No, they don't. But as I understand it, incoming texts are free while roaming on AT&T.

I may not have explained this very well, but I'm not sure what you are referring to when you said "The One With Service". That service is On by design. It is there to provide data for the non carrier voice line as a WiFi substitute. That line line with Network Selection switched Off, won't spontaneously turn On and begin roaming unless you do a Network Reset. Even then, I am on T-Mobile and that line gets free roaming anyway, so I wouldn't be charged.
I have done this literally dozens of times and it has never switched independently. I see no risk in this setup with the configuration I have detailed. On an iPhone you have a continuously visible indicator in the status bar that your voice line has no bars/no service. This seems no more likely than your phone switching from Google Fi to AT&T or Verizon. I also don't believe text messages call forward, so that would be a disadvantage to me.

Made it to London a couple days ago and got my Orange Holiday package installed fine once I got to the hotel. I followed the instructions a few posts up and it didn't work. In fact I had written a post explaining what I had done and what my settings were when I noticed one setting. Under General -> Cellular-> Cellular Data, which I have set to use my travel SIM, there's a setting "Allow Cellular Data Switching" that was disabled. Enabling that and temporarily turning off wi-fi while in the hotel, my AT&T line went from no service to "vodafoneUK using cellular data." Before that when I was on wi-fi the AT&T line would say AT&T Wi-Fi otherwise it said no service. Oddly the voice service is using EE and the data is from vodafoneUK. Even without the wifi calling working texts still arrived fine from both iPhone and Android phones. FWIW for anyone reading this in the future I'm using an iPhone 13 Pro Max that's running the latest iOS which as of today is 14.6.1.

I know someone who went to Europe but could not get his US unlocked iPhone's data to work at all with the Orange SIM (or eSIM, I can't remember) that he bought before he left. It did not work the entire trip but phone/texting worked.

If I had to guess, I would think it has something to do with the APN not properly set.

According to this https://orange.simoptions.com/faq/:

Example on the iPhone:
a) Open your iPhone and click on Settings > Mobile > Mobile Data Network (or Edge in early versions). b) Then fill in the fields as follows:
Orange:

• Access Point Name (or APN): orange
• User name: orange
• Password: orange

E-Sim Question
 

Please explain how the new e-sims work?? I am concerned because I travel internationally and always purchase local sim cards for my iPhone to save money. Will you still be able to insert a (foreign) e-sim in your e-sim phone? Thank you.

What brand and model of phone do you plan to be using?

If the eSIM-capable phone is carrier unlocked — such that you can change domestic mobile phone subscription operators’ SIMs and still have the phone connect for calls/data with a new service provider — then it should be possible to add a foreign carrier eSIM for use instead of (or sometimes in addition to) the primary SIM/eSIM.

You can store 8 or more esims on an iPhone depending on the model. You select which esim is active in the settings. Esim is not a physical SIM card which is inserted but can be moved between devices using iCloud.

When your purchase the eSim, the process is usually :-

1. Receive a QR code
2. Point your camera at QR code, and import eSIM.
3. Set the eSIM to Active in phone settings if not done automatically.
4. eSIM will then register itself / activate
5. Set the eSIM to be the default for mobile data (and voice if required)

Thank you, DYKWIA!!

I bought a Vodafone SIM for €30 in Spain, used 100 GB of data so far, including roaming on AT&T now that I’m back home. I have up to 160 GB total data in 28 days including 28 GB roaming outside Spain.

I’d use an eSIM instead if the offers were competitive but they don’t seem to be.

often the Vodafone network especially in larger cities like Seville and Madrid, were faster than the Wi-Fi in the places I was staying at so I used the mobile data instead of Wi-Fi a lot of the time.

it did take me some time to go to a Vodafone store and get the SIM and get it activated, about 15-20 minutes in store. Fortunately not much of a queue.

maybe carriers will start offering eSIM versions of their prepaid SIMs in the future.

I purchased an eSIM from Airalo for a 5-day trip to London and I was really surprised how easy and seamless it was to use. The instructions were great and had no issues with the activation right when I landed. My only complaint was I purchased a 10 GB data plan (good for 30 days) and I still had like 7 GB left! lol

I don't think I will go back to buying physical SIMs ever again when travelling (unless I absolutely need to).

Airalo is a solid choice for world travel and has been for several years. Their prices and available countries are great, and they also have good customer service if you have any issues.

I also recommend Flexiroam Global plans for frequent travelers. When they have a sale, the price is good and the best feature is the data purchased is good for up to 360 days worldwide. I bought a 7Gb data plan back in January of 2022 and did not activate it until June that year. I still have about half the data that will not expire until mid June this year. The price was only $40 and they have service in 190 countries world wide. They have monthly sales of 70%-80% off, and you can delay activation for up to six months. Very good customer service there also.

Last summer T-Mobile gifted users with 5Gb of free, high speed roaming data per line. We are lucky enough to be on an older plan that qualifies for this perk. We also have 4 free lines that get this feature, so my days of shopping roaming service are over, but the two I mentioned and have experience with are certainly worth exploring for others.

Wow, 5GB of free roaming data per line is amazing. Sadly Canadian providers so behind with their offerings!

My only issue with Airalo is that it seems to route all connections through Ireland. If you're in Europe it's not a big deal but if you're somewhere else in the world it can introduce significant latency.

That's the same for most eSim providers, they route back to their (single) provider

Dent/knowroaming - poland PLAY or ORANGE IL mobile

3hk- hkg.

3UK -uk

SIm2fly - Thailand

The only one I've seen is ubigi (usa routes via NYC, Asia routes via Singapore, haven't tried where Europe routes, and seems to geolocate properly but need more data points ), but thats bc transtel has some ownership of ubigi and transtel has their own backend infrastructure and IP addresses worldwide. helps reduce latency