Estonia is one of the last countries in Europe where you can walk into a petrol station, buy a SIM card with cash, and use it without giving anyone your name. That is the single most useful thing to know on arrival, and it is a live policy target — the Ministry of the Interior has proposed banning anonymous prepaid cards twice since 2020, and neither attempt became law.
Buy a prepaid card in any kiosk: no personal code, no passport, no address. Three networks — Telia, Elisa, Tele2 — and no meaningful virtual operators. A starter pack costs €0.95 to €7 and works immediately. There is no registration requirement, which is unusual in Europe and worth using while it lasts.
The catch is the reverse of what people expect: you cannot activate an Estonian SIM from abroad, eSIM or plastic. Travel on a global eSIM, land, then buy one here.
Table of Contents
The three operators
Nothing on this page is paid placement and no provider pays to appear. Where one runs an affiliate programme we may earn a commission if you sign up through our link; where one does not, we link to them anyway. Ordering reflects published terms and how well each option works for someone arriving from abroad — never what it pays.
| Telia | Elisa | Tele2 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Share of mobile users | 44% | 32% | 24% |
| Median download speed | 241 Mbit/s | 336 Mbit/s | 112 Mbit/s |
| Own 5G claim | 97% of population, 92% of territory | 97% of population | 85% |
| Cheapest usable plan | €6.09 — but only 50 MB | — | €6.99 for 2 GB |
| Unlimited data | €41.65 | €43.99 | €34.99 |
| Prepaid brand | Super | ZEN | Tele2 kõnekaart |
Elisa is measurably the fastest — 336 Mbit/s median download against Telia's 241 and Tele2's 112, over 900,000 tests in the second half of 2025. Tele2 is consistently the cheapest, at both ends of the range. Telia is the incumbent with the oldest rural site grid and the only one publishing a territory coverage figure.
All three coverage numbers above are self-reported and not comparable: Telia's 92% is territory, Elisa's is population, Tele2's "99% of Estonia" is the whole network rather than 5G. The regulator's own measurement data dates from February 2021; what it maintains is netikaart, an address-by-address availability map built from operator-supplied data. Check your own address there rather than trusting any of these percentages.
Estonia is a fibre leader and a 5G laggard, and both things are official. The operators claim 97% population 5G coverage. Estonia's own National Digital Decade Roadmap puts it at 43%, against an EU average of 81%. These cannot both be describing the same thing, and the government strategy document and the marketing pages cannot be reconciled. Assume 5G is good in Tallinn and Tartu and patchy elsewhere.
There is no MVNO layer worth naming. Super and Diil are Telia, ZEN is Elisa, and the regulator's 2025 yearbook contains no virtual-operator section at all. If a comparison page tells you about Estonian budget MVNOs, check whether the brands it names exist.
The same three networks below, in the order of the table above rather than any ranking — because there is no single winner here. Elisa is the fastest, Tele2 is the cheapest, Telia has the widest rural grid and the best short-stay pack, and which of those matters is your decision rather than ours.
Put briefly: Telia is the one for a week's visit and for the oldest, widest rural site grid, and it is the only operator publishing a territory coverage figure (92%) as well as a population one. Elisa is for whoever wants the fastest data and is not buying prepaid — it publishes no cheap entry plan, and its prepaid customers are excluded from eSIM outright. Tele2 is the cheapest way onto an Estonian number on the day you land, at €6.99 for 2 GB on contract and €34.99 for unlimited domestic data; its internet card carries unlimited data for ten days at €9.95, and SIM replacement is €5.08, rising to €7 in September 2026.
