport. In tourist areas and large cities, there are very many, you'll find them without any problems. If the situation permits, you can not rush and not buy a SIM card at the airport, but buy it a bit cheaper on the streets of resorts in shopping centers and simply street sales points.

  

  Things are much more complicated with buying a cheap starter prepaid SIM card in an official salon. Here are the difficulties:

  • There are very few official operator salons, and most shops and departments in shopping malls under operator signs are not official offices at all, but simply sellers of SIMs for all operators.
  • Salons work very limited hours, they are closed on weekends and holidays.
  • You will have to spend at least 30 minutes registering the SIM to your passport and checking your phone's IMEI. And if there's a queue in the salon, maybe even an hour.
  • The SIM will most likely only start working a few hours after registration and activation.

  

  Therefore, personal advice: if you come here for a couple of weeks, it's better not to waste time, but buy a SIM at the airport or street offices or retail stalls, they are really very common here. Yes, in this case you will overpay several times, be prepared to pay at least 200,000 rupees right away, but you'll save time and nerves. You can also buy a SIM card online with payment by Russian card on the Trip.com website and pick it up at Bali or Jakarta airport.

  If you still want to buy an inexpensive SIM with a starter package from 20,000 rupees to top up and activate a suitable tariff at your discretion, you'll have to go through a whole 'quest':

  • Theoretically, you can buy it at official telecom salons, but there are very few, and they are located very inconveniently. For example, in the center of the Kuta area, there isn't a single one, you need to go or walk to, say, the outskirts of the area. But visiting doesn't guarantee you'll buy it, because SIM cards aren't always available in the offices, and they might send you to buy it at a neighboring store from scalpers at several times the price, and only activate it in the office itself.

  • Another option is to order on the operator's official website, pay online, and pick up at the office or via delivery, and then activate it yourself. But this is also a whole problem, because from our experience, again, they are not always in stock for ordering (XL Axiata didn't have a single SIM available for online order), they can't always be delivered to the desired location (for example, Indosat Ooredoo didn't allow choosing delivery or pickup in Bali), and finally, delivery can take up to 5 days without a specific date, i.e., a 3-5 day range when you need to wait for a courier call or message (Smartfren offers such an option). And on top of everything, you need to pay for the card in advance online with a foreign bank card or local e-wallets.

  • Finally, you can order a card through the Grab and GoJek taxi/delivery apps, and this seems the most realistic option to us if you have a foreign card or have set up a local e-wallet. But this will be an unactivated, unregistered card, and you will have to activate it yourself, again through an official operator office or online on the website with passport photo, selfie, etc.

  Just in case, here are the addresses of official operator offices in Bali in Kuta:

  • Indosat Ooredoo. Address: Jl. Bypass Ngurah Rai No.88, Tuban, Kec. Kuta, Kabupaten Badung, Bali 80361. office on map
  • Smartfren. Address: Jl. Pulau Kawe No.3, Dauh Puri Klod, Kec. Denpasar Bar., Kota Denpasar, Bali 80114. Office on map
  • Telcomsel. Address: Simpang Dewa Ruci, Jalan By Pass Ngurah Rai, Kuta, Badung, Kabupaten Badung, Bali 80361. Office on map
  • XL Axiata. Address: Jl. Sunset Road No.818, Kuta, Kec. Kuta, Kabupaten Badung, Bali 80361. Office on map.

• Where to buy e-Sim

  E-Sim can be bought on-site at mobile phone salons or on operator websites if you have a foreign card. E-sim is supported by local operators:

  • E-sim Indosat Ooredoo
  • E-sim Smartfren
  • E-sim Telkomsel
  • E-sim XL Axiata

  If you don't have a foreign bank card, but want to buy an eSim in advance, you can do it on the Trip.com website, they accept Russian ones.

• How much does a SIM card cost

  In theory, the SIM cards themselves are free, but getting an empty SIM without a pre-connected tariff is currently unrealistic. So you'll have to choose some initial tariff plan, called a Starter Plan or Starter Pack. At a minimum, initial tariff plans cost from 20,000 rupees (1.11 USD), more often from 40,000 rupees (2.21 USD). But it's not easy for tourists to get such SIM cards, we talked about the problem above. So aim for tourist cards with packages priced at a minimum of 200,000 rupees (11.07 USD).

