draver Thanks for checking Google Voice vs Roamless. I use GV anyway in the US so when abroad it's a great solution for the very rare calls I might make. And it still keeps free US calls/texting. So it works well for me which is why data provider voice rates matter less to me. But I understand not everyone here is US based.

BigFlyer great reminder about the free Skype minutes. I always forget about that despite being a 365 subscriber.

I think Airalo has successfully marketed themselves as the "big reliable eSIM provider". For that, you pay a small premium, which is worth it for some people. Despite the marketing, you will find people who have some activation issues with Airalo just like with some other eSIM providers. So the marketing isn't necessarily accurate. Personally, I've used eSIMs from many different providers over the years (though PAYG is a new concept to me prior to draver's post) and haven't had issues except in rare cases (like SoSIM in HK not accepting my KYC). Unlike with local SIMs, I think one of the benefits of these global long validity plans is that you can set it all up before your travel and you know you're good to go. So you can use one of these other competitive companies rather than necessarily paying the Airalo premium to avoid a no-name local SIM provider. I'm not endorsing any company specifically, but I think even on a frequent flyer forum, many people would like to know they're getting a good deal.

I wonder about the reliability of the various providers. Do they all have similar coverage and not have issues of service being unavailable?

What are people without US prepaid plans doing for voice calls and sending texts when outside the US? Whatsapp is popular but not universal. Google Voice won't send texts outside the US.

Airalo seems to have some brand name recognition.

I don't know that one provider is better for installation/activation than another. eSIM tech seems to make that fairly easy and frictionless.

That is certainly a great convenience but unless you're doing a lot of international travel, hitting many countries per year, it seems you're paying more for global coverage.

Seems like you can find more competitive mobile data rates with country or regional eSIMs.

If you MUST have connectivity as soon as the aircraft landing gear hits the runway, sure it's nice to have something ready to go while the plane taxis and you deplane.

But if you can wait until you get to somewhere with Wifi, you can look at other eSIM options, which may offer better coverage and more competitive rates for the country or countries you will visit on a particular trip.

Also those with international data plans like T-Mobile may not need to wait for Wifi either.

hence they should be competing on the stuff below. If they don't list the info before, then you're really competing on price

- support (some are 24x7, some are "24x7", some are limited hours). You can test by opening a ticket before you buy.
- actual network provider support (eg do you only support one of the 4 major carriers or more) - a lot of esim providers list this, but some don't
- APN - most don't post the APN anywhere, some provide APN when you buy, some hide the APN in support docs, some put it in the webpage upfront (which is good). It's not ideal if you have to ask support for this (since esim data won't be working)
- exit IP - very few post this. Keepgo does (they call it privacy IP). If you know the APN, likely you can infer the underlying carrier and where it exits (3HK , plus/play aka Poland etc) this affects latency, and also website availability (eg tiktok not available in hkg, though vpn could worksaround)
- actual MVNO/MNO not just reselling from plus/play/3HK - Ubigi (transactel), Betterroaming (Truphone/1Global), 3HK, 3UK, AIS (Thailand), Orange (France) etc


Do people really need to call? To make restaurant reservations?

If you're meeting with friends/family, you should be already communicating to them via intl borders (so email/Whatsapp/...), unless they only use landlines

[1] I'm most familiar with Redpocket and BNESim. Redpocket has been much more reliable in the US. I've run into deadspots with BNESim. However, Redpocket support is terrible - it can take 30 to 45 minutes to get a chat agent and they are often useless - not knowledgeable, long pauses between responses (seemingly dealing with multiple customers at once), a few times I've had the session time out because the chat agent hadn't responded in time, wasting the previous hour or whatever. BNESim support has been great. Quick and knowledgeable responses. I wish I could get both good network performance and support.

[2] Providers tend to list the underlying carrier. Whether they will actually connect to them (or switch to the best if there's a problem) is another question.

[3] I've always been able to find the APN/setup information quickly for providers I'm interested in. Sometimes they automatically configure a different APN, which then works but is confusing.

[4][5] Good question. How would you determine this?

[6] Typical use case for me is restaurant reservations and connecting with a pre-arranged driver for airport transfers. IME voice can be necessary for restaurants. Airport transfers can usually use whatsapp or email, but not always. Of course Uber, etc, use an app so data is enough.

Anyway, what do you do if you need SMS-type text or voice and don't have a plan that includes them?

Red Pocket can be confusing for US prepaid users. I switched from postpaid AT&T to Red Pocket AT&T. The setup required me to download and open a config file for my iPhone. The setup for some reason couldn’t be completed using WiFi only. The Red Pocket T Mobile plan doesn’t require the same config file download.