Telia
The largest network, oldest rural grid
Key highlights
Key features
- Largest network by users, 44%
- Best short-stay pack in Estonia
- Self-service eSIM on contract
Plan details
- User share
- 44%
- Median download
- 241 Mbit/s
- Unlimited data
- €41.65
- Prepaid brand
- Super
Summary
- Largest network by users, 44%
- Best short-stay pack in Estonia
- Self-service eSIM on contract
- Unlimited data €41.65, dearest of three
- May require a deposit or guarantee
- EU calls capped at 300 minutes
Elisa
The fastest network, strictest on eSIM
Key highlights
Key features
- The fastest median download measured
- Prepaid pack 5 GB, 500 minutes
- Home internet from €19.99 a month
Plan details
- Median download
- 336 Mbit/s
- User share
- 32%
- Unlimited data
- €43.99
- Prepaid brand
- ZEN
Summary
- The fastest median download measured
- Prepaid pack 5 GB, 500 minutes
- Home internet from €19.99 a month
- Prepaid customers excluded from eSIM
- Contract eSIM by chat, not self-service
- Unlimited data €43.99, dearest of three
Tele2
Cheapest at both ends, slowest measured
Key highlights
Key features
- Cheapest at both ends
- Starter pack 1 GB, calls, 10 SMS
- Self-service eSIM by QR voucher
Plan details
- Cheapest plan
- €6.99 for 2 GB
- Unlimited data
- €34.99
- Median download
- 112 Mbit/s
- Starter pack
- From €0.95
Summary
- Cheapest at both ends
- Starter pack 1 GB, calls, 10 SMS
- Self-service eSIM by QR voucher
- Slowest measured, 112 Mbit/s
- Number lost after 210 days idle
- May check you against credit databases
Prepaid, without an ID
Anonymous prepaid SIMs are still legal in Estonia. No personal code, no passport, no address, no registration. Buy a starter pack in a kiosk, supermarket or petrol station, insert it, and call. You may optionally personalise the card later, which you need to do only to convert it to a contract or swap a prepaid eSIM for plastic.
This is genuinely unusual in Europe and it is not guaranteed to last. The Ministry of the Interior proposed requiring personalisation before activation in July 2023, and a similar attempt was shelved around 2020. Neither became law, and no amendment had been enacted as at August 2026 — a claim that carries a date for a reason.
| Pack | Price | What you get | Valid |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tele2 starter | €0.95 | 1 GB, calls, 10 SMS | 30 days |
| Super (Telia) starter | €1 | 300 MB, usable in Estonia and the EU | 30 days |
| Tele2 mid pack | €3.95 | 5 GB, 300 minutes, 30 SMS | 30 days |
| Super mid pack | €4 | 4 GB, 40 calls, 40 SMS | 30 days |
| Elisa kõnekaart | €5 | 5 GB, 500 minutes, 50 SMS | 30 days |
| Super short-stay pack | €7 | 100 GB, Estonia only | 7 days, non-renewable |
| Tele2 internet card | €9.95 | Unlimited data | 10 days |
The best short-stay deal in Estonia, and almost nobody writes about it. Telia's Super sells a €7 pack with 100 GB, valid 7 days and usable only in Estonia. For a week's visit that is better than any travel eSIM and better than any roaming bundle. It does not renew, which is the whole point — it is priced for exactly one trip.
Two things to know before your credit runs out. Prepaid credit is valid 180 days from activation at both Telia and Tele2, with a grace period after that; at Tele2 the number itself is lost after 210 days without a top-up. And when a bundle is exhausted, speed drops to 64 kbit/s rather than stopping — which is slow enough to be useless and fast enough not to notice you have hit it.
Contracts, and the thing that actually blocks a newcomer
It is not the personal code. It is the credit check.
Their terms establish that Tele2 may check your creditworthiness against credit databases, and that Telia may require a guarantee, a deposit or prepayment at any point in the contract.
That is the mechanism a newly arrived foreigner actually meets: not refusal, but a demand for a deposit, because there is no Estonian credit history to check. No operator's general terms set an isikukood requirement, a minimum age, a required identity document or an Estonian bank account.
| What the terms actually say | |
|---|---|
| Credit check | Tele2 reserves the right to assess creditworthiness via credit databases |
| Deposit or guarantee | Telia may require a guarantee, surety or prepayment on signing or during the contract |
| Documents required | None set in any operator’s terms |
| Estonian bank account | Direct debit assumes one; card payment is offered |
| Minimum term | Indefinite or 24-month, depending on plan. Home internet is usually 24 months only |
| Terminating | Any time, effective the next business day |
| If the operator changes the terms | One month's notice, and no penalty for leaving over the change |
Typical mid-market plans run 15–55 GB for €11–€24 a month, which is what a normal person pays. Unlimited domestic data starts at €34.99 at Tele2, against €41.65 at Telia and €43.99 at Elisa.
