You can purchase the esims before departure. Then activate on arrival using the airport WiFi. Esims have an expiration date so time the activation to cover the days for the trip. Read over the instructions to download and to activate the esim.

You select the esim in the phone settings to make it active. The phone will not automatically select the esim for the country on arrival.

Thanks!

If I purchase now, they will still be usable for my two (short) trips...any downsides to purchasing now and activating in the US prior to departure?

tb

If you were to purchase an esim from Roamless, it would cover both countries for slightly less that the pricing on Ubigi for each country. Additionally, any left over service from Ubigi is lost, but retained with Roamless. You would also get the discounts currently available that I wrote about a few days ago. Essentially you end up with $30 credit with a $20 purchase. If you were to use a referral code from me, you would get an additional $3 credit along with gaining me $3 besides. The pricing is close enough to not matter too much, but whatever credit you have after your trip is retained, since it has no expiration or is limited 7 or 30 day term. Message me if you want to use my code, or you can actually sign up with some free credits on their website. They have another free code = ESIM5 worth $3.75 for a total of $5 I believe.

Edited to add: Two additional features with Roamless, you can set up and test the esim in the US prior to your trip since there is no time frame for use. They also have voice service included with calling rates in Indonesia/Bali @ $.06-$.08 a minute, and $.03-$.05 a minute for Japan. The called carrier determines the final calling rate. The app itself is simple and easy to navigate, available for iOS and Android.

Either way, enjoy your trip!

Just some DP about my ubigi subscription:

Got the Best Asia 25 GB. Took me sometime to figure out how to set it up on the day of departure from Canada.

As soon as I got to ICN, disabled airplane mode, and phone automatically connected to SK Telecom

Same with Japan NTT Docomo, Singapore Star Hub, and now Brunei DST. Malaysia and Taiwan coming up.

I would recommend Ubigi

Vodafone.co.uk allows the purchase of a pay as you go eSIM from its website. Right now they have a deal where you get unlimited UK and Ireland calls and 27 GB of data for �10 per month for 3 months (and I cancelled the auto-renew feature.)

In the sign up process, they ask for a street address that they will use to validate the credit card - and it accepts UK addresses only. I had the thought that perhaps Cap1 doesn't care about my address because all foreign online charges with Cap1 get referred to the Cap1 site for validation.

So I used the address of my my hotel, and the Cap1 card. A popup window popped up from Cap1, I validated (I don't remember exactly what it wanted), and the charge went through.)

I wonder online sign ups will increase over time? If so, could be trouble for the eSIM vendors, who can't come near the 27 GB for �10 I got from Vodafone.

The UK also has no KYC rules, which makes the signup process easier.

I received an email today with a special offer coming on 11-11 from BNESim for double data on top ups on that day only. Here is a copy/paste from their promotion.

"It’s 11/11 – the day of doubles! 😝 And today only, BNESIM is turning your top-up into double the data. Imagine the freedom to video call, scroll, and stay connected twice as much… without any extra cost!".

So for those who bank credit for future use, this might be an opportunity put a little something away for future use.

roamless, the free credits used to work for calling. now you need min $5 topup to use calls (even if you have free credits).

its free credits (that still works for data), so whatever, just not as good as preivously

Lycamobile UK can be cheaper.
​​​​​​​often they have promos like �1.49/month for 10GB /month up to 3 months, 10GB usable for EU roaming. unfortunately you have to activate in UK first)

(current cheapest is �5 for 25GB (12GB EU roaming)

I have a Pixel 9 Pro and T-mobile service in the US. I wanted to try the IMS technique. However, apparently T-mobile has roaming agreements with every UK carrier as i could not get a carrier to fail registration. I had bought a Vodafone UK eSIM for data as it was only 27 GB for 10 UKP and unlimited UK calls.

As the "pick a carrier that won't register" trick wouldn't work, I went into my profile on the T-mobile website and turned off all international roaming. Boom, the phone now says T-mobile Backup Calling and incoming and outgoing calls are working fine.

Seems to me if you have a carrier that has roaming agreements with all UK carriers but no ability to turn off roaming you are not going to be able to use the IMS technique in the UK.

(Profile:International:Block International Roaming)

I don't think TMobile blocks manual network selection stateside (Verizon does, unsure about att). So you could do it before getting on the plane (manually connect to Verizon?).

