Updated: 8 December 2014
I have been to Brazil 4 times since this was first published. The material below is still up to date.
Before going to Brazil in August 2014, I noticed that I could purchase a sim for my unlocked cell phone on both eBay and Amazon. The same company is selling on both sites. I purchased one of the sims. When I got to Brazil, the sim did not work. I would not want to say that the transaction was a fraud. Rather, I would say that Brazil has a fairly complicate way to activate a new cell phone sim. If you buy a sim and are not at the store to activate it, you will not be able to tell if the problem is the sim, your cell phone, or that you purchased a bogus sim. Therefore, I would recommend that you do not buy a cell phone sim before you arrive in Brazil. I have had good luck purchasing a sim for Argentina in the US, but not for Brazil.
Unless you are going to be in Brazil permanently, I would recommend that you get the new T-Mobile phone plan. This plan has no roaming charges, and lets you make calls locally for $0.20 / minute. You will have to live a phone with a local Brazil SIM to beat the no roaming charge and only $0.20 / minute to make calls in Brazil.
Introduction:
This blog post is for those that want to use their cell phone while traveling in Brazil. You need a GSM cell phone in Brazil. If your phone only wants on CDMA, forget using it in Brazil. There are two ways you can use your GSM cell phone in Brazil:
- If you have international roaming with your cell provider, you can used your GSM phone in Brazil. However, international roaming can be quite expensive. You need to check with your carrier if this is what you are going to do.
- You can arrange with a Brazilian carrier to use your unlocked GSM phone in Brazil by getting contract. Chances are you will only be able to get a prepaid (pré-pago in Portuguese) since you do not live in Brazil.
On this trip I got I pre-pago plan, and I will explain what I went through to get it. There are three major GSM cell phone providers in Brazil:
- Vivo,
- Claro, and
- TIM
I will review the process with Claro and Vivo. I had previously tried to get a pre-pago plan with TIM on a past trip, and was not able to. So I did not even try. You might have more luck.
Previously, I got a prepaid plan with Vivo for my iPhone 4S. I got the plan in Oct. 2012, and was hoping to use the iPhone 4S on this trip. I inserted my Vivo GSM chip into my iPhone before arriving in Brazil, and when I arrived in Brazil, my phone registered on the Vivo network, but I could not make any calls. Since my phone would not work, the first thing I did after getting some sleep was to go and try to get a new GSM chip.
I went to Shopping Patio Higienopolis (malls in Brazil are call “shopping”) to find a Vivo store. All three major cell providers have a store (loja in Portuguese), but I only visited Vivo and Claro stores.
I don’t know what your experience has been in the store of a cell provider in the US, but my have always been made. The stores have always had too many people in them, and it takes a long time to be served. Well, it is not any different in Brazil.
Trying to get a Vivo GSM chip
Vivo was my first stop at a company store. In my broken Portuguese, I said that I wanted to replace / recharge my chip purchased last October. Even though I have previously purchased a Vivo chip, I could not buy one without a CPF # (Brazilian social security #). There was a second Vivo franchised store inside the mall, and they would not sell me a chip either without a CPF #. A picture of the company owned store is Shopping Patio Higienopolis is shown below:I went back two times to the Vivo store about to try to get a GSM chip, but was refused both times.
Getting a Claro GSM Chip
Next I went to a Claro store. They would sell me a pre-pago plan without a CPF, but I had to provide my passport and Brazilian Visa to get a chip. While Claro would sell me a chip, I had to go two times to complete the purchase. My first trip was at night, and the store was extremely busy. I waited 30 minutes, and the line was not moving, and then decided to return the next day. I returned the following afternoon, and while there were people in the store, I was served in about 15 minutes, but the process to complete the transaction took about 30 minutes. A picture of the Claro store in Shopping Patio Higienopolis is shown below.
There are two costs to getting a pre-pago GSM chip. First, there is a separate cost for the chip, but this does not get you any cell phone service. Second, you need to buy minutes to use your chip. While at the Claro store, I was able to get my chip and phone registered on the Claro network, but they had some system issues, and the agent to me that I would need to go to another place to actually buy air time minutes.
Be sure that Claro enters you an foreigner (estrangeiro in Portuguese) when you Brazil phone number is created
I experienced a problem with my new Claro telephone number about 48 hours after my account was created. Every time I would dial a number, I would get a message saying something about a CPF number, and my call would not go through. After getting this several times, and not being able to complete a call, I went bank to the Claro store. I found someone to help me and showed them all the paperwork for my new phone number. The looked up my information in their system, but she could not figure what they problem was. She then was gone for about 10 minutes, and returned. She said the problem was that I was not set up in the system as a foreigner (estrangeiro), She then said that it would take some time for the correction to work itself the Claro network. After a couple hours I retried dialing a number, and the phone now works. Anyway, the setup for the account clearly indicating whether your are a national / foreigner is a big deal. If you are getting a number in Brazil, you need to make sure that this issue is properly noted when your account is created.
Purchasing air time minutes for my Claro GSM chip
Some banks, pharmacies, and other stores can be used to buy Claro (other carriers also) minutes. My Claro agent to me to go to the São Paulo Drogaria (Pharmacy in Portuguese) in the mall to buy airtime. I went there and purchased some airtime, and I now have a cell phone that works in Brazil. A picture of the store where I buy Claro airtime minutes in Shopping Patio Higienopolis is shown below.
Cell phone usage in Brazil is different from the US. If fact, the same rules that apply to cell phone use in Brazil are those normally followed in most of Latin America.
Brazil Cell Phone Basics
Charges for usage in Brazil can be summarized as follows:
- Outgoing calls are charged,
- Incoming calls are free,
- Land line phone calls from your cell are charged at R$ 0.50 / call, and
- Calls to other cell phone company (operadora in Portuguese) will cost you R$ 0.99 / minute,
- Text messages will cost you R$ 0.50 / message,
- Internet usage on a smart phone will cost you R$ 0.50 per day
Purchased airtime expires after a specified period. The Claro time that I purchased will be good for 300 days after I purchased it. If I have not purchased any new airtime before the end of the 300 day period, my Claro GSM chip will blowup, and I would need to buy a new GSM chip. If I buy a new GSM chip because one expired, I would also be issued a new cell phone #. Every time you buy new airtime, this will extend the expiration of your phone number.
Things to remember about you Brazilian GSM chip
So you can get a cell phone when you go to Brazil, but again, you need to remember these basis points:
- An unlocked cell phone is required (Inexpensive unlocked cell phones are easy to find at Amazon.),
- You many need a CPF # with some carries to get a phone, or if your account was not set up correctly, your service may be interrupted because a CPF # was not entered during the account setup
- Outgoing call are charged, and incoming calls are free,
- Calls to other cell phone providers, and land lines will be charged at a higher rate than calls with your cell phone carrier, and
- Pre-pago GSM chips expire after a certain period if no new credits have been purchased. Make sure what the time will be for each air time buy you make.