You want Mauritania, not Mauritius? This page is about Mauritania: West Africa, capital Nouakchott, Saharan, dialling code +222. If you meant the Indian Ocean island, that is Mauritius and it has its own page — Mauritius eSIM guide. The two countries share nothing here: different networks, different plans, different prices.
Quick Facts About Mauritania
General Information
- • Capital and largest city: Nouakchott
- • Currency: Ouguiya (MRU)
- • Official language: Arabic; French is widely used in business and administration
- • Population: roughly 5.5 million (2026 estimate)
- • Area: about 1,030,000 km², overwhelmingly desert
- • Time zone: GMT (UTC+0) all year, no daylight saving
What Our Plans Declare
- • Network: Mattel only (MCC-MNC 609-01) on country and global plans
- • Exception: the Airalo Africa regional plan lists Mauritel instead
- • Technology: 4G. No plan of ours declares 5G in Mauritania
- • Country plans: 1 GB / 7 days up to 10 GB / 30 days
- • Unlimited: does not exist for Mauritania, from any provider we work with
- • Dialling code: +222 · Sockets: types C and E, 230 V, 50 Hz
Entry, in one line: the UK Foreign Office states that since 5 January 2025 visas are no longer issued on arrival in Mauritania. You apply online in advance through the Mauritanian ANRPTS portal, pay the fee in cash in euros or dollars on arrival, and need a passport valid for at least six months. Check your own government's current advice for your nationality before you book.
The Network You Actually Get
The short version: our Mauritania eSIM is a Mattel line. We checked every Mauritania coverage row we hold — the esimfly country plans, Discover Global and VIP pay-as-you-go, plus the eSIMaccess Mauritania rows — and all of them declare one operator and only one: Mattel, MCC-MNC 609-01, 4G. The single exception is the Airalo Africa regional plan, whose Mauritania rows declare Mauritel, also 4G. Nothing we sell declares 5G here.
Mattel — country & global plans
- • The operator behind every esimfly Mauritania plan and every Discover Global plan
- • Also the operator on the eSIMaccess Mauritania rows, listed as 4G
- • If the manual network list appears, choose Mattel or 609 01
Mauritel — Africa regional plan only
- • The only network listed on the Airalo Africa ("Hello Africa") plan for Mauritania
- • Declared as 4G
- • On that plan, and only that plan, choose Mauritel by hand if asked
Chinguitel — not yours
- • A real Mauritanian operator that will show up in your phone's network list
- • It appears in zero coverage rows across every provider we sell
- • Select it and you get no data, on any plan we offer
Why this matters more here than elsewhere: in a country where our plans carry three networks, losing one is an inconvenience. In Mauritania each plan carries exactly one, so there is no fallback. If your operator does not reach where you are standing, you have no signal, and no amount of manual network selection will fix it. Plan for that: offline maps, a downloaded translation pack, and your accommodation's address written down before you leave town.
eSIM or Local SIM
Where the eSIM wins
- • It is live the moment you land, before you have found a shop or an ATM
- • You keep your home number for two-factor codes and bank messages
- • Nothing to register in person and no counter to queue at
- • It works the same at a land border as at the airport
- • No physical SIM tray to open in blowing sand
Where a local SIM wins
- • Far cheaper per gigabyte, which matters on a long stay
- • You get a Mauritanian number, which some local services expect
- • You can pick whichever operator covers the region you are heading to
- • You can top up locally instead of buying a whole new bundle
A straight recommendation: for a trip of a week or two, the eSIM is worth the premium — you arrive connected and you never hand your passport to a shop counter. For a stay of a month or more, or for a desert expedition where you want the widest possible network choice, a local prepaid line bought in Nouakchott is the better tool, and there is no reason you cannot carry both.
Mauritania eSIM Pricing & Plans
💰 Loading current Mauritania eSIM prices…
Installation Guide
Do this at home: installing an eSIM profile needs a working internet connection; activating it does not. Scan the QR code on your own Wi-Fi before you fly. If you wait until you land you are relying on airport Wi-Fi, and if you wait until you are in the Adrar you may have no way to install it at all.