"Unlimited calls" does not mean calls to other EU countries. Every Estonian plan sold as unlimited means unlimited domestic. Telia caps calls to EU numbers at 300 minutes and SMS at 100; Elisa allows 1,000–2,000 depending on tier. A call to a number outside the EU is never in any bundle at any operator. See below — this is where the money goes.
eSIM, and why you cannot arrive with a working Estonian number
Before you fly: a travel eSIM, not an Estonian one
An Estonian prepaid SIM — plastic or eSIM — can only be activated while you are physically in Estonia. Telia's Super says so in terms. Use a global travel eSIM for the journey, or arrive offline.On arrival: buy a starter pack
A kiosk, a supermarket, a petrol station or the Super app once you are in the country. €0.95 to €7 depending on what you need.Later: convert to a contract, once you have a personal code
Personalise the prepaid card, or start a new contract. This is also the point at which a deposit may be asked for.
| Telia / Super | Elisa / ZEN | Tele2 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| eSIM on contract | Yes, self-service | Yes — but ordered through chat, not self-service | Yes, QR code voucher |
| eSIM on prepaid | Yes, first in Estonia, via the app | No — prepaid customers are excluded outright | — |
| Activate from abroad | No — Estonia only | No | — |
Two eSIM products at Telia are easy to confuse and are not the same thing. The Super prepaid eSIM gives you an Estonian number and can only be activated here. Super Travel eSIM is data-only, has no Estonian number, no calls and no SMS, and can be bought up to 30 days before a trip — it is a travel product that happens to be sold by an Estonian operator, and it will not get you a local number.
So if you need to be online the moment you land, the only thing that works is a travel eSIM bought before you fly. It is data only — no Estonian number, no calls, no SMS — so it covers the hours between landing and finding a kiosk and nothing beyond that. It is a stopgap and should be priced as one.
Airalo
A travel eSIM for the days before landing
Key highlights
Key features
- The one option that works before arrival
- Nothing to register, no contract
Plan details
- Activates before landing
- Yes
- Estonian number
- None
- Registration
- None
- On arrival
- Local pack €0.95–€7
Summary
- The one option that works before arrival
- Nothing to register, no contract
- No Estonian number, so no SMS codes
- Beaten on value by a local pack
Roaming, and the calls that cost real money
Inside the EU your domestic allowance simply works, at no surcharge, under a regulation that runs until 2032. Moldova and Ukraine joined the roaming area on 1 January 2026. The United Kingdom and Switzerland are outside it, which catches people constantly.
Why your unlimited plan has a roaming cap, and how to predict it. An unlimited plan carries a roaming data cap set by a formula, not by the operator's mood: monthly price excluding VAT ÷ the wholesale cap per GB, × 2. The 2026 wholesale cap is €1.10 per GB. That is why the caps land where they do — Telia 53–59 GB, Tele2 56–69 GB, Elisa 65–79 GB — and why a more expensive plan gets a bigger one.
The cap answers how much data you get while you are away. A second rule asks how much of the year you are away at all.
An Estonian SIM used permanently from abroad will eventually be surcharged
Roam-like-at-home requires a stable link to Estonia — residence, work, study or paying tax here. Operators assess usage over at least 4 consecutive months, and the majority of it must be in Estonia. Fail the test and you get an SMS warning; if the pattern continues for 14 days, surcharges start. This is real, it is in the operators' published terms, and almost no English-language guide mentions it.
| What you are doing | What it costs |
|---|---|
| Using data in the EU on your normal allowance | Nothing extra |
| Calling another EU country from Estonia | Capped by EU law at €0.19/min excluding VAT — about €0.24 with it |
| Calling a non-EU number from Estonia | Uncapped. About €1.89/min to most destinations |
| Calling a non-EU number while roaming in the EU | About €2.35/min — the most expensive accident on this page |
| Receiving a call from abroad | Free |
| Data outside the EU | Daily packages, roughly €6–€12 at Telia. Default spend limit €60, adjustable |
If you are going east, turn off automatic network selection
Around Narva and Lake Peipsi, Estonian operators must reduce transmit power in the border zone — so your phone can latch onto a stronger Russian network and roam without you noticing. Tele2 warns that every megabyte can then cost several euros. Russia is not in the EU roaming area, so no cap applies and no spend limit reacts fast enough. Select the network manually before you get there. This is the most useful practical warning on this page for anyone visiting Ida-Viru — see Narva.
There is one more thing worth knowing, published in August 2026 and almost certainly not in any other English-language guide. If one operator's network fails in a crisis, the state can switch on domestic roaming, letting your phone use another Estonian operator's network for calls, SMS and data. You are always told when it is active — but your phone may not move across by itself, and you may need to select another operator's network manually.
