Prepaid Phone Plans in Peru

Before visiting the Peru, you have to know the different prepaid phone plan providers in the country, especially if you are going to just stay temporarily and use your prepaid mobile phone there. There are currently two GSM prepaid phone operators in Peru, namely: Claro Peru and Telefonica Moviles S.A. (Movistar Peru). The mobile prefix for Peru is +51. Their currency, 1 Peruvian Novo Sol = 0.24553 Euro. The electricity available in Peru is 220 Volts with an electrical frequency of 60 Hertz. Time Zone is GMT -4.00.

The first GSM prepaid phone operator available in Peru is Claro Peru. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Claro Americas and was founded in 2003. It started its operations in Peru on October 11, 2005, after its acquisition by America Movil of the TIM Peru. Claro Peru claims to have larger coverage in the country but only second to Movistar Peru in terms of subscribers. Claro Peru offers a wide range of products and services such as mobile services (post paid and prepaid phone plans), voice, data, cable television and Internet services over GSM in the frequency of 1900 MHz, GPRS, EDGE and UMTS in 850 MHz frequency. In April 2008, Claro is the first mobile communications company to introduce 3G on a platform GSM, using UMTS and updated HSDPA in 850 MHz band at a speed up top 1.50 Mbit/s in Peru. And in November of 2011, Claro Peru started providing 4G technology based on HSPA+ at a speed of 5Mbit/s download.

The prepaid phone card name for Clar Peru is called “Prepago.” The activation fee for this prepaid phone card is PEN 65 with 5 free credits for the 128K cards and PEN 50 with 5 free credits for the 32K cards. Prepago prepaid phone cards are valid for 30 days (upon its activation) for the credit and 60 days (upon its activation) for the prepaid sim card. The net frequency available for Claro Peru is GSM 1900. The logos for this prepaid phone card are Claro and TIM PE with a net code of 716 10. There are two voice tariffs under Prepago, namely: Prepago Juerga and Clarodestino.

Prepago Juerga offers: local calls to Claro for PEN 1.38, local calls to land line for PEN 2.30 and local calls to other mobiles for PEN 2.60.
Clarodestino offers: local calls to Claro for PEN 1.38, local calls to land line for PEN 1.95 and local calls to other mobiles for PEN 2.40.

Additional Costs and Services:

Messaging:

Juerga - National SMS for PEN 0.10 and International SMS for PEN 0.25
Clarodestino - National SMS for PEN 0.25 and International SMS for PEN 0.50
For other SMS and MMS rates, see here

Voicemail: Free of charge

Data Calls: WAP CSD at the same price as local calls

Long Distance Calls: **International long distance (ILD)

Destination ILD Premium 1 (Canada, China, USA, Bolivia, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Panama, Paraguay, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, France, Argentina, Chile, Ecuador and Mexico) for PEN 1.983
Premium 2 ILD Destination 2 ( Spain, Italy, Japan, Guatemala, Honduras, Jamaica and the UK) for PEN 2.776
South America ( El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Brazil, Guadeloupe, Martinique and Uruguay) for PEN 1.983
Europe for PEN 3.966
Rest of the World for PEN 3.966
Other ILD 1 (Aruba, Andorra, Cuba, Guyana Republic, Australia, and Papua New Guinea) for PEN 6.941
Other ILD 2 (Barbados, U.S. Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Bermuda, Turks and Caicos, St. Lucia, Trinidad and Tobago, Mali, Zaire, Guinea Bissau, Diego Garcia, Rwanda, Somalia, Namibia , Swazi, Santa Elena, Albania, Liechtenstein, Haiti, French Guyana, Surinam, Norkfolk Island, Vanuatu, Wallis and Futuna, Cook Islands, American Samoa, Kiribati, Tuvalu, Polynesia Fr, Republic of Korea, Macao, Myanmar and Mongolia) for PEN 13.882

International Calls:

Latin America – PEN 4.47 (peak) and PEN 3.97 (off peak)
North America – PEN 4.45 (peak) and PEN 4.17 (off peak)
Europe – PEN 5.58 (peak) and PEN 4.77 (off peak)
Rest of the World – PEN 6.29 (peak) and PEN 4.98 (off peak)

**With Prepago Juerga all International prepaid phone calls cost PEN 0.35 per minute more than listed above.

International Roaming: International roaming service available, see here

Debiting Method: 1/1

Refill, Credit and Validity:

PEN 10/10, valid for 45 days
PEN 20/20, valid for 65 days
PEN 30/30, valid for 85 days
PEN 40/40, valid for 95 days

The second GSM prepaid phone plan available in Peru is Telefonica Moviles S.A. or more commonly known as Movistar Peru. Movistar is a Spanish mobile phone operator owned by Telefónica Móviles that was founded on April 12, 1942. The company operates in Spain and in many Latin, Central, and South American countries like Peru. It started its operations in Peru in 1994 as Telefónica Móviles and considered as the largest mobile communications company in the country. Its headquarters is located in Santa Beatriz on Av. Arequipa 1155, Peru. Starting January of 2011, Telefónica Móviles operates under the brand name Movistar Peru. They offer products and services like mobile telephones (post paid and prepaid phone plans), fixed line telephony, digital television, long distance and Internet services.

The prepaid phone card name for Movistar Peru is called “Prepago.” The activation fee and validity of this prepaid phone card is available upon request. The net frequency for Movistar Peru is GSM 850. The logo for this prepaid phone card is Movistar PE with 716 06 as its net code. The voice tariff under Prepago is called “Somos Más” that offers: local calls to Movistar for PEN 0.83, local calls to land line for PEN 1.18 and local calls to other mobiles for PEN 1.18.