📱 iPhone Installation
- 1.Settings → Cellular → Add eSIM
- 2.Scan the QR code from your eSIM purchase
- 3.Label the line so you can tell it apart, e.g. "Mauritania"
- 4.Set it as your default data line, keeping your home line for calls
- 5.Turn Data Roaming ON for that line — without it you will see bars and move nothing
🤖 Android Installation
- 1.Settings → Network & Internet → SIMs
- 2.Tap "+" or "Add eSIM"
- 3.Choose "Download a SIM instead?"
- 4.Scan the QR code and follow the prompts
- 5.Enable the profile and switch Roaming ON for it
Real Coverage
We do not publish coverage percentages, because nobody can verify them and the ones circulating online all trace back to a brochure. What we can tell you is which operator you will be on, and the honest shape of where mobile coverage exists in a country that is a million square kilometres of desert with about five and a half million people in it. Coverage follows people and tarmac. Away from both, assume nothing.
Expect usable mobile data
- • Nouakchott and its suburbs
- • Nouadhibou, the port and the town
- • The paved Nouakchott–Nouadhibou road
- • Atar and the larger Adrar towns
- • Rosso and the Senegal river border crossing
Assume you have nothing
- • The iron-ore railway between Nouadhibou and Zouérat, for hours at a stretch
- • The dune fields and off-road tracks of the Adrar and Tagant
- • The approach to the Richat Structure beyond Ouadane
- • The interior and the islands of the Banc d'Arguin park
- • The empty east, which is also where travel advisories say not to go
The habit that matters here
Download the offline map for the whole country, not just for the city you fly into, while you still have hotel Wi-Fi. Mauritania is a place where the gap between two covered towns can be several hours of nothing, and a phone with a downloaded map and a saved destination behaves completely differently from one without. On a desert expedition the actual safety device is a satellite messenger and a vehicle you did not hire alone — not a data plan.
Travel Advisories: Read These Before the Coverage Map
Large parts of Mauritania carry government advice against travel. This is not colour for a blog post: it affects where you can insure yourself, and several of the restricted zones overlap exactly with the places that coverage does not reach. Both summaries below are the position of the issuing government as published at the time of writing; read the current version yourself before booking, because these notices change.
UK Foreign Office (FCDO)
Advises against all travel to:
- • Areas east of a line drawn between, but excluding, the towns of Kankossa, Akhreijit, Ghallaouia, Zouérat and Fdérik, and on west to the Western Sahara border
- • Areas within 25 km of the Malian border in the south, including Khabou
Advises against all but essential travel to:
- • Areas within 25 km of the Western Sahara border, where unexploded landmines are a hazard — excluding the Nouakchott–Nouadhibou road and the city of Nouadhibou
- • Parts of Tiris Zemmour, Adrar, Tagant, Hodh el Gharbi, Assaba and Guidimaka provinces, with certain roads and towns exempted
Global Affairs Canada
- • Overall level: avoid non-essential travel to Mauritania, with regional advisories on top
- • Avoid all travel to northern and eastern regions including Tiris Zemmour, Hodh El Gharbi and Hodh Ech Chargui, and to areas within 25 km of the northern borders
- • The reason given in both advisories is the risk of terrorism and kidnapping directed at Western interests
Spanish and Latin American readers: your own foreign ministry publishes an equivalent notice. Check that one, not this summary of someone else's.
The practical overlap: the iron-ore railway runs up into Tiris Zemmour, and the Adrar contains both the Chinguetti and Ouadane ksour and restricted zones. Some of the most photographed places in the country sit inside or next to areas under advisory, with no phone coverage. Go with a licensed local operator who knows the current position, not with a route copied off a forum.
How Much Data You Actually Need
These are planning estimates, not measurements, and they are deliberately conservative in one direction: in Mauritania you will often use less data than you expect, because for long stretches there is nothing to use it on. Size the bundle for the towns.
Nouakchott stopover
Two or three days in the capital: the fish market, the mosques, a visa run or a business call
Budget 1–2 GB
The whole trip happens in the best-covered part of the country. A small bundle covers maps, messaging and bookings comfortably.
- • Download the offline map anyway — it saves data, not just signal
- • The Port de Pêche at sunset is the one thing everybody photographs; ask before pointing a camera at people
- • Set photo backup to Wi-Fi only before you leave home
- • Keep your home SIM live for two-factor codes from your bank
Adrar circuit
Atar, Chinguetti, Ouadane, Terjit — the classic loop into the escarpment
Budget 3–5 GB
You will use very little data in the desert for the simple reason that there is usually none available. The bundle is for the towns at either end.
