Bangladesh is not a postcard destination, and precisely for that reason being connected matters twice as much: people come here to close textile orders, visit family, take a boat trip through the delta, or explore the 120 kilometers of beach in Cox's Bazar. In this guide, I'll tell you how internet in Bangladesh really works, how much data costs, which operators are available, why getting a local SIM is slow for foreigners, and which option is best for your type of trip.
Mobile Internet in Bangladesh
In Bangladesh, you connect with 4G mobile data, which is very cheap and covers almost the entire country. The fastest way is an eSIM activated before landing: it saves you the biometric passport registration required for a local SIM. Spanish roaming is not included in EU tariffs and becomes very expensive.
Bangladesh is one of the most densely populated countries on the planet, with about 170 million inhabitants crammed into an area slightly larger than half of Spain. This has a direct consequence for you: there are antennas everywhere. 4G coverage reaches almost all inhabited areas, and the four operators compete with prices that seem like a misprint to a Spaniard.
The other side is quality. Here, the mobile phone is the computer for almost everyone, and the network is loaded. In Dhaka in the late afternoon, you might have four bars but a speed that won't even let you upload a photo to a WhatsApp group. Real mobile data speeds usually range from 10-25 Mbps when things are good, and drop significantly during peak hours or in rural areas. 5G exists on paper and in specific tests, but don't count on it as part of your plan: it's purely symbolic.
Domestic and office fiber, on the other hand, has improved significantly in Dhaka and Chittagong. A decent business hotel will give you a perfectly usable connection for video calls. The problem isn't the city's infrastructure; it's what happens when you move away from it or when electricity fails, which is more often than you'd like.
The Four Ways to Connect, Compared
As with any destination, you have four options, and in Bangladesh, each has a very specific caveat. Roaming from your Spanish operator is by far the most expensive because the country is outside the European Union. Wi-Fi is free but ties you to the hotel. A local SIM is the cheapest option per gigabyte, but it will cost you time and paperwork. And an eSIM has the least friction, although the gigabyte costs more than buying it in a store in Dhaka.
| Option | Estimated Cost | Advantage | Disadvantage in Bangladesh |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spanish Roaming | Expensive daily pass or per-MB tariff | Zero hassle | Outside EU: no regulated price cap |
| Hotel Wi-Fi | Included | Free and usually sufficient for work | Power outages, no coverage outside the hotel |
| Local SIM | From 150-200 BDT for SIM + plan | Lowest price per gigabyte | Passport, visa, and fingerprint; 30-60 min queue |
| Travel eSIM | Fixed plan before departure | Active upon landing, no paperwork | Requires compatible phone; no local number |
My honest summary: if you're going for ten days for work or a family visit, an eSIM saves you an entire morning of hassle, and you'll be connected as soon as you step off the plane. If you're staying for a month or more, or need a Bangladeshi number for SMS verifications, it's worth going through the local SIM process. And there's no law that forces you to choose just one: many people carry both.
Roaming: Bangladesh is Outside the EU Zone
I'll start with what causes the most grief. Bangladesh is not part of the European Union or the European Economic Area, so the famous "Roam Like at Home" — which allows you to use your Spanish tariff in France or Italy without paying extra — does not apply here at all. There is no regulated price cap, no included gigabytes, nothing. What applies is your operator's international tariff for the zone in which Bangladesh has been placed, which is usually one of the last and most expensive.
In practice, you'll encounter two scenarios. In the best-case scenario, your company has an Asia travel pass that costs around €10-€15 per day for a ridiculous amount of data. In the worst-case scenario, Bangladesh isn't even on the list of countries with a pass, and you're billed per megabyte consumed, which is how those three-figure bills that later appear in forums come about. Neither scenario is acceptable for a two-week trip.
As soon as you land in Dhaka, go to your settings and turn off data roaming before connecting anything. Sixty seconds that can save you an unpleasant bill.
If you want a side-by-side comparison before deciding, I have a detailed breakdown in eSIM vs. roaming and a tariff guide in how much international roaming costs. Call your operator before flying and ask for the exact tariff for Bangladesh in writing: you'll be surprised how much it varies between companies.
