Atacama eSIM
In Atacama you connect to Entel or Movistar, whichever is performing better where you are standing. The median across the country is 52 Mbps. Your data starts working the moment you land, before you reach the immigration hall.
- Networks
- Entel and Movistar
- Real speed in Chile
- 52 Mbps median, 13 Mbps for the slowest tenth642 travellers across Chile, rolling 90 days
- 5G
- yes, non standalone
- Throttle
- None on metered plans
- Tethering
- Allowed on every plan
Plans that cover Atacama
| Data | Validity | Price per GB | Price | Buy |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 GB | Never expires | $9.89 | $9.89 | |
| 3 GB | Never expires | $6.30 | $18.89 | |
| 5 GBMost travellers | Never expires | $5.38 | $26.89 | |
| 10 GB | Never expires | $4.39 | $43.89 | |
| 20 GB | Never expires | $3.79 | $75.89 |
How Chile compares across South America
- Speed rank
- 1 of 10 destinations we sell in South America
- Regional median
- 34.5 Mbps
- Consistency
- The slowest tenth still reaches 25 percent of the median
- Upstream networks
- 2, Entel, Movistar
- 5G
- Yes, non standalone
- Next slowest nearby
- Brazil, 49 Mbps
- Cities with their own page
- 3: Santiago, Valparaiso, Atacama
- tenth percentile
- 13 Mbps
- Behind these figures
- 642 travellers, rolling 90 days
Landing at El Loa Airport, Calama (CJC)
- Airport
- CJC / SCCF
Getting into Atacama
- Shared transfer from El Loa Airport to San Pedro de Atacama (Transfer Altiplanico, Transfer Pampa, Transvip) (CJC), about 90 minutes
- Route 23 from Calama to San Pedro de Atacama (100 km) (CJC), about 90 minutes
Worth knowing about Atacama
- Atacama is a desert region, not a city. You fly into El Loa Airport at Calama, 6 km from the Calama city centre, and then cover 100 km along Route 23 (about 1 hour 30 minutes) to reach San Pedro de Atacama.
- The airport's own shared-transfer operators (Transfer Altiplanico, Transfer Pampa, Transvip) check in on Level 1 of the public hall, and the published airport-to-San Pedro fare is CLP 17,900 per person.
- El Loa handles domestic flights only today - Santiago, La Serena and Concepcion - after its one international route, LATAM Peru's service to Lima, was suspended in March 2020.
- San Pedro de Atacama lies 106 km southeast of Calama at roughly 2,400 m above sea level, so the transfer is a sustained climb into altitude rather than a short airport run.
- Chile made prepaid mobile registration mandatory from 20 August 2026: every prepaid line must be tied to a named holder, with operators recording name, address and national ID or passport number, so buying a local prepaid SIM now involves identity verification.
Sources for this page
Other cities in Chile we cover
- Valparaiso
- 977 km from Atacama, nearest airport SCL
- Santiago
- 1005 km from Atacama, nearest airport SCL