Mobile service, internet and apps

Mobile service in Brazil is almost entirely tied to the CPF, and daily life to WhatsApp and local apps. Below is how foreigners set up a SIM and internet in Rio in 2024–2025 and how to get the apps you need. Operators' rules and tariffs change: prices are as of the stated dates.

Checked on 8 October 2026.

In short

There are three operators: Claro, Vivo and TIM. Call the SIM a "chip": nobody will understand the word "sim".
You can buy a chip almost anywhere, but activating it without a CPF is hard; with a fresh CPF it is easier at TIM and Claro, harder at Vivo.
There is no unlimited mobile internet; everything is sold in gigabyte packages.
Everyone has WhatsApp, including government bodies and shops.

The SIM card

Prepaid without a CPF. In December 2024 the @russo_no_brasil author bought a prepaid SIM at a Vivo shop in central Rio, registered on passports, with no CPF asked for. At São Paulo's Guarulhos airport, on the second floor, there is a TIM kiosk: they activate it for you by phoning the operator, about US$ 10 for 10–12 GB. Near the operators' shops in the centre, already registered chips are sold (post, 23.12.2024). This depends on the shop and the time: two months later another author wrote that activating a chip without a CPF is almost impossible (post, 14.02.2025).

With a CPF. Activation needs a CPF, an address, a postcode and a date of birth. A new CPF is far from always accepted online: Vivo hardly lets it through, while TIM and Claro do so more often. Then there are two ways: register the chip on someone else's CPF, or go to an office and spend 30–40 minutes there. You may be asked for a declaração de residência (post, 14.02.2025). More about why a CPF may be "invisible" to systems on the CPF page.

Tariffs. Packaged, with nothing unlimited. You can top up from a local card or with cash at most shops: they ask you to enter the number on the payment terminal. R$ 20 a month was enough for the author. The first two digits of the number mean the state, and the international code is +55. Abroad the chip does not work without a separate option; the author managed to enable roaming on Vivo, but could not get TIM to work (post, 07.01.2024, post, 14.02.2025).

Home internet

Fibre internet is set up at an operator's shop under a one-year contract. In January 2025 in Rio Vivo refused because its system would not accept the CPF, while Claro set it up: about US$ 20 a month for 500 Mbit/s on a one-year contract. The family also added two eSIMs of 25 GB each to the contract, about US$ 35 a month in total for home internet and two SIMs; an engineer installed the equipment within an hour on the appointed day. Because they could not move their old numbers, they changed numbers three times in two months (post, 28.01.2025). For comparison, in June 2022 the same speed at Claro cost R$ 120–130 a month, and connecting the fibre took more than a week (post, 30.06.2022).

Brazilian apps

Banks, local government services, delivery, transport and shops work through apps that may be missing from your App Store or Google Play if your account is tied to a Russian region.

iPhone: either change the Apple ID region to Brazil (you must first cancel subscriptions and clear any debts), or create a separate Apple ID with the region set to Brazil, install the apps and go back to your main account (post, 18.09.2026).
Android: the Google Play region is changed in the account settings; for the author it changed automatically after arrival.
Some Russian apps will not install with a Brazilian account, so some people keep two phones (post, 07.01.2024).

VPN and banking apps

If you launch a Brazilian banking app with a VPN or proxy on, its protection may block sign-in, and you will have to go to a branch (post, 07.01.2024). Itaú works with any non-Russian IP but is sometimes capricious, and the website of the electricity company Light requires a Brazilian IP (post, 30.05.2025). Russian services, conversely, need a VPN: a paid one is better.

Sources

Personal experience (channels @russo_no_brasil, @svoibrazil and @brazil_lifehacks, in Russian):