Home internet
The interesting number is the gap between the first two. Fibre passes 77% of Estonian homes and carries 35% of connections. Availability against take-up is the whole story, and every "Estonia has world-leading fibre" article misses it. Cable and copper still carry most of the market, and 13% of fixed connections are now 4G or 5G wireless boxes — a share that exists because of the row below.
A quarter of Estonian addresses have exactly one cable operator, and 23% have no cable infrastructure at all. In those buildings your choice is the incumbent, or a 5G box. That is precisely why Elisa and Tele2 price 5G home internet against fibre rather than below it.
| Typical published price | |
|---|---|
| Entry fibre, Tele2 50/50 | €19.99/month, 24-month term |
| Elisa Internet-M | €19.99/month |
| Telia 100/100 | €27.90/month |
| Router rental | €2–€7/month depending on operator and type |
| Detached-house connection | From €199 at Elisa, and Telia charges construction on top |
| Foreigner eligibility | Expect a deposit rather than a refusal |
Before you sign a lease, check the address on the regulator's availability map. If the building is single-provider, price a 5G box as the real alternative rather than discovering it afterwards. And note the regulator's own view that Estonian home internet is not the outlier it is sometimes made out to be: a good 100 Mbit/s line is around €25 a month and prices up to 500 Mbit/s sit below the European average — it is gigabit that is expensive, and fewer than one customer in ten thousand wants it.
Keeping your number
How it works — two routes, both free:
- Go to the new operator. They terminate the old contract and register the request. You get a SIM immediately on a conditional contract.
- Or go to the old one and sign a conditional termination valid 30 days, then approach a new provider within that window.
- Do nothing in 30 days and the old contract simply reinstates.
- Free of charge, and centrally administered by the regulator.
What to expect, and one negotiating tip:
- Typically 3–6 working days; the regulator's stated statutory ceiling for mobile is 25.
- 72,409 numbers were ported in 2025, 64,057 of them mobile.
- Around 45,000 people a year cancel their port after a retention offer from the operator they were leaving.
- Which makes starting a port a negotiating tool in itself, whether or not you finish it.
FAQ
Can I buy a SIM card in Estonia without an ID?
Yes, as at August 2026. Estonia is one of the few European countries that still permits anonymous prepaid SIM cards — no personal identification code, no passport, no address and no registration. Buy a starter pack for €0.95–€7 in a kiosk, supermarket or petrol station and it works immediately. The Ministry of the Interior proposed banning anonymous cards in July 2023 and around 2020, and neither proposal became law, so date-check this before relying on it.
Can I get an Estonian eSIM before I arrive?
No. An Estonian prepaid SIM, plastic or eSIM, can only be activated while you are physically in Estonia — Telia's Super brand states this explicitly, and Elisa excludes prepaid customers from eSIM entirely. The practical sequence is to travel on a global travel eSIM, land, and then buy an Estonian starter pack. Note that Super Travel eSIM is a separate data-only product with no Estonian number, no calls and no SMS.
Which mobile operator is best in Estonia?
Elisa is measurably the fastest — 336 Mbit/s median download in Ookla's second-half 2025 measurement, against Telia's 241 and Tele2's 112. Tele2 is consistently the cheapest, at €6.99 for an entry plan and €34.99 for unlimited data. Telia is the incumbent with the widest rural grid. No independent rural coverage comparison is published, so check your own address on the regulator's availability map.
How much does mobile data cost in Estonia?
A typical mid-market plan is 15–55 GB for €11–€24 a month. Unlimited domestic data starts at €34.99 with Tele2, €41.65 with Telia and €43.99 with Elisa. Prepaid is cheaper for short stays: Telia's Super sells 100 GB for €7, valid 7 days and usable only in Estonia.
Does my Estonian SIM work in the rest of the EU?
Yes, at no surcharge, under EU roaming rules that run to 2032. Moldova and Ukraine joined the roaming area on 1 January 2026; the United Kingdom and Switzerland are outside it. Unlimited plans carry a roaming data cap set by formula — monthly price excluding VAT divided by the €1.10 wholesale cap, doubled — which is why the caps are around 53–79 GB depending on operator. Using an Estonian SIM permanently from another country eventually triggers surcharges, because roam-like-at-home requires a stable link to Estonia.
Is number portability free in Estonia?
