I get the T-Mobile high speed too. It roams on AIS in Bangkok and I clocked it at over 100 Mbps down, so no throttling.

But 5 GB is not enough for me.

I've already used almost 20 GB in two full days here, using it to hot spot.

Prepaid data is relatively cheap so I haven't really tried to ration data.

Depends on what you're doing, I guess. I generally save all data-intensive stuff for the hotel's WiFi. 5GB was more than enough for web browsing, email, and Google Maps for me.

I went to do tourist stuff for 4-5 hours.

I turned on hotspot to share the Airalo dtac connection from iPad to iPhone. Returned to hotel and saw that I used about 4 GB while I was out.

I used Google Maps often but probably was some podcasts it downloaded. I have a lot of subscribed podcasts. M
ay also have updated apps. Sure this is stuff which could have waited until I returned to the hotel.

But the hotel WiFi blocks VPN so I used the iPad data for part of the time when I was in the hotel room.


In any event, there is an AIS store near the hotel and their website lists a Traveler eSIM, 8 days for 25 GB at max speed. The Airalo dtac is limited to 15 Mbps, barely sufficient if you stream video via VPN.

I wasn’t going to be near AIS store in Chiang Mai or Phuket and I was going to be one or two days short on the dtac eSIM so decided to go register and pick it up in Bangkok.

The saleswoman showed me a handwritten list of what they were offering and some of the real cheap ones had like under 1 Mbps speeds. I went for the 399 THb for one month of 100 GB at max speed plus 50 THB for the SIM. Cash only, even though it was a nice big Western style store with expensive phones on display and comfortable seating for clients to wait.

She took pictures of my passport and me, to attach to some app, to activate the SIM. I asked about eSIM and she asked if I was sure if my iPad Air could take eSIMs. Once she was she converted my SiM. Using the number assigned on the outside of the SIM package, to convert to eSIM and generate a QR code within her tablet and I used Camera on my iPad to install.

Speed was very fast, over 200 Mbps down. Also fast while hotspot to my iPhone.

BUT, I can’t connect to my OpenVPN server back home, which is a big downside for me. I tried Surfshark and that worked.

So hotel WiFi blocks OpenVPN and SurfShark. It also does some security check when loading some forums, though FT isn’t one of those, I don’t believe. It looks like a Cloudflare check but it’s something else.

In comparison, Airalo dtac lets me connect to Open VPN and SurfShark but speed is limited to 15 Mbps, which is okay but for a supposed 5G connection, it’s poor.

Thai market for mobile data segments their services by speed as well as quantity of data, something I haven’t encountered in Europe or Oceania.

Maybe it’s an Asian thing. I visited Vietnam in 2016 and there you were lucky to get good 3G back then. But maybe that govt. also limits VPN options.

HOng Kong, speeds seemed okay but I haven’t been since 5G became widespread. I probably wasn’t using VPN heavily since I last visited but now that governance there has changed, maybe VPN restrictions there now.

Singapore, I’ve only been once, didn’t notice speed or restrictions being an issue. Will be there in a little over a week so we shall see, though I’m staying at Swissotel Stamford.

Best eSim for Italy?
 

For an unlocked iPhone SE 2020, can anyone suggest the best eSim for 10 days in Italy? Won't need heavy data or much calling. As part of the ticket purchase process, FI showed me their options, and the $13 for 30 days of 3GB, probably on Vodafone, looked reasonable. Comments?

I like KeepGo's eSIM products; Corvus is pretty good for Italy/EU (5Gb for $14 - or $5 for 1Gb and you get free 2Gb on the first account setup). Their Pisces eSIM has similar pricing and coverage, but out of stock right now (not sure how that stock works).

I used the Thai eSIMs on a long day trip to the Phi Phi islands.

It's about a 90-120 minute trip by ferry each way from the harbor in Phuket town.

Most of the journey, there was 5G. This was on the Airalo dTAC SIM which I used mostly for the trip outbound. Towards the end, when the ferry was approaching one of the smaller islands, it dropped to 3G and even with signal bars, there wasn't a connection. But as we rounded the smaller island (where the famous Maya Bay is) towards the main island, 5G came back.

But I also switched to the AIS eSIM at some point. I either hit the 50GB data limit or the 10-day period during the boat trip. So I switched to AIS eSIM.

Again, it dropped here and there on the trip back to Phuket harbor but was mostly available. I used a VPN so the speeds weren't great (around Phuket town without VPN, it's like 200 Mbps down, also the case in Bangkok and Chiang Mai) but it let me stream video for the long boat ride.

Both were great values, though as I mentioned, the Airalo is limited to 15 Mbps.

I really liked that eSIM is offered widely by Thai carriers. That isn't the case in Europe for prepaid.

Next up will be Singapore, probably get the eSIM directly from the carrier in that case. The choice in Airlo doesn't seem that competitive.

