Georgia SIM Card Guide: Internet, Calls and Top-Up

While recovering on a trip to another country, it is important to stay in touch with relatives and have free Internet access to quickly find the necessary information. Mobile communication in Georgia provides tourists with high-quality mobile communication and Internet on favorable terms.

Mobile operators in Georgia

There are three mobile operators operating in the country: Cellfie, GeoCell and MagtiCom. Mobile operators in Georgia provide favorable rates for travelers, since Georgia is a tourist country GeoCell offers the most profitable tourist package of All-inclusive services.

By purchasing such a tariff, a tourist receives 30 minutes for calls around the world, unlimited calls and SMS within Georgia and 2 GB of Internet. Such a package is limited to a validity period of 15 days and costs about 20 Lari (about $ 6.55).

MagtiCom tariffs are more profitable for tourists who minimally need international calls and actively use mobile communication to solve local issues. The telecom operator offers a tariff that includes unlimited calls and SMS in the country, 1GB of Internet and calls around the world at a price of 15 tetri (approximately $ 0.049) per minute.

Cellfie offers favorable rates that involve payment for the fact of using any service. For example, for the actual use of 1 GB of Internet, you will have to pay 10 tetri (about $ 0.033), 1 tetri ($0.0033) for 1 SMS, and 5 tetri ($0.016) for a minute of an international call, while calls within the country are free.

Before choosing a mobile operator, you should familiarize yourself with the current tariffs on the official website or at the operator's office. Periodically, the terms of tariffs are updated and changed, but the operators of Georgia are very loyal to tourists and offer the most favorable conditions for using the network. 

The Internet in Georgia catches local mobile operators well throughout Georgia, even in the most remote mountainous areas. In hotels, restaurants, cafes, etc. you can connect to a Wi-fi network to save personal internet traffic. It is enough to request an access password from the staff.

Connecting to a local mobile operator

To connect to the local mobile network, it is enough to come to the operator's office with a passport. When buying a SIM card, you will need to sign a contract. If there is no desire to conclude a formal contract, there are other options for purchasing SIM cards.

At airports and train stations, tourists are given free SIM cards. This is the easiest way to get access to a local cellular connection. The minus is only in the zero balance of such cards, but you can replenish the balance almost everywhere. 

You can also get a SIM card with a zero balance for free at any information center in Georgia. Local mobile operators leave their SIM cards for advertising purposes. 

Another way to get access to local mobile communications is to buy a SIM card in stores with cell phones. There the cards are sold without presenting a passport and signing a contract. The money that a tourist pays for a SIM card is automatically credited to the account balance, in fact, there is no charge for the card itself.

Replenishment of the balance

You can top up your balance in the PayBox terminals. These colorful small terminals are located on streets, squares, near shops, markets, train stations, etc. For the convenience of tourists, you can choose English, and some terminals support service in Russian. Paper lari and coins are accepted for payment, but the amount of the payment must be at least 1 lari. The commission for replenishment of the account is fixed at 0.5% of the payment made. 

You can also top up your SIM card account at the official offices and on the operator's website.

Call from Russia to Georgia

To make a call from Russia to Georgia, you need to make sure that the international line is connected. If there is no connection of this service, you should contact the operator for help.

The number for contacting a subscriber from Georgia consists of several blocks of digits that carry codes. To make a call to a landline (home) and mobile phone numbers will differ.

To get through from Russia to a landline phone in Georgia, you need to dial: 

8 – 10 - 995 - the prefix of the locality is the subscriber's number 

The "8-10" block carries the code information for entering the international line from Russia. It can be replaced with a "+" sign.

The block "995" is the internal code of Georgia.

The prefix of the locality can be found in the directory. For example, 431 is the code of Kutaisi, etc.

To make a call to the mobile phone of a Georgian operator from Russia you need to dial the following combination:

8 - 10 - 995 - local operator code - subscriber number