I am from the UK rather than the US where cellphone services seem to be a lot more varied than the US but will try to help anyway. We spent a lot of time travelling around South America and bought UNLOCKED cheap unlocked cellphones before we left. Any shop selling cellphones should be able to tell you whether the phones are unlocked or not. Evn a locked phone can be unlocked with the right codes which are usually available online ( or you can pay someone to Doi it for you. The phone must be tri or quad band to access most networks overseas. Armed with such a phone you can then buy a SIM card in Chile on arrival which will usually have some prepaid credit included ( you can by extra on a pay as you go basis).

Buying a SIM card is an option but costs may be higher than a shop in the city, although the airport shops are far more likely to speak English, which, if you do not speak spanish is a huge advantage in Chile!


It may well be that your existing phone is unlocked already, check with your provider is the first step.

Do check the costs for making AND receiving calls to/ from the US with the various networks as some can be extortionate. I am in Spain at the moment and use Movistar which seem to have pretty good deals for foreigners - I am sure they operate in Chile - check on their website.

There really is no difference between taking your own, unlocked phone into Chile or buying one there, except, I suppose that you can be sure that the one bought in chile will work there, but do check that it does work by making a call BEFORE leaving the shop - I speak from experience!!

Good luck!

Crellston is completely right. I live in Chile and you can either bring your own phone and buy a sim here (should be about 10 bucks plus whatever you want to charge it with) if it doesnt work buy a prepaid phone, you can get those for 40 or 50 bucks charged with almost the same amount(they are not smartphones, you will be reachable but not be able to download mail or view the net). This can be done in any telephone Company store, or in any mall. Entel should give you the best coverage, but it might not be the cheapest.
You can use your own phone where wifi is available (no voice though) most hotels have and there are a couple of Starbucks and other shops that offer wifi at least.

I travel to Chile regularly and always rent a free phone at the Santiago airport from Movistar (formerly Telefónica) - for me the coverage is just as good as Entel. Local calls are mere pennies and calls back to the US are usually around $.50 US a minute. When you rent you don't have to worry about topping up and your calls are automatically charged to your CC.

On my next trip I will also be using my locked US 4S iPhone for texting, email and data w/ the fantastic new $25/100MB international data plan (Just used it in Paris, I was certain I'd go over the limit, but returned with megabites to spare.)

I also have an old unlocked GSM quad band Blackberry, which I bring along with the idea of buying a SIM card, but the phone rental has always been cheaper and easier.

BTW, my colleagues in Chile hardly use their phones to speak or text - there is so much wifi everywhere that they communicate mostly by email.