Indonesian prepaid SIM purchases now require passport + biometric registration since 2018 — a queue and a friction at Bali and Jakarta airports that an eSIM lets you skip entirely. Install at home, switch on when your plane touches down at Denpasar or Soekarno-Hatta.
- Best for
- Bali yoga retreats and surf trips; Lombok and Gili island hops; Java tours through Yogyakarta and Borobudur; Komodo dragon liveaboards; Jakarta business travel.
- Networks
- Roams onto Telkomsel, Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison, and XL Axiata. Telkomsel has by far the deepest coverage on the outer islands and rural Bali; XL is reliably fast in Jakarta and Bandung.
- Travel tip
- On the Gili Islands and most of Komodo National Park, cellular coverage is hit-or-miss — the Telkomsel signal off Bali's east coast is typically the most usable, but plan to use Wi-Fi at your accommodation.