Europe,  Montenegro,  TDM,  Tips

Prepaid 4G SIM card in Montenegro: Cost, Speedtest (2021)

WARNING: Montenegro is a European country, you can go there without a visa, you use the Euro. BUT, Montenegro isn’t part of the European Union and you can’t benefit from free EU roaming. Remember to deactivate the data, otherwise you will pay a lot.

As an illustration, 1 MB of internet costs 9,7 € with Free…

So when I arrived in Montenegro, I used my international Drimsim SIM card the time to buy a local SIM card. While Anh used her Holafly card.

Buy a SIM card at the airport

Having arrived in Montenegro by land (from Croatia), I did not have the opportunity to see if it was possible to buy a SIM card directly on the spot

If you have the info, feel free to share it in the comment section below.

Buy a SIM card in town

On our way to the small shopping mall in Kotor, we passed a stand of the telephone operator Telenor.

There may be other operators in Montenegro, but Telenor’s tourist offer is so interesting that it is useless to look further.

Luckily, the saleswoman spoke good English. As we plan to stay 2 or 3 months in Monténgro, she first oriented us towards a subscription that we could cancel at the end of our stay.

The formulas seemed quite expensive to us and we were moderately motivated to take out a subscription. The cancellation costs 10€ on top of that.

We asked if there were any prepaid sim card offers. The answer is yes, there are two offers: one valid for 7 days, the other for 15 days.

And frankly, after buying local sim cards in dozens of countries, I think that Montenegro has the most interesting offer, look at this:

OfferPriceData internetTelephone credit
7 days5 euros50 GB50 euros
15 days10 euros200 GB100 euros

Ahaha, 200 GB of internet for 10 euros! It’s way too much !!! I don’t even need that much in one year!

In any case, for us it is perfect since it will allow us to use this credit for our computers if our Wifi speedtest isn’t fast enough.

In order to purchase the SIM card, you must present your passport. It only takes a few minutes

The SIM card has a pre-cutting that allows you to cut the SIM card to the size of your choice.

Activation and installation of a Telenor SIM card

I will take some time to explain the activation/installation process to you afterwards because it isn’t that intuitive. Don’t hesitate to ask the seller to install your card, I didn’t think to do it because in most countries prepaid SIM cards are very easy to install.

The first step is easy: insert the SIM card into your phone.

You will receive an SMS in Serbian.

I wrongly deduced that it was a simple activation SMS. As the internet wasn’t working, I did a Google Translate trick. This SMS means that to activate the SIM card, you have to call the number 14077. I could have waited a long time ^^.

When you call this number, you’ll get an automatic telephone machine. If I remember correctly you have to type 2 to select the English language and then 1 to validate. The machine will then tell you that your credit is at zero. You can hang up.

In the process you receive two SMS messages (always in Serbian). The first one indicates that the SIM card is activated, the second one explains that you will receive two messages that you have to accept.

You will actually receive a notification that needs to be opened. Each notification will display a Telenor message that you have to accept (the first two lines in the screenshot below). It’s the first time I have to activate this manually, in the other countries where I bought SIM cards (except Japan), it’s all done automatically.

Once this is done, it works, you can use your SIM card to call or go online.

How do I find out my remaining credit?

The easiest way I found is to install the Telenor application on Android or App Store. Choose well the “Serbia / Montenegro” application because they have different applications for each of the countries where Telenor is located.

As it’s always in Serbian, it’s not as easy

  • First step: launch the application and click on the tab “Crna Gora” (which means “Montenegro”)
  • Step 2: Enter your phone number (found on the plastic card you cut out) by replacing “+382” with “+382” (the international dialling code by 0) then click on “Brok mobilnog”
  • Third step: you will receive a code by SMS, enter it in the second field and click on “Aktiviraj”

Once done, you can see your available credit

From what I understand, I have :

  • 100 euros of credit (but I don’t really know what I can do with it)
  • 200 GB of internet data
  • 10 GB only for Facebook
  • 10 GB only for Instagram

I feel like I don’t have any phone credit but I can surely buy some with my 100 euros credit… I will update the article if I have any info.

4G+ Speedtest

Test carried out on December 22, 2020 in Orahovac next to Kotor

As you can see, the speed is very good.

How do I top up my prepaid SIM card?

Top-ups can be done on Telenor’s website

Logically, the site is in Serbian and it isn’t easy to find the English section. I make your job easier by giving it to you here: https://www.telenor.me/en/consumer/offer/tariff-packages/prepaid-tariff-package/

I haven’t had a chance to do so yet, I will update the article when I do.

The Telekom alternative

While passing in front of a store of a hotel where we stayed, we saw an ad of a competitor: Telekom.

This one offers even more data: 500 GB compared to 200 GB for Telenor!

Frankly, it doesn’t make sense to offer so much data 😀

However, we are interested in the offer because it is valid for 30 days vs. 15 days for Telenor, so we will surely test Telekom when my Telenor offer expires

The m:tel alternative

I came across this ad for m:tel presenting the offer that will undoubtedly be the most relevant for us.

10 euros for 200 GB of internet and 500 minutes of communication.

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