- • Download offline maps for the entire Adrar in Nouakchott or Atar, not halfway there
- • Parts of this region sit inside areas under government travel advisories — check yours before committing to a route
- • Message home from the towns, and tell people in advance that you will be unreachable between them
- • Charge everything whenever mains power appears; vehicle inverters in the desert are not a plan
Iron ore railway
The 704 km SNIM line between Nouadhibou and Zouérat, via Fdérik and Choum
Budget 1–2 GB
Coverage on this route is the exception, not the rule. Download everything before boarding and treat the bundle as something for the endpoints.
- • Expect hours with no service; there is no second network to fall back on
- • Download music, podcasts and offline maps in Nouadhibou
- • The northern end runs into Tiris Zemmour, which carries travel advisories — go with an operator who knows the current position
- • Dust gets into everything: a sealed bag for the phone is worth more than extra gigabytes
Coast and Banc d’Arguin
Nouadhibou, the Nouakchott–Nouadhibou road, and boat trips out of Iwik
Budget 3–5 GB
The paved road and the two cities are covered. Out on the water in the park, assume nothing, and plan the day around that.
- • The Nouakchott–Nouadhibou road is one of the better-covered stretches in the country
- • Save the tide and weather forecast as a screenshot before heading out to the park
- • Bird photography means big files: back them up on hotel Wi-Fi, not on the eSIM
- • A country plan stops at the border — it will not follow you into Western Sahara
Photography trip
Dunes, the ksour, the railway, the coast — a lot of shooting and a lot of uploading
Budget 8–10 GB
Uploads dominate everything else. Our largest Mauritania country plan is 10 GB for 30 days and there is no unlimited option to fall back on, so this needs planning.
- • Upload full-resolution work from accommodation Wi-Fi, not from the eSIM
- • Shoot in the desert, upload in the towns — that is the rhythm this country imposes
- • Turn off automatic video backup: it is the single biggest data sink on this kind of trip
- • If 10 GB is not enough, a second bundle is cheaper than discovering the limit mid-trip
Work trip: mining, fisheries, development
Nouakchott and Nouadhibou, occasionally a site visit inland
Budget 5–10 GB
Video calls and document sync are the load. Both cities are fine; anything at a site inland is not, so schedule calls for when you are back in town.
- • A video call runs roughly 150–400 MB an hour depending on quality; dropping to audio stretches a bundle a long way
- • Sync the documents you need before you drive out, not when you arrive
- • For a posting of a month or more, buy a local prepaid line with your passport — it is far cheaper per gigabyte
- • Local mobile money services need a Mauritanian number, which a data-only eSIM does not give you
Where People Go, and What Signal There Is
🏜️ Desert and coast
- • Banc d'Arguin: UNESCO-listed coastal national park between Nouakchott and Nouadhibou, one of the world's great wader wintering grounds. Boat trips leave from Iwik; assume no signal once you are out on the water.
- • Richat Structure: the circular geological feature near Ouadane known as the Eye of the Sahara, visible properly only from the air. The drive out is unsupported desert track.
- • Terjit: a palm oasis in the Adrar escarpment, and one of the few desert stops with a settlement beside it.
- • Ben Amera: a granite monolith roughly 4 km north of the railway between Nouadhibou and Choum. Lonely Planet describes it as Africa's largest and the world's second-largest monolith after Uluru; that ranking traces to a single source, so take it as a claim rather than a settled fact.
- • Nouadhibou: the Atlantic fishing port, the country's second city and the western end of the railway.
🏛️ The four ksour
- • UNESCO inscribed the Ancient Ksour of Ouadane, Chinguetti, Tichitt and Oualata as a single World Heritage site in 1996. All four were founded around the 11th century as trans-Saharan caravan trading posts, and all four are fighting desertification today.
- • Chinguetti: the best known, in the Adrar, famous for its family-held manuscript libraries and its stone minaret.
- • Ouadane: the ruined hillside ksar north-east of Chinguetti, and the jumping-off point for the Richat.
- • Tichitt: in Tagant, the hardest of the four to reach.
