The mobile data / international roaming thread

[Nochris]

Anyone tried this website called Able Travel eSIM before? They sell 3GB USA eSIM for £8, seems pretty sweet.

[Sandgrounder]

redethernet1 wrote:

Sandgrounder wrote:

Anyone tried the new Revolut global data esim? Seems reasonably priced and convenient, with 100mb free global data if you sign up before the end of April. Anyone have any comments?

sounds awseome but im not paying £540 for another amex platinum try-hard card

No intention of paying for ultra, you can buy esim access direct from the app with a standard membership. I found that although I had a perfect signal in Bosnia, there was no data connection. It worked fine in montenegro.

[davefl]

@Sandgrounder I had the opposite. Went through all the hassle of going to the Bosnia telcom local office to buy a sim, cash, real palava, don’t ask.

Was supposed to work in Montengro as well but got nothing.

[Gavin454]

My o2 SIM only contract (£8 per month) includes roaming in Europe + various other countries. Had a good experience when in the US and Canada recently, very fast speeds with free roaming on 5G in both countries.

https://www.o2.co.uk/international/travel-inclusive-zone

[davefl]

Gavin454 wrote:

My o2 SIM only contract (£8 per month) includes roaming in Europe + various other countries. Had a good experience when in the US and Canada recently, very fast speeds with free roaming on 5G in both countries.

https://www.o2.co.uk/international/travel-inclusive-zone

You must be on a legacy contract then as the plus plans that include this start at £18/month with a 2 yr contract now.

European roaming is included on all the cheaper plans but not the travel pack that includes the USA.

[PeteM]

Gavin454 wrote:

Had a good experience when in the US and Canada recently, very fast speeds with free roaming on 5G in both countries.

Interestingly, I couldn’t get the inclusive O2 roaming to work at all in NYC a couple of weeks back. I’d bought an Airalo plan so didn’t trouble-shoot it in much detail, but my O2 experience in the US and Mexico previously was never seamless and the speeds were severely throttled.

[R]

@davefl You get the US roaming even now if you have Volt on your account. I switched to O2 a month ago on a £8/month contract and got it.

[davefl]

@R Not as an ex-virgin customer I don’t. £6/day or locked in to a new contract that’s £8/month more.

[Skywalker]

Does anyone have any experience with esim.me and/or 5ber?

I have an older model Android phone that still works well, so I am reluctant to discard it

Both esim.me and 5ber (on the face of it) appear to solve the lack of esim functionality issue, but I want to know if others here had any feedback?

TIA

[Steve]

I’ve got an esim.me SIM, which I’ve had for the last few years. Although it should work fine, I found that the manager app struggled to see the SIM card on one phone this year, but a slightly elder phone worked (and still works) fine. I’ve now loaded a couple of Airalo esims to it, and the esim.me / Airalo SIM worked fine for the last few weeks in a family member’s phone (different to the manager app phone) whilst abroad. Basically, once the esim is loaded, the esim.me SIM can be moved to most other phones and then appears to function like a normal SIM card.

I had another esim that wouldn’t load via QR code when I first got the esim.me SIM, and esim.me helped with good email responses on what the issues were, and when they would fix their app to support the situation.

I don’t know 5ber, but esim.me are based in Berlin, which gave me some confidence when ordering from them originally.

[gw57]

Heading to Antigua in a couple of months and want to get an eSIM anyone got suggestions ?

[Skywalker]

Thanks @Steve that’s great feedback

[cin3]

Anyone have a recommendation for the Spanish Pyrenees where signal might not always be easy to get?

I have access to ubigi, airolo, global yo and can get other e-sims too.

[mrd]

I’m sure there’s many that frequent to the Middle East and UAE specifically.

I’m on Vodafone and O2, what are my options, is it better to get an eSIM out there and if so, what are your recommendations?

[NorthernLass]

They give you a SIM with (IIRC) 1gb of data at DXB but we found it very poor quality and just stuck with the pretty ubiquitous WiFi, both there and in DOH. We only used our phones for calling home and the internet though, so it depends on your own requirements.

[Lady London]

davefl wrote:

@Sandgrounder I had the opposite. Went through all the hassle of going to the Bosnia telcom local office to buy a sim, cash, real palava, don’t ask.

Was supposed to work in Montengro as well but got nothing.

Wondering wbether a different APN was needed if you could see the connection-, even calls but no data

[Michael C]

For our e-sim in Thailand, we used the very appropriately-named…esimthailand.com!

It was fantastic – not only did OH download and instal it easily, but I tethered off it
for the entire fortnight without a hitch.

[davefl]

Lady London wrote:

davefl wrote:

@Sandgrounder I had the opposite. Went through all the hassle of going to the Bosnia telcom local office to buy a sim, cash, real palava, don’t ask.

Was supposed to work in Montengro as well but got nothing.

Wondering wbether a different APN was needed if you could see the connection-, even calls but no data

Wow, resurrecting ancient posts 🙂 I’m 2 phones down the line since then, so now it’s 1 physical + 1 esim rather than 2 physicals so really can’t remember what happened. May have been the APN, but they told me at the time it should just have worked.

This year I’m going for a worldwide esim from Airalo which will cover just about everything I have planned for the next 12 months apart from Zimbabwe where I’ll have to buy a different esim for the few days I’m there.

[Optimus Prime]

We’ve used Tello in the US. It’s more expensive than typical travel eSIMs but you also get an US number which sometimes it’s handy when booking dinners, tours, etc.

[mzb]

I am also looking at getting an eSIM in the US with a US phone number. I looked quickly at the Tello site, @Optimus Prime, did you have to sign up to a monthly plan or is there a PAYG option as well that I can’t seem to find?

[Lady London]

I have a (physical, not e-)SIM I need to use a few times a year. But currently short of a phone to keep it in permanently and it’s an absolute pain switching them.

Unlikely to upgrade to an eSIM phone for another year or so.

Is there an app I could install that would let me treat the number I’ve got as a hard SIM, as an eSIM to make rare calls, and possibly receive the odd call or text?

[e14]

Lady London wrote:

I have a (physical, not e-)SIM I need to use a few times a year. But currently short of a phone to keep it in permanently and it’s an absolute pain switching them.

Unlikely to upgrade to an eSIM phone for another year or so.

Is there an app I could install that would let me treat the number I’ve got as a hard SIM, as an eSIM to make rare calls, and possibly receive the odd call or text?

Just get a 11.50 throw away phone from Argos …

https://www.argos.co.uk/product/3100660?clickSR=slp:term:nokia:1:42:1 if you buy online and C&C you don’t need to top up

[Lady London]

Thanks e14

[OhOneTwoFour]

Airalo works nicely – I’ll shamelessly put my referral link here if anyone is looking:

Get US$3 off your first eSIM data pack from Airalo. Use code ASH7906 when you sign up or apply it at checkout. https://ref.airalo.com/41q3

[RK228]

mzb wrote:

I am also looking at getting an eSIM in the US with a US phone number. I looked quickly at the Tello site, @Optimus Prime, did you have to sign up to a monthly plan or is there a PAYG option as well that I can’t seem to find?

I don’t know about Tello, but you can get PAYG US eSIMs from T-Mobile’s PrePaid Sim app. It works well, includes US phone number, and was able to activate before travel from the UK. Unlimited plans are pricey, but “limited” plans, which usually require an extra click to find/access, started from $10.