How to Buy a SIM Card in Mauritius in 2026

Mauritius makes the tourist SIM easy: two operators sell one at the airport, with unlimited data for the length of a holiday, against a passport and your boarding pass. The decision is whether that is better value than a plain starter SIM or a plan installed before you fly, and the answer depends on how much you will use. This guide gives the prices for my.t, Emtel and Chili, explains the airport counter, and sets out the eSIM we sell that covers the island with a French number. Our plans for the country are on the Mauritius eSIM page.

my.t, Emtel and Chili

my.t is the mobile brand of Mauritius Telecom and the largest network; Emtel is the private rival with equally good coverage across the island; Chili, run by MTML, is the small third and the cheapest. The island is compact and all three cover the coast resorts, Port Louis and the central plateau well; the gaps are in the Black River Gorges and on the slopes of Le Morne, where every network fades on the trails.

SSR airport: the tourist SIM counters

Both my.t and Emtel sell their tourist SIMs at Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam airport. You need a passport and proof of arrival, and my.t's tourist offer is for visitors aged 18 and over. The counters are in arrivals and the registration takes a few minutes.

What a tourist SIM costs

my.t's tourist SIM is about €30 including VAT for unlimited data over 30 days. Emtel's tourist SIM is about MUR 1,500, which another source lists as about €25 for 200GB. Chili's visitor offer starts from about Rs 900. For light use, a plain starter SIM from any of the three is about MUR 100 plus a data pack, and is the cheapest way onto the island. Prices are from reseller comparisons rather than the operators' own pages, so treat them as approximate.

What the tourist SIM does not do

The tourist SIM is a Mauritian line and nothing more: unlimited data for 30 days on the island and nothing once you leave it, which matters if Réunion or South Africa is also on the itinerary. In a dual-SIM phone your home SIM can stay in place for calls and texts while the Mauritian card carries the data.

Install before you fly

Our Orange World 20GB eSIM is $28 for 20GB over 30 days in more than 90 countries including Mauritius, with a French +33 number, 15 minutes of calls and 50 texts, hotspot and no registration, and it is working as the plane taxis in. For a longer multi-country trip, the Global PAYG Data eSIM is $20 with €17.50 of credit. The O2 SMS Only eSIM is $8 a month for a UK +44 number that receives bank codes anywhere while a local SIM carries the data.

Side by side

Grand Baie, Le Morne, Flic en Flac and the south

Grand Baie, Trou aux Biches, Flic en Flac and Port Louis are fast on every network. The south coast and Chamarel are covered along the roads. The Black River Gorges trails and the climb up Le Morne lose signal a few hundred metres in, on my.t and Emtel alike, and Rodrigues is covered in the town and patchy beyond. Our Orange World eSIM uses the local networks, so it does as well as the best Mauritian SIM wherever there is a mast.

Our recommendation

For a fortnight of normal use, install the Orange World 20GB eSIM before you fly and skip the counter; it carries on to Réunion and South Africa. For a month of heavy streaming, the my.t tourist SIM from the airport counter is the better buy, with the O2 SMS Only eSIM installed first so your bank codes keep arriving. Set-up steps are in our eSIM installation guide, and the plans for the country are on the Mauritius eSIM page.