Originally Posted by
richarddd
I wonder about the reliability of the various providers. Do they all have similar coverage and not have issues of service being unavailable?
hence they should be competing on the stuff below. If they don't list the info before, then you're really competing on price
- support (some are 24x7, some are "24x7", some are limited hours). You can test by opening a ticket before you buy.
- actual network provider support (eg do you only support one of the 4 major carriers or more) - a lot of esim providers list this, but some don't
- APN - most don't post the APN anywhere, some provide APN when you buy, some hide the APN in support docs, some put it in the webpage upfront (which is good). It's not ideal if you have to ask support for this (since esim data won't be working)
- exit IP - very few post this. Keepgo does (they call it privacy IP). If you know the APN, likely you can infer the underlying carrier and where it exits (3HK , plus/play aka Poland etc) this affects latency, and also website availability (eg tiktok not available in hkg, though vpn could worksaround)
- actual MVNO/MNO not just reselling from plus/play/3HK - Ubigi (transactel), Betterroaming (Truphone/1Global), 3HK, 3UK, AIS (Thailand), Orange (France) etc
What are people without US prepaid plans doing for voice calls and sending texts when outside the US? Whatsapp is popular but not universal. Google Voice won't send texts outside the US.
Do people really need to call? To make restaurant reservations?
If you're meeting with friends/family, you should be already communicating to them via intl borders (so email/Whatsapp/...), unless they only use landlines