Colombian mobile providers: Foreign phones banned after 1 month without registration | Warning

We just both a new SIM card -was no problem at all

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We bought a Tigo sim card and at an official shop she could not do it with passeport number and asked if a local could register it for me.
I ended up doing it on the website b.tigo.com/registro.
You just put whatever 6 digits and it works.
They don’t check it.

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So we had the same issue but it was with Claro call *611# than *225# but it doesn't work. We went to claro official store in a mall and they told us to go to an big official one.

But we found the solution, because the passport number couldn't work, you have to put the number they enter so better to buy a claro in an official shop and not a little tienda because they can put any number.

So check the number under your name in the factura, it will be normally that's number which can register it.

so first *611# accept, accept, accept and number of passport they entered (for us random number) and it will registrate it.

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we just got our SIM cards from a big claro store and they were able to register this number while we were there. they did not automatically offer this, but were happy to do it when we asked about it.

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Worked as described. Thanks for the heads up

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No problems with Claro either... You get a text after a week or so instructing you to dial *611# and follow the prompts.

This is a legitimate process by the Colombian government to try and deture phone thefts.

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Something we didn't know before entering Colombia: If you plan to stay longer than 1 month, you need to register your phone (not SIM card) with it's IMEI number with a Colombian provider, otherwise it will be banned and completely useless within Colombia (apparently, there is no way to unlock it once it is locked either).

You will get warning messages like this if you don't do it:

Tu equipo no esta registrado, hazlo ahora y evita sea bloqueado en 20 dias. Llama al *300 opcion 2 y sigue los pasos o ingresa a b.tigo.com/registrar

It's supposed to help against theft, but sounds BS to me. Anyway, the easiest way to avoid it is buying a Tigo SIM and activating it through their app or website. You can log in with your phone number and then go to Servicios -> Consulta tu dispositivos to activate it (the SIM card must be in the phone).

Select cédula extranjera and enter any 6 or 7 digit number, they don't check it. Once the process is complete, you get the following text:

EL IMEI FUE REGISTRADO EXITOSAMENTE.

You can do it for multiple devices by swapping the SIM card around and repeating the process.

You can use the phone with any provider afterward.

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