Hotel, Cafe, and Airport Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi in Bangladesh is better than people expect, as long as you're in the right place. Business hotels in Dhaka — the areas of Gulshan, Banani, and Baridhara, where most people coming for the textile sector stay — have fiber and connections that handle video calls without a problem. Cafes in those same areas also work well. In Chittagong and large hotels in Cox's Bazar, things generally function reasonably.
Outside of that, the landscape changes. In provincial guesthouses, in the rest houses of the Sylhet tea plantations, or in any accommodation near the Sundarbans, Wi-Fi is a shared line for the entire building and it performs as it performs. And there's a local factor that doesn't appear in guidebooks: power outages. Load shedding is still common outside major cities, and even if the hotel has a generator for lights, the router often isn't plugged into it.
- Dhaka Airport (Hazrat Shahjalal): Wi-Fi is available, but SMS registration can be complicated if you don't have a local line yet.
- Long-distance trains and buses: Forget it, rely on mobile data.
- Boats and launches on the delta: no Wi-Fi and intermittent coverage.
Pocket Wi-Fi isn't a great idea here either: you have to pick it up, return it, charge it every day, and ultimately it relies on the same mobile networks. I break it down in eSIM vs. pocket Wi-Fi. Treat Wi-Fi as a supplement, never as your main plan.
Local SIM: Operators, Prices, and Biometric Process
There are four operators in Bangladesh: Grameenphone (the leader, with the widest rural coverage), Robi (merged with Airtel, which maintains its brand), Banglalink (the aggressive one on price), and Teletalk, the state-owned one, cheaper but with a clearly inferior network. A physical card costs around 200 BDT for the first three and about 150 BDT for Teletalk. To give you an idea of the exchange rate, about 140 taka is approximately 1 euro, so we're talking about cents.
| Operator | Approximate Tourist Package | Price | Approx. Equivalent |
|---|---|---|---|
| Banglalink | 5 GB + 150 min, 7 days | 198 BDT | ~€1.40 |
| Banglalink | 20 GB + 300 min, 20 days | 298 BDT | ~€2.10 |
| Banglalink | 60 GB + 1,500 min, 30 days | 998 BDT | ~€7 |
| Grameenphone | 20 GB + calls + SMS, 15 days | 400 BDT | ~€2.85 |
| Grameenphone | 40 GB + calls + SMS, 30 days | 600 BDT | ~€4.30 |
| Robi / Airtel | Entry Tourist SIM | from 250 BDT | ~€1.80 |
Now for the fine print, which is where it hurts. Bangladesh has a system of mandatory biometric registration: to activate any line, you must scan your fingerprint against the central verification platform. As a foreigner, you need a passport and visa, and you can only register a maximum of two SIMs per passport. Tourist SIMs are sold in blocks of 7, 15, or 30 days and are activated in official stores or at counters in ports of entry, including Dhaka, Chittagong, and Sylhet airports, where they tend to be slightly more expensive.
The process itself isn't difficult, but it's slow: between the queue, forms, and fingerprint, count on a good half hour if you're lucky, and much longer if you hit a busy store. It's a morning of your trip in exchange for saving a few euros. You can find the full analysis in eSIM vs. local SIM.
eSIM: Get Connected Before Landing
An eSIM is a digital card that you download to your phone and activate without changing anything physical. You buy it from home, install it using your home Wi-Fi, and when the plane lands in Dhaka, you already have data working. If you've never used one, I'll explain it step-by-step in what an eSIM is; and if you want to get straight to the point, here's the eSIM guide for Bangladesh.
For this specific destination, it has three significant advantages. The first is that you skip the biometric registration: no queue, no fingerprint, no form. The second is that you keep your Spanish number active on the other line, which is no small detail when you're expecting an SMS from the bank or a call from the office. The third is that you know what you're going to pay before leaving home, with no surprises on your next month's bill.
And the downsides, which also exist. A gigabyte is more expensive than in a Gulshan store, no argument there: local plans are among the cheapest in the world, and no international eSIM can compete with that. It also doesn't give you a Bangladeshi number, so if you need to receive SMS verifications from local services or have a provider call you on a local number, an eSIM alone won't suffice. And you need a compatible phone: almost all iPhones from the XS onwards and most mid-to-high-end Android phones from recent years are, but it's worth checking. Check before you buy anything, not at the airport.
