OK, I did get this SIM, currently in Italy now. But I saved €10 getting it at this site.

https://www.esimholidays.com/en/europe

Currently on Windtre and the initial test I did, near the center of Turin, was 366/60.6. Speediest app identifies Orange France Lyon. So ping is slightly high since it's routing through France. Not playing twitch games so the higher ping doesn't matter.

Real test will be when I spend 4 days in Switzerland during this trip. The minimum I would have spent is about 20 CHF as all the majors make you spend that much for a SIM kit with most of it being credit.

So I'd have spent at least €20 in Italy and 20 CHF in Switzerland for just 4 days.

I will be going to Scandinavia at the end of the summer too so it should be useful there as I plan to hit 4 countries, spending 4-5 nights in each.

We will see if they cut it off.

By the way I stopped by a TIM store here and they offered the TIM Tourist or International SIM with 100 GB of 5G for €30. And the clerk said they could give me an eSIM since I only have eSIM devices on this trip.

So hopefully the European carriers offer eSIM for prepaid more and more, since Apple is apparently going to drop physical SIM card slots going forward.

New eSIM provider I just came across - Saily

Prices look a little lower than Airalo at least for the few countries I checked, but what makes them interesting is that they are owned by Nord Security (of Nord VPN fame). I don't actually know if that's a good thing or not, but they are probably the first major eSIM company that's owned by a large company (outside of telcos themselves).

They seem to have a "single eSIM" model ("Add new destinations to your existing Saily eSIM — no new eSIMs needed.") - not sure if that's an indication that they are routing all traffic back to a single country, or if that eSIM supports multiple home providers. Downside seems to be that they don't seem to have any regional plans - if you're hitting up 3 countries in the EU, it appears you'll need to pay for each country individually rather than having roaming between them.

If anyone uses them please report back - I'd love to know what they are like!

Doesn't this go against the EU's roam-like-at-home policies for mobile networks (unless the eSIM offering is outside of the EU)?

I looked at them before, they don't seem to offer regional plans, so you need to buy a new plan as you change countries - and that can get expensive pretty quickly

On the Apple App Store, the reviews for Saily are not very good, but strangely all seem to have 5 stars! Most complain about abrupt termination of service and then poor customer support and no refunds or credit back. I would read what others have posted before rolling the dice with them.

The other day while using ookla's speedtest app, I got an ad to get their "free sim". Anyone else actually use this?

Install FREE Speedtest Travel eSIM

seems like white-labeled betterroaming (which is ?owned? by 1global).
1global has some infrastructure hardware like ubigi/transatel, someone says it has USA IP when using in USA with 30ms ping... but it doesnt look that cheap


esim is "free" like ubigi - you can keep it installed in your phone.

when you land in different country and use the eSIM, it'll connect to a local network and have a captive portal for you to buy a plan.
dont need to hunt for free wifi or pre-activate before landing

if you don't mind higher latency, would recommend looking for cheaper products, or PAYG ones like roamless/esimplus if you're not in a country for a long time

I also hope that more primary international carriers begin offering eSIMs. One of the things keeping me vastly overpaying for T-Mobile service is the very generous and drop dead simply international data (5 GB in like 180+ countries). it just works. That said, when we are not traveling internationally we are almost always on Wi-Fi (when at home, etc.) and we are just way, way overpaying relative to what we need most of the time. I've been hesitant to drop T-Mobile, in favor of a MVNO (e.g. Mint or Visible) due to the various performance issues I've seen mention with some of the more common eSIM providers but if more primary carriers around the world begin offering eSIM, that would change the calculus for us.

Regards

P.S. Apple already dropped physical SIM support sometime ago, at least in the US. The last US phone to support physical SIM slot is iPhone 13 (14 and 15 are eSIM only)

I have T-Mobile, albeit with an older plan that only includes slow international roaming, and I still find value in getting eSIMs. Perhaps if I had the high speed international data I would not find as much value in eSIM providers.

I have 5GB of high speed international data per month, as well as a separate 5 GB bucket for Mexico, so its great. But again, when I look at what I pay per month to T-Mobile vs. what Mint or Visible would cost the savings is huge. The international data is nice but you are paying for it via an inflated monthly bill in all the months that you are not traveling and are at home on Wifi.

Regard

Any recent experiences of Airalo?

Are you on a T-Mobile tier that also gets you free streaming service?

Nope, and have no desire to be. Nothing is free, the "free" streaming service is just T-Mobile giving you your money back via overpaying for the service.

Regards

Fortunately, not all T-Mobile plans were created equally. All 12 lines on my ONE plan with ONE Plus Promo include 215+ country, 5Gb high speed data. Four of the lines are free, and unassigned, so they get used overseas in free phones from T-Mobile as hot spots. My monthly charges for 12 lines average around $10-$12 a line, inc. taxes & fees. Because of this, our iPhones have a voice line and a free line with 10Gb total each, and then the hot spot data if needed. Not to mention if the trip bridges 2 billings, they all refresh the data allotment. For voice roaming, I am using a $10 line from US Mobile experimentally. It works well, but I seldom need to make calls, and I never seem to need to need the Verizon service at home, so I may drop it soon.

I have used Airalo many times without any problems. Twice this year, for Italy, England and Scotland, but over the past 3 years in many different European countries. Easy to buy, install and use and reasonably priced. I install it before I leave then turn it on when I arrive, it activates itself quickly. I have occasionally been tempted to try someone else a couple of dollars cheaper but why bother if I have no problems? In a $10,000 trip saving $5 on cellular data is not so important.