Bulgaria mobile internet sim card
 

Can anyone recommend some sim card for use in Bulgaria? I'm looking for say 100-150 MB during a few days, and long account validity / low costs of keeping the SIM alive.

I have looked through the pages of the three main operators, but the costs of mobile internet seem incredibly very high. Prices are in the region of 10 BGN (€5) for 150MB (that's what M-Tel charges: M-Tel ) This is really close to what I'd pay for Roaming in Bulgaria with an EU card!!

It does indeed seem disproportionately expensive for small allowances. According to Globul's web site, it's BGN 9.90 for 64MB, BGN 14.90 for 128MB, BGN 19.90 for 512MB and BGN 29.90 for 1GB. That's over five times the price per megabyte for 64MB compared to 1GB.

Globul does not support EDGE on their GSM network and my experience on their UMTS network is also quite disappointing as bandwidth is low and I've seen a lot of packet loss, so I wouldn't recommend them. I think the state of the network is related to the financial problems of their parent, Greek OTE, who by the way is urgently looking for a buyer for Globul which is expected to yield enough to redeem half of those € 1.4 billion in debt to become due this year. Their total debt amounts to € 4 billion while EBITDA in 3Q2012 was € 430m.

Vivacom, which is the brand of the former state-owned monopolist BTC, provides great UMTS coverage since they are the only Bulgarian operator who has been deploying UMTS to the 900 MHz band (UMTS900) and so covers 98% of the population and 87% of the territory with UMTS. However their only prepaid data offer is the "Easy Traffic" tariff which gives you 1200MB valid for 120 days for 30 Leva (€15.34) and I don't know if they sell SIM cards separately or only bundled with a USB stick for 69 Leva (€ 35.28 ) as advertised on their website.

M-Tel as the oldest network in the country also provides very good UMTS coverage (UMTS2100 only) and has quite decent data tariffs. What even staff often doesn't realize is, that different tariffs apply when you register your SIM card and when you don't:

With registration ("С регистрация", pronounced "s registraciya") following data packages are available:
SURF 50 MB (50MB valid for 30 days) for 9.90 Leva (€ 5.06)
SURF 100 MB (100MB valid for 30 days) for 14.90 Leva (€ 7.62)
SURF 500 MB (500MB valid for 30 days) for 19.90 Leva (€ 10.17)
source: Мтел - Мобилен интернет - Прима::Мтел

SIM cards with registration cost 6 Leva.


Without registration ("Без регистрация" pronounced "bez registraciya") prices are much cheaper as there are the following SIM card offers:
SIM card + 1GB valid for 5 days for 9.90 Leva (€ 5.06)
SIM card + 100 MB valid for 15 days + 3 Leva of credit for 7.98 Leva (€ 4.08 )
SIM card + 400 MB valid for 120 days + 3 Leva of credit for 14.90 Leva (€ 7.62)
source: Мтел - Мобилен интернет - Прима::Мтел

And these are the options for additional data for unregistered SIM cards:
Prima Free Data 512 MB (512MB valid for 60 days) for 19.90 Leva (€ 10.17)
Prima Free Data 1500 MB (1.5GB valid for 60 days) for 29.90 Leva (€ 15.29)
Prima Free Data 1 GB (1GB valid for 2 days) for 9.90 Leva (€ 5.06)
Prima Free Data 5 GB (5GB valid for 30 days) for 49.90 Leva (€ 25.51)
source: Мтел - Мобилен интернет - Прима::Мтел

The only downside of those unregistered SIM cards is that they are blocked for all other services except for data. Also data roaming is unavailable.
Data sessions require a remaining credit of at least 0.30 Leva (except for when using the SIM card's included initial data).
You can subscribe to another data pack before the old one has been used up or has expired. In that case the remaining data volume will be carried over and its validity period extended according to the validity of the new data pack.

Unregistered SIM cards are activated by sending an empty text to 1617.

