Using your mobile abroad

[Raymond Lin]

Strange behaviour to be honest.

It actually easier to get an e-sim.

Get it all done before you leave the house, you’re ready to go. I land/dock turn it on and away I go. Don’t need to worry about finding a shop, don’t need to plan for that shop visit first etc visiting more than one place, get it all ready to go.

They have made local sims when traveling obsolete.

Also the latest iphone doesn’t even have a sim tray in the states, expect others to follow soon.

This, no need to find a local sim, which at the airport is almost always overpriced and you are basically being held ransom of getting it there or no data and find your own way to the city.

With e-sim you set it up, if that somehow some reason didn’t work when you land, then local sim is the back up plan.

 

[bigmike20vt]

I am currently in Majorca..... I am with O2 and I get all my calls and data as part of my allowance for free. I didn't need to do anything it was all automatic

 

[Nasher]

Local SIM or just call over WiFi using WhatsApp for free.

Even though WhatsApp is linked to your phone number it still works. I've made calls over it abroad while also being on a VPN via another country.

 

[BMox81]

So I’m going away next month, with EE and it says the following:

Would it just be easier just to stick with my regular sim rather than getting an eSIM? Assuming the picture messages that are 89p would be ones sent via iMessage?

 

[Reuben klang]

So I’m going away next month, with EE and it says the following:

Would it just be easier just to stick with my regular sim rather than getting an eSIM? Assuming the picture messages that are 89p would be ones sent via iMessage?

Picture messages are messages sent by sms. iMessage is data. Mainly only happens when you send a message to someone and they’ve got an android phone!

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Where are you going and for how long?

 

[BMox81]

Picture messages are messages sent by sms. iMessage is data. Mainly only happens when you send a message to someone and they’ve got an android phone!

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Where are you going and for how long?

Lanzarote for a week.

 

[Reuben klang]

Depend on how much data you’ll use youre better off getting a https://www.airalo.com/spain-esim for 7 days

 

[Pickers]

So how do you set up the e SIM? I have a 7 day e SIM - how much do I do at home and how do I engage it when I land??? Never done it before

 

[Reuben klang]

So you do everything at home apart from actually turning the line on (activate) to receive data.

Scroll half way down that link above it has instructions

 

[Huggie86]

Airalo E-sim for us, worked amazing in America for a few weeks. Good price too!

 

[ivrytwr3]

Daughter is off to Spain today and because she has had her contract pre-2021 roaming is free (yey!) Just make sure roaming is enabled in your device settings and you are good to go.

I also live chatted EE to confirm, just to cover my ass, but this step is not essential.

 

[Mr G]

Thinking of changing my provider soon, Three are charging me £2 a day for using my allowances where as my wife is with ID and it's all included?

 

[bingham67]

Anyone have any experience with an E-Sim for Egypt $44 for 7 day trip seems a tad high for 10gb

 

[Reuben klang]

Anyone have any experience with an E-Sim for Egypt $44 for 7 day trip seems a tad high for 10gb

https://esim.holafly.com/esim-egypt/ £29 unlimited. Only £4 cheaper.

Looks like its one of those that it is what it is, you either pay it or you don’t!

 

[bingham67]

https://esim.holafly.com/esim-egypt/ £29 unlimited. Only £4 cheaper.

Looks like its one of those that it is what it is, you either pay it or you don’t!

Ive read a Vodaphone sim with 25gb is $12 at cairo airport so dont think there any beating that with E-Sim.

 

[Raymond Lin]

I find some countries’ data just cost more. We have it cheap here in the UK in comparison.

Like Morocco is €37 for 10 days unlimited.

 

[ShivP]

Thinking of changing my provider soon, Three are charging me £2 a day for using my allowances where as my wife is with ID and it's all included?

Lebara & O2 are free EU

 

[Vertigo]

With these eSIMs, I've seen a lot of people mention "you can keep your number" or words to that effect.

From what I can tell, most of these eSIMs are data only, so you use the eSIM for that whilst still using your existing SIM (and thus number) for calls and texts. Is this correct?
If so, then calls and texts will still be subject to roaming charges from your "home" network won't they?

There are eSIMs that include calls/texts but presumably these will have their own (different) number?

 

[ShivP]

With these eSIMs, I've seen a lot of people mention "you can keep your number" or words to that effect.

From what I can tell, most of these eSIMs are data only, so you use the eSIM for that whilst still using your existing SIM (and thus number) for calls and texts. Is this correct?
If so, then calls and texts will still be subject to roaming charges from your "home" network won't they?

There are eSIMs that include calls/texts but presumably these will have their own (different) number?

Yes, but most people just use WhatsApp etc, and avoid calls / texts. The eSIM will have it's own number correct, if you choose a texts / calls plan.

 

[MrRockliffe]

I used Maya Mobile recently for a trip to Spain.


It worked well, except for the fact that the speeds were abysmal compared to just using my EE sim.


On the same network, I topped out at 5 ish Mbps on Maya and would be able to hit max speed on EE, at times this was in excess of 100 Mbps.



It frustrated me endlessly, as it was seemingly always slower than just using my normal sim.




Any recommendations on a better provider that cheaper enough than £2.50 a day to warrant using it?