To activate WiFi calling, I had to contact Red Pocket to complete the setup. I have had no issues using Red Pocket over WiFi in Europe.

According to this thread, unisim uses plus APN https://www.reddit.com/r/eSIMs/comme...t_work_on_att/
I know many vendors use plus, with various pricing schemes. Seems unisim (or silent.link if willing to do crypto + pay $4 for the eSIM itself) may have the best PAYG rates for plus that I can find. I don't see any affordable PAYG global rates through Plus directly for consumers, not sure if you've found something.

I confirmed with RBM that it's per-country GB purchases with 31 day validity. So outside of their trial, it's no longer relevant to the global/PAYG-specific discussion.

I added minimal info about 5G to my summary post but many eSIM providers don't publicize that. I've reached out to some support lines to try to get info, seems challenging so far. Also tried to get exit-ip (breakout) info from some eSIM but that also seems challenging to get an answer to.

Staff Traveler's customer service seems to be handled by Voye which is interesting considering Voye's own global plan advertises fewer countries and higher price.

I... just use Google Voice. I've never needed to send an SMS to a non-US number while travelling. I can call anywhere I want (only U.S./Canada for free) and I can text American numbers from anywhere. You can usually receive texts from non-U.S. numbers but can't reply, e.g. a "your table is ready" or "your wifi access code is..." text.

Recent trip, text to my google voice number upon landing from driver for airport transfer: I can meet you at baggage claim. Please confirm.

It was a scramble to figure out how to respond.

I know people have reasons - but these things are a hell of a lot easier if you have T-mobile as your carrier.

All plans have free SMS and 25 cent per minute roaming calls. You can use an eSIM and Google Voice as well, but there is no danger of accidentally roaming and having some big charge show up on your bill at home. And most of the plans have some form of free data. It also solves the SMS from bank issues as you will receive those texts for free on the T-mobile SIM.

... or any other carrier that supports Wifi calling. I live in Australia. My US Mobile sim "just works" for both inbound and outbound calls and SMS. When I'm somewhere with Wifi coverage, it uses that. When I'm not, it piggy-backs on the data coverage from my other SIM. All for $5/month.

The only annoyance I have with this is that my phone 'only' supports using 2 SIMs at once. So that means when I travel internationally and use an eSIM/local SIM for data, I need to choose between having my Australian SIM OR my US SIM as the 2nd Sim for voice/SMS - I can't have both. But that's a fairly unique problem to me, and most people wouldn't need to have 3 SIMs active at once.

I do agree that if you're using T-Mobile and have a plan from them with good international data options then this is of course going to be a better solution that most other options. But almost certainly at a cost over what you can get elsewhere.

I just purchased a BEST ASIA • 25GB • 30 days from Ubigi's website. If I activate it (scan QR code or whatever) while boarding is happening at the gate, do I lose access to my existing cell service right away?

most phones can support at least 2 active esim at the same time

I had never heard of Yesim before coming to this thread. Until a year ago, I had just been paying my carrier's roaming charges (CAD15 per day outside of Canada/US, which is about USD12), but I was annoyed at how much I was spending on roaming and I had a trip to Zambia, which wasn't covered by that roaming plan and had early-2000s-style roaming pricing. A friend of mine turned me on to Airalo and it worked great for that trip and several others, so I kept going back without ever doing any comparison shopping.

But I had a crappy experience in Argentina recently, so I thought I'd check out alternatives for an upcoming trip to Chile. (I will cut Airalo a tiny amount of slack on this, as there was something funky with the mobile networks in Argentina, with my regular SIM constantly re-registering itself and my carrier constantly sending me roaming e-mails as though I had just arrived in the country)

But Yesim is 3x the price of Airalo in Chile. I checked a couple of places in Europe that I travel frequently, and the price is basically the same for local eSIMs (I'm puzzled why Yesim is so uncompetitive in Chile). In some places, Airalo does offer 5G. In some, no. But the Yesim website doesn't tell me what I'm getting, so maybe it's 5G, maybe it's LTE, who knows. Given I'm usually just using these eSIMs for web browsing, maps, etc, the speed difference doesn't make a big deal - if I'm in not stationary in my hotel, an airport, etc where I'm going to have free WiFi, I'm not really watching Netflix or other high-bandwidth activities.

But overall my Airalo experience has been pretty good, their app works pretty well, and I have better things to do with my time than comparison shop to maybe save 3% on an eSIM.