Is there any value in retaining the Airalo eSIM for other countries? The eSIM actually appears in the Settings app of my iPad as dtac, not Airalo. The Airalo app shows it as my current eSIM even though it's expired.

If I added another Airalo eSIM for another country, it would just be another entry, it appears, so not sure what the value would be to keep the dtac. I know there's a limit on the number of eSIMs you can have installed at one time.

Canada option - US T-Mobile
 

Needed an eSim for Canada for 2 trips a few weeks apart. Reports on Airalo for Canada aren't great - it's a SIM from somewhere a long way away (Israel I think)? Looked at a few others and couldn't work out where they were based.

So I ended up just getting a T-Mobile (US) data-only SIM. $20 for 5GB/30 days - and includes roaming in Canada! Because it's a data-only service there's no extra fees/taxes/etc on top (at least in California). Despite it being for "tablets and hotspots", the checker on their website said my Pixel 7 was fine, and indeed I had no issues activating using an eSIM on it.

The only catch is that I can't seem to setup an account on T-Mobiles website - which apparently is a known problem if you don't have a T-Mobile service that supports voice. So I have no way of managing my account, or even knowing how much data I have left (although you can dial #WEB# to find out how much you've used, but not how much you have left so you need to do the math). I don't *think* I turned on auto-pay when I signed up, but I have no way of checking that or turning it off - but I did use a virtual credit card so at least in my case I'm OK there as any future charges will fail.

Service is fine, at least in Montreal. Roaming onto Bell with 5G coverage.

Looking a SIM to cover the following over a 7 week trip. Data only is fine.

malaysia
India
finland
spain
italy
malta
France
egypt
jordan
uk
USA

around 10g probably needed.

I'd suggest to look out for a "Global" eSIM which should cover all these countries. That seems the most conventient approach and avoids constant changing. RedTeaGo, Airalo and Three HK for example offer Global eSIMs with enough validity to cover 7 weeks.

I arrived in Singapore Sunday afternoon.

Singtel has an app in which you are suppose to be able to register and activate an eSIM entirely online. Well their stores are closed Sundays so I went for it.

You actually have to order the eSIM on their website and then it sends you a link to register, including uploading your passport. Otherwise, the app is asking for your number to get started.

So I went through the app on my iPad but then failed trying to scan my passport, because of the location of the cameras on the iPad. It's one of those things where if you center the passport page with your photo on a square, it automatically captures.

But all kinds of problems with reflections and it wasn't even focusing on the text. I could never get it to work. BTW, the app is an iPhone app so it's a think vertical bar on the iPad in landscape.

So I installed the app on my iPhone and went through it and this time it worked. They process for about 5 minutes before telling you if registration was successful. Once that's successful, they email you a link to install the eSIM, not a QR code.

So I opened the link on my iPad and it installed the eSIM fine.

I went for the 4G instead of the 5G, both give 100 GB of data but it's 12 SGD vs. 30 SGD. Only here for 4 nights and figured a premier network like Singtel would have LTE speeds.

Well I'm on the 55th floor and initially the speeds were weak, under 10 Mbps. Oddly there's better reception towards the door rather than the terrace. So maybe Singtel put a repeated inside the building? But near the door of the hotel room, it's over 84 Mbps.

I wouldn't recommend Pisces for Italy. I have it and it was a nightmare to use in Bologna. Couldn't use google maps as the speed was so slow it didn't load properly. Same for browsing.

Airalo was way better and had 5G and great downlink/uplink speed
edit: download speed was 250Mbps (Airalo while using TIM network)

Wife and I have a couple of weeks in Florida next month with UK phone, apple and android. We have 3CX voip numbers and it seems sensible to use those so that data only esims seem sensible. Looking at pricing some seem incredibly cheap for 30gb or so and some expensive. How do I choose?

Are you going to a rural area, or sticking to downtown/urban area?

If urban, any of the big 3 (Verizon/att/TMobile) would work. One may be more congested than the other, but you should get at least 3-10mbps, enough for browsing.

What android and apple do you have? Esim? Recent (<5year) apple would work on any network, android depends. Each of the big 3 use distinct network bands that UK doesn't use (12/14 for att, 71/41 for TMobile, 13 for Verizon) but in an urban environment, all of them should also use a secondary band that your phone probably supports (2, 4, 5)

Thanks, all recent - Apple 13 mini and Samsung Flip 3 so both have esims. Mostly urban, FT. Lauderdale and Orlando but a week of flexible with the intention of a bit of time in the evergaldes.

For anything more than 14 days, I think roaming/travel esims charge at minimum $1/GB (and prioritized pretty low). What pricing are you looking at?

If one is data heavy and one is light, you can always pay $25-$40/month/line on visible esim, other line use free esim data (redbullmobile/Eskimo should still be offering 1GB free each and they use att/tmobile?) And hotspot as needed. Visible uses Verizon but may have congestion/deprioritization

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trav...ternative.html