Local SIM: Malaysia Edition

who: Hotlink

where: right before immigration at the Main Terminal at KUL there is a series of cell provider kiosks, including Celcom, Hotlink, and Digi (see the Prepaid With Data wiki page for Malaysia for more info). i was going to go with Celcom since it seemed to be the busiest but they only took cash. there are no ATMs on the immigration/customs/baggage claim level (and you can’t go back upstairs) so the representative told me there was another Celcom kiosk outside past baggage claim (along with ATMs).

so that’s where i headed. unfortunately, the Celcom kiosk there was out of SIM cards, leaving Hotlink (the only other provider out there that i saw) the only choice. (again, cash only!)

what you need: passport. no forms, no signatures.

price: i opted for the 1 GB plan for 45 ringgit ($13.94, including SIM card). the 500 MB plan is 25 ringgit. the card apparently comes with free facebook, twitter, and whatsapp usage (see the disclaimer text, though — i don’t know if using Twitter via the app counts against it or not).

activation: immediate. she activated the card using their phone but once she popped it into mine, it worked immediately. no APN settings required. also, she had to use a punch to get the regular SIM down to a nano-SIM size for my 5s, but it still didn’t fit right so she used an x-acto knife to whittle it down until it did. i guess that’s normal for getting a nano-SIM to work (this is my first nano-SIM phone), since she didn’t seem to be bothered by it.