SMS is tied to your SIM card and phone number. You can only use it if you're using your normal account. Some carriers might offer SMS forwarding, but I don't think I've ever seen it.

WhatsApp/email/Viber/Facebook Messenger/Instagram/Snapchat etc are all other options.

Verizon's Messages+ makes your Verizon account's SMS available from a Windows or iOS device. I haven't used an iOS version, but I don't imagine it will work from an iPhone that doesn't have a Verizon SIM card in it.

Not to mention the cost difference. For me, Verizon's half-gig per day limit is fine. But the $10 Travelpass per day is a tad less compelling than, say, 25GB for a month in Europe for $99. After reading your excellent review, I went to the Ubigi web site and found:

• .
• “Victim of its success, we cannot provide new eSIM profiles during a few days”
• My iPhone X doesn't support eSIM, I'd need an XS or XR. But given how much I travel, I'd probably save money by upgrading.

The Verizon Messages+ app does work with a different SIM. I assume you just need to activate the app with a Verizon SIM. After that it uses data.

That's terrific! Unfortunately, unless I'm remembering wrong, the Android version doesn't do that.

same with t-mobile digits, which actually goes further and virtualizes your t-mobile phone number using your data or wifi connection.

But the whole point of dual sim is so that you don't have to do any of this. I imagine this is cheaper on carriers like t-mobile where you don't have to buy a pricey international plan to have access when overseas, though there are other reasons for sticking with VZW I suppose.

-David

I'm guessing it is a security thing rather than a financial thing. If you use your SIM card in phone to trigger a bomb they'd have some place to start looking. That whole "burner phone" thing...

Bingo. This is why so many countries have instituted regulations that even prepaid SIMs require a passport being recorded.

Spark in NZ now allow eSim for their visitor sims.

just activated the esim on a new pixel 3 xl. On Google Fi. the physical sim slot is open and ready for travel. It does work with a T mobile data only physical sim in the second slot.

another message solution via data is Hangouts.

And there is an app called Pulse that is cross platform you can use for sms.

BTW, if you have a trip coming up soon, Ubigi has a sale going on -- 30% off until May 6.

Thank for this thread. My wife got the Xs Max. I've been trying to get t-mobile to swich it to e-sim. I tried Twitter & iMessage several times, they're not willing to do it. I went to the store, got a rep who's willing to try eventhough he think it will not work. He was surprised that the system accept the eid number :p. I do have to wait 30-45 mins to continue on the next step though.

I was able to provision a Three HK prepaid roaming eSIM on a Google Pixel 3a without any issues.

Three's roaming plan is 10 days at 500MB/day, throttled to 128kbps after you hit the daily quota. You can buy it directly from Three's web site for HKD $138 (USD $17.58).

Roaming coverage countries
--
APAC: China, Macau, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, Vietnam, Australia
N. America: USA, Canada
Europe: United Kingdom, Italy, Sweden, Ireland, Denmark, Austria, France

Did you provision/activate it outside of HK?

Yes, I provisioned it in Singapore and it started roaming right away on Singtel.

One good thing about HK carriers is the lack of ID verification. You get the QR code by email a few seconds after paying.

Has anyone here tried AIS's 6GB eSIM2Fly?

I tried to buy one but hit a dead end when it wouldn't accept my credit card.

Thai telcos require payment with a Thai CC or bank account. Thai Prepaid Card resells eSim https://thaiprepaidcard.com/ais-roam...roaming-rates/ I'm not sure if they're reselling pre-registered esims (like they do the sim cards) or if they require identification like passport to register it to your name.

You missed mentioning the super important part

It's a pack of 10 individual day passes, pack/esim is valid for 90 days after validation.

Each day pass can be activated individually, ending at 23:59HKG time (no proration, so it'll be a waste if you activate it at 8pm to use for 4 hours)

Don't have to use days consecutively.. if you purchase another set of 10-passes, esim and previous passes will be extended another 90days

IFree is giving away eSIM cards at the travel agency at the bottom of KLIA2 (KUL), and apparently also on TG.

