Has anyone bought an eSIM in Australia?
Apparently their carriers do convert physical SIMs to eSIMs and they have a very competitive prepaid market, often giving dozens of gigs for $20 or less.
But that's for physical SIM packs that you can get at their supermarket and other retail chains, where they have weekly sales.
My issue is my iPad Pro and iPhone are both eSIM only so I can't use physical SIM cards any more and if I have to install it in order to activate, I wouldn't be able to do it with either device. Plus even if you are able to activate, it may take some time to switch it to eSIM. The carriers have mobile apps but they're not available on the US iOS App Store, except My Telstra app.
Boost Mobile is an MVNO which runs on the Telstra network and they let you order eSIMs om their site:
https://boost.com.au/pages/prepaid-plans
Presumably they will email you a QR code, not require you to install their app? The other issue is, will that website even take US credit cards.
My trip isn't until the end of January so it would be good to know if anyone has used eSIMs from Australian carriers or MVNOs.
The Airalo and other global eSIM MVNO's simply aren't competitive price-wise for Australia.