Bulgaria is a country quite often visited by tourists. The summer period gives a wonderful holiday on the "golden" sands, and the winter period attracts budget ski resorts. When crossing the Bulgarian border, tourists often wonder how they can buy local SIM cards in Bulgaria, so that it would be convenient and inexpensive to use the Internet, and with the help of international roaming they could inform their relatives and friends about normal health and a great time.

It is no secret that each country has its own mobile operators offering unique services for tourists. In addition, some countries offer tariffs that are designed specifically for travelers, that is, the rates for mobile communications and Internet use are equally optimal for any country that is part of the EU.

Consider what mobile operators exist in Bulgaria and what conditions for using their services they offer. So, in Bulgaria there are three mobile operators offering 3G and 2G Internet speeds and only one at 4G speed:

Mtel, formerly Mobitel, owned by Telekom Austria;
Telenor, formerly Globul;
Vivacom;
Max Telecom, providing data exchange at 4G/LTE speed.

The first three mobile operators in Bulgaria have excellent 2G and 3G coverage - 95% of the entire area of ​​the country. Some virtual mobile operators work in the network with three providers of high data exchange rates at once, but they still cannot offer the best result. Moreover, 4G speed is offered only by the fourth mobile operator in Bulgaria - Max Telecom, which is not among the top three mobile operators in Bulgaria.

The most important question for tourists is where to buy a SIM card in Bulgaria? This issue is solved quite simply. SIM cards in Bulgaria are sold in branded stores of mobile operators, as well as in large supermarkets. To purchase a SIM card, you must have an identity card with a photo for registration.

In order to find out what services and at what cost are offered by mobile operators in Bulgaria, we present their proposed tariffs and services.
Mobile operator Mtel, formerly Mobitel

The prepaid tariff of this mobile operator is called "Prima" and has the best 3G coverage (97% of the total population of the country). In Bulgaria there is its own currency - leva, for which you can buy a SIM card. Prima SIM cards can be bought for 8 leva (1 Bulgarian lev is approximately equal to 35 Russian rubles) in Mtel brand stores or partner stores. The Prima package includes:

balance 8 leva;
200 minutes in the Family and Friends group;
100 SMS;
100 mms.

The standard price for data exchange in this package is 0.25 BGN per 100 Kb.

How to check Mtel balance? To do this, just send a free text message "Balances" to the number 1796, in the response SMS you will receive a message about the balance on the SIM card account.

Mtel also offers two internet-only packages called Prima. They are convenient to use on a tablet or in a modem. In order to activate the selected tariff plan, you need to send a free text message to 1617.

Checking the balance of the Prima Free Data SIM card: it is necessary to send a free text message "Balance" to number 1796. Outside of the above tariff plans, the cost of 1 MB is 2.56 levs.

Internet Settings

APN: inet-gprs.mtel.bg

Mobile operator Telenor (previously called Globul)

The mobile operator Telenor entered the mobile communications and data market in 2013. Telenor offers two types of SIM cards, which can be purchased at the mobile operator's branded stores:

standard Telenor SIM cards valid for 60 days;
Telenor travel SIM cards valid for 7 days, which includes: 1 GB of data, 30 minutes of calls both within the network and in most European countries.

The telecom operator Telenor also issues special SIM cards for modems. GOWEB 2000 SIM cards cost 9.90 levs and are provided for 2 GB of data. The validity period of such a SIM card is 7 days. For such a GOWEB 2000 SIM card, two tariff plans are provided:

2 GB for 7 days;
3 GB for 30 days.

The mobile operator Telenor offers SIM cards of any format for sale: standard, mini, micro, nano.

Internet settings

APN: Telenor
Username: Telenor

Mobile operator Vivacom

The European operator Vivacom is the third telecom operator that has excellent 3G coverage in Bulgaria. In company stores, representatives of the telecom operator will offer the following starter packages:

Get Free Call you - with free calls and a bonus program for replenishing an account worth 6 levs;
Viva – standard prepaid tariff plan for BGN 10;
Viva International – with reduced rates for international roaming (only to certain countries) costing 6 BGN.