- • Oualata: in Hodh Ech Chargui, in the far south-east, known for its painted house façades — and inside an area under travel advisory.
- • Signal note: the towns themselves are inhabited, so some have service; the roads and tracks between them largely do not. Do not plan on being reachable in the Adrar.
Troubleshooting
Full bars, no data
Almost always roaming. A travel eSIM is by definition a roaming line, and if roaming is off for that specific line your phone will show a healthy Mattel signal and pass no traffic. Turn roaming on for the eSIM, confirm it is the designated data line, then toggle airplane mode.
The phone has latched onto Chinguitel
If you ever selected a network by hand, the phone may keep trying it. Go back to automatic network selection, or explicitly pick Mattel / 609 01 on a country or global plan, or Mauritel on the Airalo Africa regional plan. No plan we sell has an agreement with Chinguitel, so on that one you will sit at "No Service" indefinitely.
Absolutely nothing, out in the desert
Most of Mauritania has no commercial mobile service and there is no second network to fall back on. This is not a fault you can fix from Settings. Tell your accommodation your route before you leave, carry the offline map you downloaded in town, and treat a satellite messenger — not a data plan — as your communication plan for the deep desert.
The heat
Phones throttle and then shut down when they overheat, and a phone left on a dashboard in the Sahara will do both. Keep it out of direct sun, keep it out of a sealed pocket against your body, and use airplane mode when you do not need it: a handset hunting for a network it cannot find burns battery and generates heat for nothing.
The bundle ran out early
Turn off automatic photo and video backup before you travel. On a trip with a lot of photography, cloud sync usually consumes more than everything else put together. There is no unlimited Mauritania plan to rescue you: the bundle you bought is what you have until you top up.
Emergency Numbers
What official sources publish
- Police (UK FCDO):117
- Police (Global Affairs Canada):17
- Fire (Global Affairs Canada):18
- Ambulance (UK FCDO):101
Two governments publish two different police numbers for Mauritania, and we are not going to pretend we can settle it: try 117, then 17. More importantly, the FCDO itself warns that the Mauritanian authorities may not answer calls to the ambulance number. Treat these as a starting point, not as a working emergency system.
What actually helps
- • The FCDO states that medical facilities are extremely limited, especially outside Nouakchott and Nouadhibou, and that clinics charge and may not accept foreign insurance. Serious cases mean evacuation.
- • Travel insurance with medical evacuation cover is not optional here, and accessible funds matter because you may have to pay up front.
- • Save your own embassy's number from its official site before you fly. We deliberately do not reprint embassy or clinic numbers: they change, and a wrong number in an emergency is worse than none.
- • Write your accommodation's address in French or Arabic, with a nearby landmark, in a note you can read offline.
- • Outside the cities, your hotel, guide or fixer will mobilise help faster than a phone call to a national number.
A data eSIM is not an emergency plan. Emergency numbers are dialled over a voice line, and our Mauritania profiles carry data only. Keep your home SIM active for calls if your phone takes two lines, or carry a charged local handset. In a country this empty, that is the difference between an inconvenience and a serious problem.
Cultural Guide
Worth doing ✅
- • Dress modestly. Mauritania is a conservative Islamic republic and this is not a formality anywhere in the country
- • Greet before you ask. A conversation that opens with a request reads as rude
- • Learn a few words of Arabic or French; French carries a long way in administration and business
- • Accept tea if you have the time — it is poured in rounds and the ritual is the point
- • Use your right hand for greeting, eating and handing things over
- • Hire a licensed local guide for anything beyond the paved roads
Worth avoiding ❌
- • Photographing people, and especially women and children, without asking first
- • Photographing military installations, government buildings, ports or border posts
- • Public displays of affection
- • Assuming English will get you anywhere outside a hotel — usually it will not
- • Being in a hurry. Social and business time both run slower than most visitors expect
- • Driving off-road without a second vehicle, local knowledge and far more water than you think you need
Frequently Asked Questions
Which network does a Mauritania eSIM actually connect to?