Coverage by Zone: Dhaka, Sundarbans, Cox's Bazar
Coverage in Bangladesh is extensive but uneven, and it's good to know where you might be out of range. I'll tell you by zone, which is how people actually travel here.
- Dhaka: full coverage with all four operators. The problem is saturation, not signal. In traffic jams — and Dhaka's traffic jams are legendary, five-kilometer journeys can take two hours — the network slows down just when you need it most to say you're running late.
- Chittagong and Sylhet: good urban coverage. In the surrounding tea plantations of Sylhet, the signal holds up reasonably, with occasional drops.
- Cox's Bazar: the world's longest continuous beach has decent coverage in the urban stretch and along the coastal road. As you go down towards Inani and Teknaf, the signal becomes patchy, and in Saint Martin, it depends on the day and the operator.
- Sundarbans: I'll be honest with you here, because this is what matters most. The delta mangroves and inland channels where tigers are sought do not have reliable coverage, and for much of the journey, there's simply no signal. Multi-day delta cruises are done without connection, and that needs to be planned for.
- Chittagong Hill Tracts (Bandarban, Rangamati): mountainous terrain, irregular coverage. Grameenphone works best in these areas, by far. Also remember that these areas have access restrictions for foreigners.
- River routes: on overnight launches to Barisal or Khulna, the signal appears and disappears depending on the distance to the shore.
If your itinerary includes the delta or mountains, download offline maps before leaving the city and let your family know you'll be out of reach for a couple of days. It's not a fault with your line, it's the country.
Internet Outages Decreed by Authorities
You won't see this in brochures, but I'm telling you because it's useful information. In Bangladesh, there have been internet blackouts ordered by the government itself during periods of political tension. The most severe was in July 2024: during student protests that escalated into an uprising, Sheikh Hasina's administration ordered the telecommunications regulator to cut off the connection. The national blackout began on July 18, 2024, broadband was restored on July 24, and mobile internet didn't return until July 28. There was a second 4G network cut on August 4, restored the following day after the prime minister's resignation.
Ten days without mobile data in an entire country. No eSIM, no local SIM, and no roaming work when the cut is ordered upstream, at the operator itself.
The good news is that the situation has changed on paper. In 2025, the Advisory Council of the interim government approved a reform of telecommunications regulations that prohibits the executive power from decreeing internet outages, precisely to prevent a repeat of 2024. This is a real step forward and should be acknowledged.
That said, I would travel with a safety net. A network-level outage cannot be fixed by having two lines, but it does help cover other scenarios: a downed antenna, an operator with problems, an area where only Grameenphone is available. Having two different connection methods is cheap and removes a problem from your plate. Download tickets, reservations, and maps to your phone, keep a local copy of your passport, and don't rely on the cloud being accessible at the exact moment you need it.
How Much Data You Need Based on Your Trip
Bangladesh is not a destination for uploading stories all day, but it is for a lot of WhatsApp, many family photos, and quite a bit of navigation with maps. These are my references, calculated based on normal usage without streaming series.
| Trip Profile | Duration | Recommended Data | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Business trip (textile) | 5-10 days | 10-20 GB | Video calls and heavy email; hotel Wi-Fi covers half of it |
| Family visit / diaspora | 2-4 weeks | 20-40 GB | Many video calls to Spain; also consider a local SIM |
| Adventure trip | 2 weeks | 10-15 GB | In Sundarbans and mountains you won't use much: no signal |
| Layover or short trip | 2-3 days | 3-5 GB | Maps, translator, and messaging more than enough |
| Digital nomad | 1 month | 50 GB or more | Here, a local SIM is very worthwhile despite the hassle |
Two specific tips. First: the translator uses more data than you think, and in Bangladesh, you'll use it a lot outside Dhaka, because Bengali reigns supreme and English fades as soon as you leave business circles. Download the offline language pack before you go. Second: uploading long videos to the cloud with a congested network is an excellent way to burn through your data allowance without realizing it, because retries also consume data. Schedule large uploads for when you're on Wi-Fi. With that, a 20 GB plan goes much further than it seems on paper.
Practical on-the-ground tips
Things I wish I had known before setting foot in Dhaka for the first time, ordered from most to least useful.