To order data packs text the desired amount of data as written and highlighted above to 1796. Be aware that for the 1.5GB you indeed need to text "1500 MB" while for the 1GB pack it's "1 GB" - so the inconsistent designations above are indeed correct.

You can check remaining data by USSD (*101#03#) and probably the old method of texting "balans" to 1796 still works, too.

Current balance can be requested by *101# and recharge vouchers can be redeemed by *100#code#

Thanks Inquisitor :) that's exactly the info I was looking for. And I'm writing this from my unregistered M-tel card :)

Welcome. Since MTel's website is not clear in this regard, I wonder if roaming is completely disabled for those unregistered SIMs or if you can register on foreign networks and use at least USSD. The latter would allow you to redeem a top up voucher bought before leaving the country from abroad in order to extend SIM validity.
Your SIM should be valid for 12 months after activation or your last recharge.

Btw postpaid subscriber of Mtel can recharge prepaid SIMs by SMS with 6, 10 or 15 Leva, which will be charged on the next monthly bill. So if you happen to know a postpaid subscriber on Mtel ask him to send your number followed by a comma and the desired amount to 1616. E.g. to send 6 Leva to a prepaid SIM with the number 08812345678 the postpaid subscriber would need to send the following text:
08812345678,6

In case you need to keep your SIM alive, I can probably arrange such a transfer for you.

Given the requirement to top up every 12 months, is it possible to buy a registered M-Tel SIM card without activating it so that the 12 month period starts ticking only when you first start using it?

You mean an unregistered SIM. Can't answer that one, as I've never bought an unregistered one. But given the instruction on Mtel's website to activate the SIM by sending an empty SMS to 1616, I guess you can buy one and keep it unactivated for a while.

Not only did my sim card register without any problems on the Turkish Vodafone network, I also received the usual SMSes containing the tariff info for SMS and data roaming :o checking credit and available MBs in roaming worked without any problems.
Unfortunately I chose the 1GB unregistered version of the sim card, so I had no possibility to try it out (no credit). If you'd really like to know I might be able to recharge it and test in in Romania tomorrow.

I'll paste the SMSes I received. (I don't have Google translate to my disposal via my mobile phone now)



Thanks for your offer to help keep the sim alive, I'll keep it in mind :)

Zdraveyte, tsenata za izhodyashto povikvane ot Gartsia do BG e 0.68lv.s DDS, za vhodyashto povikvane e 0.187lv. Bezplaten nomer za klienti +35988137

Zdraveyte, tsenata za SMS do BG 0.211lv. s DDS. Nomerat za speshni sluchai e 112. Priyaten prestoy v Gartsia. Ekipat na Mtel

Zdraveyte, tsenata za prenos na danni za 1 MB e 1.642 lv. s DDS. Ekipat na Mtel

Zdraveyte, tsenata za izhodyashto povikvane izvan ES e 6.99lv.,za vhodyashto povikvane e 2.99lv., SMS - 1.29lv. Tseni s DDS. Nomer za klienti +35988137

Tsenata za mobilen internet izvan ES e 23.90lv s DDS/MB. Ako ne ste se otkazali ot limit za prenos na danni v rouming, toy e 117lv. Otkaz ot limit: SMS na 17834

Thanks for your offer to test data roaming, but except for using USSD-based recharging I would never consider using an Mtel SIM abroad at these tariffs.

Google Translate wouldn't work as it can't handle Bulgarian input transliterated to the Latin alphabet, but as Bulgarian is my second mother tongue I can help:

No I mean a registered "С регистрация" but unactivated SIM which can make voice calls.

I fear that "registered" SIM cards are activated automatically upon registration and so the beginning of the activity time frame cannot be retarded.

Ha! That means my telephone connected to a Greek network as well when I was near the border. And I see why google translate didn't want to work. Anyways, we know now that it's no problem recharging unregistered cards from abroad :)

I discovered that M-Tel's 12-month validity period starts from the date of the first call. They also charge double (BGN 19.90) for a nano-SIM or micro-SIM, but it includes 512MB of data and a discount on national calls (BGN 0.39 per minute) for 90 days.