Have yet to try mine.

https://www.ifreegroup.com/mogos.html#/home

Can you also get a Sim card with the same plan ?
And what is the name of the plan ?

My Motorola E5 does not have eSim

Thanks for the info

Just got back for a 16 day European trip (Germany and Czechia) and my Ubigi eSim worked fine.

I was at 2.9 of my 3GB when I checked just before getting on my flight home at AMS.

I did have a bit of an issue that I don't think was Ubigi related -- I have the Boingo WiFi app on my phone. The WiFi symbol showed in the status bar when in my hotel room but I wasn't really connected -- however the phone that I was, so some apps that were set to up/download on WiFi only thought WiFi was connected and did their stuff and I burned up 700MB on Ubigi I didn't really need to. I deleted the Boingo app and things were fine after that. Boingo was somehow interfering with the hotel WiFi login.

I received (and made) calls and texts on my US T-Mobile SIM just fine.

I don't think the data-only eSIM will effect things -- whatever your main carrier did before, they probably will do with a secondary data only eSIM. For T-Mobile, if I let a call go to voice mail (that is, I don't answer) and they leave a message, I get charged for a 1 minute call (25 cents). These always come during my "Do Not Disturb" hours so I don't have a chance to reject them. Robo calls that hang up when connected to my voice mail don't seem to cause a charge.

I think if the phone is off or in airplane mode there isn't a charge. The charges I got were when the phone was on and in Do Not Disturb mode and the caller left a voice mail. The caller disconnected when the voice mail kicked in (as do most spam calls) then I wasn't charged. The few times I declined a call I didn't get charged either.

The forwarding thing won't work for me -- I want to receive calls from those on my favorites list (family, important clients) even in the middle of the night.

My bad, I didn't quote properly. You said you could avoid charges for unwanted calls by all forwarding calls to your Google Voice number. I was saying that wouldn't work for me because I need to receive calls on my primary number (the purpose for me of the dual sim feature). Unfortunately that means I get unwanted calls that might incur a charge from T-Mobile. It wasn't about something technically not working.

I don't use Google Voice so I guess I don't know how it works. I can still answer a call if it is call I want, even though the number has been forwarded to GV?

Has anyone figured out why T-mobile has not allowed post-paid accounts use of the e-sim? If pre-pay has it why not postpaid. Any thoughts?

You can do it, there are lots of how-tos out there. Including in this thread I think.

Well, I took gfunkdave advice and called T-mobile to get a sim swap. I got an idiot on the phone. I told her to send me to tech support to get the sim swap as she did not understand what a sim swap was. Instead, she sent me to a supervisor. We had a very long talk. she told me that they will never use esim for a post-paid account. You are to use the e-sim with a foreign carrier. She also stated that she receives several calls a week when are they going to esim for post-paid accounts. When I got through with her I sent a live chat message for a sim swap. The rep there said they no longer do sim swap with just an EID number. I think they have noted my account so I can not ask for a sim swap. Of course, The foreign carrier I use does not have esim. So I am just outta luck.

WEll that sucks. I'd say keep trying online chat and see if you get a better rep.

If not, you'll just have to be a caveman and swap out the physical SIMs...

I was just refused to transfer my postpaid account to eSim by Tmobile by chat (giving the EID number for the sim) and my foreign carrier (in Italy) has no eSim support. I will try again tonight but this sucks.

Well, the eSIM concept sure seems to be stalling. I was excited about this but it appears Apple was far more excited about this than the carriers.

Does anyone have any thoughts as to why the carriers are so resistant to eSIMs? I mean, why do the care? I pay for my phones in cash, so it's not like I'm on a contract. I can leave any time I choose, so it's not like a physical SIM keeps me "locked" to T-Mobile.

Regards

AT&T has the esim so does Verizon. The last time I checked AT&T they were $120.00 a line. I am sure there are better deals, but that is ridiculous. I just don't understand T-mobile on this.

I've heard the theory that TMobile likes the $25 per SIM card activation fee and somehow hasn't figured out how to charge that for eSIM.

I'd blame it on inertia in upper management, though, as it's easy to do and works fine. (Source: Did it with no issues, very quickly, no issues in the month or two since I did it).