You can top up your SIM card with vouchers worth 10, 20 and 50 leva.

For all Vivacom SIM cards, the cost of 1 MB is set by default at 0.30 BGN. This applies to those data that are used outside the tariff.

To activate one of the selected packages, you must enter the code *#3282 and the name of the selected package. The cost of the tariff plan will be automatically deducted from the balance of your SIM card.

Vivacom SIM cards intended only for data exchange are called "Easy Traffic". Negotiating and sending SMS messages within this package is not possible. The initial amount of data is 2.5 GB for a period of 10 days, if the package is not renewed, then the cost of 1 MB over paid will cost 0.01 BGN. That is, at the end of the package, the subscriber can extend its validity by additionally connecting an identical package. This offer is also available for 3G modems and routers, the package price for which is 99.90 BGN.

The Vivacom telecom operator offers SIM cards of various formats: standard, micro, mini, nano, and therefore such Vivacom SIM cards can be applied to absolutely any telephone set.

Internet settings:

APN: internet.vivacom.bg
username and password: VIVACOM.

Mobile operator Max Telecom

The mobile operator Max Telecom was the first mobile operator in Bulgaria to offer 4G/LTE Internet speed at 1800 MHz. However, to date, the package is somewhat limited - it covers the 20 largest cities in Bulgaria, including resorts on the Black Sea coast.

Max Telecom does not have its own coverage of 2G and 3G, however, for the convenience of subscribers, the company's management signed a contract with the mobile operator Mtel for the use of their equipment, which means that these speeds can be used completely free of charge in the summer, and in winter - all subscribers switch to data exchange speed 4G/LTE.

Max Telecom SIM cards are available in branded stores.

The maximum speed of the offered volumes as part of the package is 75/25 Mbps, according to At the end of the tariff, the speed will be reduced to 256/128 Kbps. If the SIM card balance is positive, then the package is automatically extended.

Internet settings:

APN: apn.maxtelecom.bg

Of course, using a native SIM card in another country will be much more expensive for a tourist, because international roaming takes the lion's share of travel expenses. It will be much more profitable to purchase a local SIM card and call your home country. Moreover, numerous online programs common today allow you not to spend money on roaming, and use only Internet resources to make calls to any country in the world.

However, the difficulty lies in the fact that, as a rule, on the territory of other countries, the abundance of SIM cards and offers makes the choice somewhat difficult, and the best option would be to purchase a SIM card of the country that the tourist is going to visit before departure.

Moreover, some mobile operators offer excellent packages that operate throughout the European Union. Such an offer is quite tempting, because you don’t need to buy a SIM card in each country, staying there for 2-3 days (we are talking about a tour of Europe, for example).

For example, for the Internet in Bulgaria, the mobile operator Orange (Spain) offers the Go Europe tariff

Internet: €1/day for every 100MB of Internet traffic

Calls: €1/day for 60 minutes of incoming and outgoing calls to local numbers, Orange subscribers' numbers with the "Go Europe" tariff activated in the host country
Incoming SMS - free
Outgoing SMS to local – €0.07

The mobile operator Vodafone (Italy), which has spread to 41 European countries, as well as Turkey and the USA, offers the following megatariffs:

Smart Passport allows you to connect automatically, but only after using the package for 3 euros per day. Package Included:
30 minutes of incoming calls
30 minutes of outgoing calls to European numbers
60 SMS
200 MB of Internet traffic at maximum speed
Internet Passport allows you to connect automatically, but only after using the package for 6 euros per day. Package Included:
1 GB of Internet traffic at maximum speed

The Estonian operator Globalsim came up with a very advantageous offer with the Smart Data internet package. For only $19 you get 1 GB of traffic per month, which you can reconnect after you use it up. When crossing the border between countries, the package is not disabled.

All the above tariffs,