I bought a SIM from Vodafone Espana for €30 for 160 GB of data about 3 weeks ago.

I used almost 100 GB before leaving Spain last week.

Got 5G in the bigger cities and when it roamed at FRA where I connected to my fight back to the US.

Now back in the US, it's roaming on AT&T 5G in my home where it measured 530/93 Mbps. I have T-Mobile but don't get such a great signal with them inside my home, rarely get over over 50 Mbps down, though if I walk outside my home and maybe 30 feet, then I gets speeds in the hundreds of Mbps.

I have 28 GB of roaming for another week, though I'm using mostly Wifi in home.

But during my trip in Spain, it was often faster than the Wifi in the places where I stayed so I used it everywhere, including streaming and app downloads.


I spent about an hour going to a Vodafone store to get this SIM so that is something to consider, where eSIM is so much more convenient than hunting down a local SIM, getting it activated.

Many countries have laws about registration, such as providing a passport. So it's probably difficult for local carriers to circumvent these laws by offering online eSIM. In fact, I'm wondering why countries with have this registration requirement would not be trying to close the loophole of these multi-country eSIMs.

I​s this prepaid? Can you reload? Roaming is free in the US? Which other countries can you roam in? ​​​​​​

More details would be great. Ok always on the lookout for a long-term EU sim card that can also roam abroad easily without fear of shutdown.

Yes I can reload online but it would cost €30 per reload. Vodafone offers several other deals. Even €15 bundle is gets you like 60 GB IIRC. These are promotional BTW, where they double the normal data amounts for the warmer months.

But once you buy it at a certain price level, you can only reload at that level.

The 28 GB roaming is for the EU, UK, Switzerland and US.

Maybe some Asian and African countries as well.


Wanted to add, Vodafone ES Twitter has good English support and answers your questions when you DM them.

They told me that you don't have to reload every month but if you leave it inactive for 6 months or so, they will deactivate the number tied to the SIM.

They route everything through Spain of course, when you do speed tests. Still good performance and I used it last year in France and I believe Switzerland. Definitely much better value for the volume of data per Euro compared to what you can get in France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria and some other countries.

Italy though is pretty competitive so it's worth getting a local SIM in Italy.

So the plan gives 160GB in Spain, but only 28GB in the EU?

Any more details on the €15 plan such as roaming?

Maybe Asia? Is there a definitive list of destinations?

Thank you!

I believe the issue is having a local phone number for voice calls, rather than having data.

15 Euro bundle gives you 100 GB (instead of the normal 50 GB) but a lot less in roaming than the 30 Euro plan which gives you 160 GB total and 28 GB roaming. It might be like half the amount roaming, or even less than half. Without digging up the info, I'd guess around 10 GB.

I have to dig up the full list of roaming places. But here is the offer, you can get the sense or use Google Translate.

https://www.vodafone.es/c/particular...ifa-prepago-m/

But you can't get this SIM online. You can top off online but you have to buy and have it registered -- they need your passport -- in Spain.

It lists US, EU, UK and Switzerland but I thought there were other countries as well.

All SIMs have phone numbers, even if it doesn't include any voice minutes such as data SIMs.

Carriers manage SIMs this way so if you want to top up, you have to provide your local phone number of the SIM.

Aren’t there now data-only eSIMs without phone numbers in some parts?

To close “the loophole”, a government would have to restrict their local telephony and other communication service providers’ commercial contracts with roaming partners so as to prohibit roaming by non-registered users’ SIMs/eSIMs. They would also have to try to shut down the aftermarket of already activated(-and-even-registered) SIMs/eSIMs opened using foreign persons’ documents.

Shutting down multi-country SIMs/eSIMs without shutting down satellite and VOIP and SIP services? Not sure that would fly over so well if the drive is to disrupt the power of criminality in a place.

The data only eSIMs I've had did not give me a phone number. They can be identified by ICCID number.

I purchased five Airalo eSims for an upcoming Asian vacation in multiple countries, and the only country that even had the option of voice in addition to data was Thailand.

Anybody else having problems with Airalo? Based on lots of good recommendations here and elsewhere, I bought one for Switzerland. Failed to activate before my trip, and only worked a few hours once I got there. Support has been excruciatingly slow to respond (one response in 72 hours acknowledging an issue). No resolution, and zero bars of service (indicating to me at least that all carriers to which it might roam are denying service).

You’ve had company this week.

A bunch of the Airalo eSIMs using Orange to roam across Europe lost service for a day or two (or maybe three?) this week. Not the first time it’s happened, but this was longest I’ve seen it drop with them. The best way for me to get support — and a free extension as service recovery at times — for such outages has been to use the chat feature in the Airalo phone apps. Will again be doing so myself in the days ahead.

Good to hear, I think. I had a bit of service this afternoon (European time) and will try some more tomorrow. Unfortunately an extension does me no good.

So these prepaid SIMs are eligible to be sold to visitors (non-citizens) if you are physically in Spain and go to a store in person with your passport? Seems like a remarkable deal for those who need a lot of data, especially compared to eSIM resellers like Airalo.

They are. Or getting a hold of an already activated prepaid account that someone else set up already to remain active and available to be funded without additional, personal identity registration requirements.

Their service recovery options aren’t limited to extensions. They can also credit money back in at least the form or Airalo credits to be used for other Airalo eSIM products.