Data sim card for mobile router

You can buy a Brazilian prepaid data sim card anywhere, but to activate and use it you need a CPF (personal number) or a CNPJ (company's number).

For a year I used my Dutch sim card and enable roaming and managed to put my foreign number on everything here in Brazil without a problem, so I think you can do that with your current phone's sim card yes.

But if you mean router as in the equipment you install at a house... as far as I know that's not possible (maybe I'm wrong?). When you contract a phone-internet-tv operator (Vivo, Tim, Oi, Claro etc) they install the router for you at home.

I never tried to open one of those routers to see if I could install my phone's sim card but you got me curious about this. Anyone know if this is possible?

01/22/23Can you buy a prepaid data sim card or could you put your phone sim card in the router?
-@ltoby955

Both Amazon and Mercado Livre sell a dongle that will accept a SIM card and function as a mobile hotspot.  I have no idea how reliable it is.  A search on "Roteador com SIM card" on either site will bring you to the details.  I'm not aware of any other router that will operate on a SIM card.

Most cellphones can also be used as mobile hotspots, as you're probably aware.

@tlacle Hi I have a portable router it totally mobile and great. Thanks for the info.

@abthree Hi thanks for the reply, I used the hotspot in Uruguay and was great there you can buy a months worth of data on a prepaid sim. I teach online so heading to a summer rental with no wifi and It's a must here in Brazil.

So I started thinking about what Itoby955 might be trying to do (mobile, residential or both) because there really are a lot of options [even in the northeast] even in some pretty remote places. Let me run down my family list:

• TIM (mobile with pretty great access in the northeast [backlands and coastal cities], São Paulo, Chapeco to Blumenau - often better than Claro - if I remember correctly it also worked in Uruguay)
• Claro (mobile with Latin American plan that I just used in Columbia and Peru and had great 4G access)
• Claro-Net (residential - I have a lower-speed solution [50mbps] and a fixed line)
• Oi (now Vivo for mobile with fair 4g coverage)
• Brisanet (residential used in 2 locations for home Internet and fixed line at 100Mbps - Brisa, located in the middle of Ceara some place, is quickly expanding throughout the northeast and taking on larger urban areas. It started by providing radio Internet access.)
• Tely (residential used in 1 location for home Internet and fixed line at 100Mbps)
• Bakanas Net (residential at about 30Mbps out in the caatinga - pretty weird name but nice people that respond when the wind blows the radio receptor cockeyed.)

The rural caatinga neighbors all use what is called a "telefone rural" which is a SIM in a special phone but their phones provide no Internet connection BUT Intelbras calls it "celular fixo" and indicates that one can establish an Internet connection that way - which I'm guessing would be a test of patience because the only time people get a telefone rural is when there is no line pole available to string wire and when the service is so weak that regular cell services just don't cut it. We tried telefone rural once and it really was horrible for even the most basic voice service.

And then I wonder about things like Hughes and Starlink [not that I find any need but the next interior house we rent might be even further off the grid). Anyone using Hughes or Starlink here?