  When the initial package expires due to validity period or when you use up all minutes and traffic on it, you can top up the card and renew it again, or choose any other tariff (package). You can connect additional packages even for one day, depending on how much you need, but of course, taking them for a week or a month is more profitable.

  

  

  

• Which tariff to choose

  At SIM card sales points at the airport, in salons, in travel agencies, they will always offer you ready-made options for review, you just need to choose the suitable one. In our opinion, there's no point in 'bothering' before the trip with studying tariffs on operator websites and comparing them, because the price difference between operators for similar tariffs is minimal.

  However, operators' tariffs are very tricky. The tariff capacity is divided into regular gigabytes, social (to social networks and messengers), local (to local resources and apps), and so on. So, for example, out of the proudly stated 60 GB in the tariff title, only 20 GB might actually be real. So read the descriptions carefully or ask the seller. Also pay attention to the tariff's validity period so that it lasts for your vacation or travel period. Tourist SIM cards are most often sold with 30-day tariffs.

  Our advice from personal experience

  If you are going on a tour for a week or two of vacation, it's not necessary to get unlimited, a tariff with a honest 20-30 gigabytes of Internet will be enough, maybe even without voice minutes. This volume will be more than enough to always stay connected, communicate in messengers with family and locals, follow the news, and post photos and short videos. You'll get all other entertainment via hotel WiFi in the room.

  Again, from our experience of the last trip, we bought an Indosat Ooredoo starter SIM card at an official telecom salon for 48,000 rupees for 6GB (main) +25GB (bonus), i.e., total 31GB. As a result, by the end of the month-long trip along the Bali-Lombok-Gili route, we spent on two phones only 4.5GB out of the main 6GB, and didn't even get to the 25GB bonus. Of course, this is all without watching videos, and using the internet mainly for maps, working on social networks, bank apps and e-wallets.

  

• Which operator to choose

  Regarding operator choice, everything is simple: just choose one of the well-known and large ones, that's all:

  • Telkomsel
  • XL Axiatra
  • Indosat Ooredoo
  • Smartfren

  For Bali, Lombok and Gili, locals recommend XL Axiatra or Telkomsel, allegedly they work best here. And we were convinced of this by our experience with Indosat Ooredoo, which worked very poorly in many parts of the islands, and for example, on Gili Trawangan didn't work at all.

• Where and how to top up the SIM card balance

  Usually, SIM cards are already sold with a balance and an activated internet and minutes package (they activate it for you upon purchase). So topping up the balance after purchase is often not needed during a short trip. You will need to top it up only if your package's validity period or minutes/gigabytes run out, or if you somehow miraculously got an empty SIM. Also, a positive balance is needed for international calls or to local landlines or calls to other operators if your tariff doesn't include minute packages.

  You can top up at any salon where cards are sold, in retail stalls, at supermarket checkouts. Payment is made in cash to the seller, and a commission of about 2000-4000 rupees is often charged for this.

  You can also top up the balance online on the operator's website or in the app (this option is more convenient), but Russian cards, of course, are not accepted. Of course, there are workarounds like PayPal e-money, GoPay, OVO wallets and others, but they also first need to be topped up via workarounds through crypto or exchangers. If you only need this once and only to top up the balance, it's better not to bother with wallets and cards, but just top up with cash. In the end, if you need to do it very urgently and quickly, you can always turn to locals, for example, the staff at the hotel reception, give them cash and they will top it up from their wallets or card.

Which messenger is used in Indonesia and Bali

The most popular messenger here is WhatsApp. Almost everyone has it, so you can communicate via messages or voice calls with local drivers, travel agents, guides, hotels, motorbike renters, etc. If you don't have WhatsApp installed, you can install it at home and link it to your home SIM card, not necessarily to a local one. If the SMS code doesn't arrive when activating with your home Russian SIM, specify Kazakhstan as the country during registration (code +7).

Useful codes and phone numbers for mobile

• Code for calling to Russia - 01017 and the number in Russia without the 8
• Telephone code of Indonesia - +62
• 118 – Ambulance
• 110 – Police
• 113 – Fire Department