SIM Card and internet in Turkmenistan

[olmo]

Had no problem getting an MTN Sim card in Turkmenabat. August 2017. Official shop, guy spoke good English and just copied transit visa and passport. SIM is free, 10 manat ($1.5) for 200 MB data. Took maybe 10 minutes.

Had tried at the other operators office before, first had a long line, second said no problem but come back tomorrow, sim card person gone for the day.

Between Farab and Sarakhs I'd say pretty much 100% coverage, you see mobile towers every 10-20km even in the middle of nowhere. No 3G, but EDGE quite usable. Obviously, lots of stuff blocked but simple SSH tunnel did the job;)

[laghubhara]

Tried getting a SIM card at TM Cell in Ashgabat (Russian bazaar). It's 30$ for foreigners. They told us to try and find a Turkmen person to buy the SIM card for us, since then it would only be 30 Manat. Gave up the idea then.

Generally: There's no wifi in hotels or restaurants/cafes. There seems to be one internet cafe per city. In Turkmenabat the wifi didn't work when we went there, although we could use a computer that was hooked up to the internet. (Caravanistan is not blocked btw). Download all of the maps you're going to need before going to Turkmenistan...

[MrIdK]

Any news about this? Especially regarding the VPN ban in 2019, has someone tried it to use a VPN?

[PolyP.]

We were in Ashgabat from 29th July until 1st of August. Didn't try to buy a SIM card, but checked out the WiFi. Cafés and restaurants generally didn't want to give us access to their WiFi. Some of the big hotels have free WiFi (no password). We stood outside of the grand Turkmen hotel to use their internet (password 04062019). Google and Gmail worked, could send some emails. WhatsApp appears to be blocked. Nordvpn didn't connect, neither did express VPN, thunder VPN and flash VPN. I guess that most of the VPN providers don't work in Turkmenistan.

[togreiser]

Hi PolyP,

Thank you for your rapport. I'm going in September, so it's interesting for me.

2 questions.

1. Did you try the Obfuscated servers on NordVPN?
2. Did you only connect grand Turkmen hotel wifi ? No other places?


Thank you

[PolyP.]

Hi PolyP,

Thank you for your rapport. I'm going in September, so it's interesting for me.

2 questions.

1. Did you try the Obfuscated servers on NordVPN?
2. Did you only connect grand Turkmen hotel wifi ? No other places?


Thank you

Hi togreiser,
1. No, we didn't try these. You might as well try. Would be interesting to know if it works out.
2. We were also in front of the Oguzkent hotel, which provides free wifi. There is some construction going on, just go to the entrance and pretend to not know if they are open. You can stand/sit somewhere for a couple of minutes, no one will be bothered.
Edit: I just remembered we needed a password for the grand Turkmen. A fellow traveller gave ut to us: 04062019

Wish you a good time in Turkmenistan!

[Vincels]

Now at the grand Turkmen, password is 01102019.

Whatsapp and telegram indeed don’t work, nor does our VPN doesn’t work (only when connected to Romania).

[Briefingsworth]

Similar experience here - traveled in Turkmenistan in October 2019. Google and gmail worked; WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, etc. are blocked. News websites were also blocked, but news apps worked just fine (eg couldn’t go to the New York Times website, but the NYT app worked).

I have ExpressVPN and tried many times to use it, but with no success.