As outside urban centres the the service is provided via phone masts allowances must be made for the large country areas which are still on the whole mostly uninhabited. In those places the setting up of the required masts to provide a service would be impractical and would detract from the vast green vistas the countryside offers.

Elsewhere you should with the right service provider be able to connect with the internet and navigate the web with ease.

Much of the network has now been upgraded to 4G but there are places where only 2G or 3G connections are avalible. As of time of writing there is no 5G internet in Paraguay.

There are three local service providers to choose from. Claro, Personal and Tigo. Each has it’s pros and cons depending upon where you are located and what you require from the connection.

SIM cards are readily avalible across the country and can either be pre-paid, pay as you go or post-paid, contract SIM cards. Again depending upon requirements.

In Paraguay SIMs are called Chips.

A pre-paid SIM card is easily obtainable from either the offices of one of the phone companies or from any one of the multitude of convenience stores found along every street in Paraguay.

Stores display posters advertising phone companies and so are easy to spot. Some of the smaller ones will only have facilities to load credit onto SIM cards, but the owner will direct you to the neaest store selling SIM cards.

These cards can be purchased quickly with just a passport as ID.

Any store displaying an poster for an internet provider will be able to load up addtional credit onto a pre paid SIM card.

If arriving by air you will probably be unable to purchase a SIM card in the airport. Instead you will have to use WIFI connection until you are in the city and able to get to a local store.

I have heard that WIFI can be at best patchy in the airport. Therefore if you do need to connect to for example book a taxi from Bolt or Uber have a coffee in the airport cafe and use their free WIFI.

The alternative to a pre-paid SIM is a post-paid one. These are cheaper in the long run but more complicated to purchase and will lock you in with a provider for an extended period of time.

Purchasing a post-paid SIM is best done with a Paraguayan ID card but can be done with a passport. The application will however take longer and be more complicated.

The principal reason for this is that post-paid SIMs are sold on contracts of a year or more. So some sort of proof of address is going to be required.

Additionally once taken out a contract can be very hard to cancel without sizeable fees.

After deciding which type of SIM is best the next choice to make is which provider.

Personal very much focus on the urban centres of the towns and cities. There is often little or no connection out in the countryside.

For pre-paid SIMs they do work out most expensive. However being city focused they do offer fibre optic cables in urban areas.

Outside the towns Claro and Tigo are both viable options. In many places their areas of coverage overlap, but not everywhere. So if you are going to be based in the countryside check first which offers the best connection locally.

In areas where either would be useable it is generally considered that Claro has the most stable connection and Tigo the widest area of coverage.

For further research these are the links to each of their websites.

Personal-

https://www.personal.com.py

Claro-

https://www.claro.com.py/personas

Tigo-

https://www.tigo.com.py

Below is a comparison of the various packages each offers.

The figures are correct as of Jan 2025 and costs converted at a rate of $1 to Gs8,000.

All post-paid rates are for monthly contracts

Personal

Pre paid

1G for Gs6,000 ($0.75) valid for 1 day to 2.5G for Gs15,000 ($1.90) for 3 days

Post paid

6G for Gs60,000 ($7.50), 18G for Gs120,000 ($15), 60G for Gs200,000 ($25)

Fibre optic

200mbs Gs140,000 ($17.50), 400mbs Gs250,000 ($31.25)

Claro

Pre paid

1G for Gs10,000 ($1.25) valid for 2 days to 4G for Gs50,000 ($6.25) for 15 days

Post paid

7G for Gs60,000 ($7.50), 25G Gs120,000 ($15), 100G Gs300,000 ($37.50)

Tigo

Pre paid

2G for Gs6,000 ($0.75) valid for 1 day to 5G for Gs26,000 ($3.25) for 8 days

Post paid

20G for Gs100,000 ($12.50), 50G Gs 150,000 ($18.75), 150G Gs250,000 ($31.25)

Once you have your local SIM purchased and activated you should be able to navigate the internet with ease across Paraguay.

This with the constraints of being a blog post is in places fairly general so please to contact me directly using the connection below for any more detailed infomation

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