T-Mobile has allowed Network Selection since at least iOS 13 when Dual Sim Dual Service became available. I think around 2019, but I’m not positive. That feature is why IMS works with dual sims. I have been using it for several years, and it has been bulletproof. I am on a flight to Europe right now as I type this, and will be testing a few roaming sims in the next few days with my T-Mobile line locked on a non roaming carrier. I also intend to experiment with my account feature that may block all roaming per the Account Manager:

“Blocks International Roaming for the selected line, except when in Canada and Mexico. If you select this service you will no longer be able to call, text or use data for these lines while roaming internationally; Canada and Mexico excluded. You can use Wi-Fi for calls and text; additional charges may apply.”

I am hoping this will preclude manually selecting a non roaming carrier for IMS setup. The Switch is under Account-Profile-International-your voice line.

As I mention in post 998, there is not always a non-roaming carrier, e.g. in the UK where I am currently travelling, T-mobile roams on every carrier - but the account manager option to turn off roaming works perfectly. AFAIK, AT&T and Verizon do not let you turn off roaming in the same way.

Adding some recent experience with Ubigi and Airalo eSIMs in Japan. Partner had Ubigi eSIM on her phone, I had Airalo eSIM on mine.

Both eSIM services worked well, however, there were two occasions where the Ubigi eSIM had no data, while the Airalo eSIM had data. One was at the shopping mall in Nara, where our Japan Wireless pocket wifi had zero data, which was surprising because it had worked so well prior to that. My partner's Ubigi eSIM was also completely lacking cell data. I fired up my Airalo and was able to get data, to perform google translate on menus and get directions, fortunately.

Second data point, at HND airport, on the plane, partner's Ubigi eSIM had no data, couldn't pull up some information. I had to hotspot from my Aiarlo eSIM so my partner could get internet access.

Overall, I think I might prefer Airalo over the Ubigi based on my data points, but I would always get a Japan Wireless pocket wifi as that provides unlimited data reliably in most cases, and the phones battery level was far less drained as the cellular mode was off during that time.

I usually use eSIMs when I travel, but the Japan Wireless pocket wifi was life changing in having amazing fast data without having to think about data usage or battery drain.

I did use Airalo eSIM in the UK recently as well, unfortunately the hotel I stayed at was in a dead zone, and I had the weakest of signals possible in the hotel room (the wifi in the hotel was also very poor as well). Overall I think it's cheap enough to have redundancy with Airalo and another eSIM for global travel, so might as well get a backup eSIM just in case one network doesn't cut it.

Here are my preliminary test results.

Esim Roamer Service Tests

iPhone 16 Pro Max 256Gb


11-14-24 Heathrow, London

Roamless-O2, LTE 6 down, 3 up, ping 197

Roamless-Vodafone 4G 11 down, 3 up, ping 217

No EE service, plane change, customs, no time for more tests



11-15-24, Barcelona, Spain

Roamless Orange 5G 443 dn, 23 up ping 72

Roamless Vodafone 5G 189 dn, 7 up, ping 78

Jetpac Orange 5G 245 down, 9 up, ping 80

Jetpac Movistar 5G 32 dn, 18 up, ping 105



2nd test

Jetpac Orange 5G 172 down, 40 up, ping 79

Jetpac Movistar 3G 3 up, 3 down, ping 103

Jetpac Vodafone LTE 32 down, 11 up, ping 98



11-15-24 Barcelona, Spain

T-Mobile free high speed 5Gb data service included in ONE plan

Vodafone LTE 45 dn, 15 up, ping 282

Movistar 5G 154 dn, 29 up, ping 371

Orange & Yoigo No Service

I used FlexiRoam recently in Japan without any problems, data only. It was cheaper than Airalo.

Update for esim roaming tests:

11-21-24 Ponta Delgada, The Azores (Portugal)

Roamless 5G, NOS, 412 dn, 23 up, ping 131

Roamless 5G, MEO, 153 dn, 19 up, ping 142

T-Mobile 5G, NOS, 265 dn, 51 up, ping 393

T-Mobile LTE, Vodafone, 48 dn, 79 up, ping 312

T-Mobile 5G, MEO, 9 dn, 5 up, ping 245

The following tests were on 11-20 @ approximately. 6PM,

Roamless 5G, NOS, 96 dn, 10 up, ping 160

Roamless 4G, MEO, 45 dn, 9 up, ping 134