- Transport apps need constant data. Uber and the local Pathao are the sensible way to get around Dhaka, and both verify by SMS when you register. Create the account from your home country, with your home number, before traveling.
- Download city maps offline. Dhaka's traffic means a miscalculated journey can ruin your day's schedule; with the map offline, you at least know where you are when the network gets stuck.
- Mobile payments are for residents. Services like bKash are designed for those with a Bangladeshi national ID; as a visitor, you'll typically use cash in taka and a card at hotels.
- Carry a power bank. Between power outages and long days on the road or boat, running out of mobile power is easier here than in Europe. And without a mobile, there's no map, no translator, no contact.
- Monsoon, humidity, and heat. From June to September, it truly rains. A waterproof bag for your phone if you're going on a boat, as the delta's spray is constant.
- Save key contacts on paper. Hotel, factory contact, embassy. It sounds old-fashioned until the day you run out of data and battery at the same time.
The rule I always apply in such destinations is simple: anything you can solve from your sofa at home—accounts created, maps downloaded, data line activated, documents saved locally—is one less problem to manage with jet lag, heat, and a queue of thirty people in front of you.
Frequently asked questions
Does my home country's plan work in Bangladesh?
It works, but at an additional and expensive cost. Bangladesh is outside the EU and EEA, so the European roaming regulations do not apply. Your operator will charge its international rate, with daily bundles around €10-15 or, if there's no bundle for the country, billing per megabyte. Check the exact rate before you fly.
How much does a local SIM cost in Bangladesh?
Between 150 and 200 BDT for the card, plus the data plan. A 20 GB package with calls can cost around 298 BDT with Banglalink or 400 BDT with Grameenphone, which is between 2 and 3 euros. Prices are among the lowest in the world; the cost is the time spent on registration.
Do they ask for my fingerprint to activate the SIM?
Yes, biometric registration is mandatory in Bangladesh. All lines are activated by scanning your fingerprint against the central verification platform. As a foreigner, you will need to present your passport and visa, and you can only register a maximum of two cards per passport.
Is there coverage in the Sundarbans?
Not reliably. In the inner delta channels and mangrove areas where tiger safaris are conducted, there is no signal for much of the route. Assume you will be disconnected during multi-day cruises and inform anyone expecting to hear from you beforehand.
Which operator has the best coverage outside cities?
Grameenphone, hands down. It reaches rural areas and challenging terrain like Bandarban or Rangamati best, where other operators falter. Banglalink competes well on price within cities, and Teletalk, the state-owned operator, is the cheapest but also has the most limited network.
Is it true that the internet was cut off in the country?
Yes, it happened in July and August 2024. The government ordered a national shutdown that left mobile internet down from July 18 to 28, with a second 4G cut on August 4. In 2025, a reform was approved prohibiting the executive from ordering such cuts, but it's advisable to travel with downloaded documents and maps.
Can I use an eSIM in Bangladesh?
Yes, and it's the fastest way. It's installed from home with Wi-Fi and connects to local networks upon landing, without queues or biometric procedures. You need a compatible mobile—almost all iPhones from XS onwards and many recent Androids—and the device must be unlocked by your carrier.
How many gigabytes should I get for two weeks?
10-15 GB is more than enough for a two-week adventure trip. If you're coming for work and making daily video calls, go up to 20 GB. Keep in mind that in the delta and mountain sections you won't use anything because there's no signal, and hotel Wi-Fi will cover most of your heavy usage.
Conclusion
Bangladesh is a destination where data is ridiculously cheap and 4G coverage reaches almost everywhere, but where quality falters during peak hours, disappears in the delta, and has even been shut down by political decision. A local SIM is unbeatable in price if you have a morning to spare for the biometric process with passport and fingerprint. Spanish roaming, as the country is outside the EU, is by far the worst option. And hotel Wi-Fi will save your video call, but not your rickshaw ride through Dhaka or the road to Cox's Bazar.
If you're coming for work, family, or adventure and prefer to land already connected and without queues, the PuraSIM eSIM for Bangladesh installs in five minutes from home and activates automatically upon arrival. And if you're staying for weeks, combine: eSIM from the first minute and a local SIM at your leisure on the second day, once you know your way around.