Yes. Porting is free, centrally administered by the regulator, and typically takes 3–6 working days against a stated statutory ceiling of 25 for mobile numbers. You can either go to the new operator, who handles the whole thing, or sign a conditional termination with your existing one that stays valid 30 days. 72409 numbers were ported in 2025.
Can I get a mobile contract without an Estonian personal code or credit history?
Probably, and the obstacle is not the one people expect. No operator publishes a documents-required page, and none of the three sets of general terms mentions a personal identification code, a minimum age, a required identity document, or an Estonian bank account. What the terms do establish is that Tele2 reserves the right to assess creditworthiness against credit databases, and that Telia may require a guarantee, surety or prepayment, on signing or later in the contract. That is what a newly arrived foreigner actually meets: not a refusal, but a request for a deposit, because there is no Estonian credit history to check. Beyond that, plans are indefinite or 24-month depending on the tariff and home internet is usually 24 months only; you can terminate at any time, effective the next business day; and if the operator changes the terms you get a month's notice and no penalty for leaving over the change.
Why did my phone start roaming on a Russian network near Narva?
Because Estonian operators have to reduce transmit power in the border zone, so around Narva and Lake Peipsi a Russian network can be the strongest signal your phone can see — and with network selection on automatic it will attach to it without telling you. Russia is not in the EU roaming area, so no cap applies: Tele2 warns that every megabyte can then cost several euros, and a spend limit does not react fast enough to save you. Select the network manually before you get there. For anyone visiting Ida-Viru this is the single most useful practical warning about Estonian mobile service.
What happens if I stop topping up a prepaid SIM?
Two different clocks run, and only one of them is about money. Credit is valid 180 days from activation at both Telia and Tele2, with a grace period after that. At Tele2 the number itself is lost after 210 days without a top-up, and that is the one you cannot undo — a number that is gone takes with it every service that texts codes to it. Separately, running out of data does not disconnect you: when the bundle is exhausted the speed drops to 64 kbit/s, which is slow enough to be useless and fast enough that you may not immediately realise you have hit it.
What does calling abroad from an Estonian number cost?
It turns entirely on whether the number you are calling is inside the EU, and the word "unlimited" covers neither case. Every Estonian plan sold as unlimited means unlimited domestic: Telia caps calls to EU numbers at 300 minutes and SMS at 100, while Elisa allows 1,000 to 2,000 minutes depending on tier. Past the allowance, an intra-EU call is capped by EU law at €0.19 a minute excluding VAT, about €0.24 with it. A call to a number outside the EU is capped by nothing at all — roughly €1.89 a minute to most destinations, and about €2.35 a minute if you place it while roaming inside the EU, which is the most expensive accident available here. Receiving a call from abroad is free. Data outside the EU is sold as daily packages, roughly €6–€12 at Telia, against a default spend limit of €60 that you can adjust.
The costliest mistake is made before you arrive: buying an Estonian eSIM before flying. It cannot be activated from outside Estonia, so travel on a global eSIM and buy locally on landing. The second costly one is roaming near the Russian border on automatic — at Narva or Lake Peipsi your phone can pick up a Russian network, no EU cap applies, and every megabyte can cost euros. Lock the network manually before you go east.
Two mistakes are about what a plan actually covers. Assuming unlimited calls covers the EU is wrong: unlimited means domestic, Telia caps EU calls at 300 minutes, and calls outside the EU are never included anywhere. And letting prepaid credit lapse costs you the number as well as the money — credit is valid 180 days, and at Tele2 the number itself is gone after 210 days without a top-up.
The last two are mistakes made by the guides rather than by travellers, and they are worth recognising when you meet them. Citing Opensignal rankings for Estonia is one: there is no current Opensignal Estonia report, the most recent is February 2022, and any 2026 page quoting one is recycling four-year-old data. Naming Estonian budget MVNOs is the other — there aren't any of consequence. Super and Diil are Telia, ZEN is Elisa, and the regulator's yearbook has no virtual-operator section at all.
Related guides
Why You Can Trust This Guide
Getting connected
An Estonian number is what most services text their codes to, and an eSIM covers the gap before you have one. Both are worth sorting in the first week.
Disclaimer
General guidance, not advice. Every price on this page comes from the named operator’s own published tariff, read in August 2026, and Estonian mobile pricing changes without notice. Coverage figures are self-reported by the operators and are not comparable with each other; check your own address on the regulator’s availability map. Contract acceptance, deposits and credit checks are decided by each operator case by case.