Mattel, on 4G. Every Mauritania coverage row we hold from esimfly and eSIMaccess — country plans, Discover Global and VIP pay-as-you-go alike — declares exactly one Mauritanian operator, and it is Mattel, MCC-MNC 609-01. The single exception is the Airalo Africa regional plan, whose Mauritania rows declare Mauritel instead. If your phone ever asks you to pick a network by hand, pick Mattel on a country or global plan and Mauritel on the Africa regional plan. Chinguitel is a real Mauritanian operator and it will appear in the list, but no plan we sell has an agreement with it: choose it and you get no data at all.
Is there an unlimited Mauritania plan?
No. Every Mauritania plan we can sell is a fixed bucket, from 1 GB for 7 days up to 10 GB for 30 days on the country family, plus the Discover Global packages and the Airalo Africa regional bundles. Nothing in the Mauritania catalogue is unlimited, so anyone advertising "unlimited Mauritania" is describing a fair-use policy, not an uncapped line. Size the bundle for maps, messaging and check-ins rather than for video.
Will my eSIM work in the deep Sahara?
Usually not, and you should plan on that rather than hope otherwise. Mauritania is over a million square kilometres of mostly desert with a population of around five and a half million, almost all of it in a narrow band of towns. Mobile coverage follows people and tarmac. Nouakchott, Nouadhibou, the paved road between them, Atar and the larger Adrar settlements are where signal is real. The dune fields, the Richat Structure approach tracks, the interior of the Banc d’Arguin park and most of the iron-ore railway corridor are places to assume you have nothing. Download offline maps for the whole route before you leave a city, and treat a satellite messenger as the actual safety device on a desert expedition.
Does the eSIM work on the iron ore train?
Only at the ends of it, and not reliably even there. The SNIM railway runs 704 km between the mining centre at Zouérat and the port of Nouadhibou via Fdérik and Choum. It crosses empty desert for most of that distance and there is no operator with a commercial reason to cover it. Expect signal around Nouadhibou and near the inhabited stops, and nothing in between for hours at a time. Download everything you want before boarding and tell someone your plan, because your phone will not be the thing that reaches them.
Can I use a Mauritania plan in Morocco, Senegal or Mali?
A Mauritania country plan works inside Mauritania only. The cross-border option in our catalogue is the Airalo Africa regional plan, which lists 38 countries including Mauritania, Senegal, Mali, Gambia, Guinea and Guinea-Bissau. Read that list carefully before an overland trip: Morocco is not in it, and neither is Western Sahara, so the northern half of the classic Tangier-to-Dakar drive is not covered by it. Note also that eSIMaccess runs a separate Africa regional product covering 29 countries and Mauritania is not one of them, so "an Africa plan" is not one single thing.
Do I need a visa for Mauritania?
Almost certainly, and the rule changed recently. The UK Foreign Office states that from 5 January 2025 it is no longer possible to obtain a visa on arrival in Mauritania, and that travellers must apply online in advance through the Mauritanian ANRPTS portal, with the fee paid on arrival in cash in euros or US dollars, and a passport valid for at least six months from the date of arrival. Rules depend on your nationality and change without much notice, so check your own government’s current advice before booking and do not rely on any guide, this one included.
Are there parts of Mauritania I should not go to?
Yes, and this is not a formality. The UK Foreign Office advises against all travel to the area east of a line drawn between, but excluding, the towns of Kankossa, Akhreijit, Ghallaouia, Zouérat and Fdérik and on west to the Western Sahara border, and to areas within 25 km of the Malian border in the south including Khabou. It advises against all but essential travel to areas within 25 km of the Western Sahara border, which are mined, excluding the Nouakchott–Nouadhibou road and the city of Nouadhibou itself, and to parts of Tiris Zemmour, Adrar, Tagant, Hodh el Gharbi, Assaba and Guidimaka. Global Affairs Canada advises against non-essential travel to the country as a whole. Insurance often follows these notices, so read the current version of your own government’s advice, not this summary.
Does the eSIM let me call the emergency services?
No. Our Mauritania profiles are data-only, and emergency numbers are dialled over a voice line. Keep your home SIM active for calls if your phone takes two lines, or keep a local handset to hand. That matters more here than in most places, because the FCDO itself warns that calls to the ambulance number may go unanswered and that medical facilities outside Nouakchott and Nouadhibou are extremely limited.
One network, bought before you fly
Mauritania gives you Mattel or it gives you nothing, so the useful decision is not which network but how much data, and whether your route leaves the country. Both answers are on this page; the plans are one click away.