Finally Vivacom has introduced data bundles that can be added to all their prepaid SIM cards (as opposed to special data-only SIM cards): +Get Data, Mobile Prepaid, Mobile Services, Prices & Services, VIVACOM

The only interesting bundles are the larger ones:
L 150MB valid for 30 days for Lv 14.99 (€ 7.66)
XL 750MB valid for 60 days for Lv 19.99 (€ 10.22)

Currently both data options are available free of charge if you recharge your SIM with Lv >=20 or Lv >=49.99.

These data tariffs combined with the "VIVA International" SIM card which provides reasonable international voice rates is probably the best choice for visitors who don't require too much data volume.
Remember that much of Vivacom's 3G coverage is based on UMTS900 which is not supported by all handsets.

Currently, as of mid-July 2013, M-tel has the shittiest network out of the 3 top BG operators.

Since I'm traveling around for about a month and really need a descent connection, I have gotten 2 prepaid cards from 2 different operators -
- M-tel Prima (1.5GB package for 29.90 Leva) and
- Globul GoWeb (1.0GB for 29.90 Leva).

I'm using both of them for half a month already at various places in Bulgaria (Sofia, Varna, some rural places at the southern Black Sea beach, etc.) and have to say that Globul's coverage is pretty descent - HSPA everywhere, no packet loss and good packet round-trip times (like ~100ms from here to Germany).

M-tel's network is really *horrible* - low signal strength, connection frequently bouncing between UMTS/HSPA and EDGE, almost half of the packets getting lost or delayed for several seconds (!). Round trip times to google.com for example average at about 2,200ms. It looks like it's constantly overloaded, regardless of location and connection speeds. Since I need reliable interactive sessions with good response times, M-tel's network is practically unusable for me.

I have no opinion on Vivacom's network yet, but likely will ditch M-tel and get a Vivacom sim card as a backup next time.

New Globul prepaid product: Prepaid data package GLOBUL GoWeb 2000
 

Globul has a Prepaid SIM card for data only usage, announced als "new". The user gets 2 Gigabytes for 9.90 BGN (5.05 EUR). I bought one from a Globul store. The whole process including activation took five minutes. The shop assistant did the activation immediately. The SIM card works in my phone without any problem.

An ID is nessecary but neither a Bulgarian nor a home address is registrated.

The 2 Gigabytes may be used within 7 days from the time of registration.

Please provide updated info
 

Will be traveling to Bulgaria withing 3 weeks.
What is the recommended prepaid SIM card for data only?
I estimate I'll be using about 3GB.

Thanks.

Daniel

Hi Daniel.
Here is a market survey. It should be more or less up to date:
http://prepaid-data-sim-card.wikia.com/wiki/Bulgaria
For data only, it's sufficient to choose a data SIM card like Prima Data from Mtel, GoWeb 2000 from Telenor or Easy Traffic from Vivacom. It has enough start up volume, for 3 weeks you going to add a bundle.

Thanks
 

What about registration of the SIM card?
I read in one of the providers that this is required.
How complicated is the whole purchase, activation and registration process going to be?

Registration is obligatory in Bulgaria and required by all operators. The whole process is pretty simple as the salesperson will do everything for you.

Thank you.

By the way MTel offers a "Prima Data" SIM card without the need to register ("bez registraciya" / "без регистрация") which is limited to data only (no voice) but actually data packs are cheaper than for registered SIM cards:
2GB valid for 14 days for 9.90 BGN (€ 5.06) and
5GB valid for 30 days for 24.90 BGN (€ 12.73)

for details see: http://www.mtel.bg/prima-predplaten-mobilen-internet (it seems like Mtel has discontinued the English version of its website)

As some salesmen are not aware of this SIM card you have to be very careful because if they register your ID your desired "Prima Data" SIM card it automatically becomes a regular "Prima" SIM card with more expensive data tariffs. So do not show your ID in case you want this "Prima Data" SIM.