Which eSIM service was this?

Does anyone travel and paranoid about accidently disabling their US eSim? I need mine for getting authentication texts or what not - was wondering what you could do to reactivate it if you get your eSim from home deactivated or removed, let's say with T-Mobile

Depending on your phone, you can have 2 sims active. Disabling an eSIM is different than deleting(removing) an eSIM. Most phones allow multiple inactive eSIMs. Follow the manufacturer’s instructions to disable the eSIM if only 1 eSIM is supported.

If your phone supports more than 1 active sim, you can turn off international roaming for the domestic eSIM without deactivating the eSIM. If you are paranoid about the eSIM, learn to disable the roaming and use the domestic eSIM over WiFi only.(assuming your provider has no geo restriction for WiFi calling) Your domestic eSIM will always be active without incurring roaming charges.

Dear FT experts,

I hope this is the right place for my question.... in May we will be in Europe to take advantage of our free MSC cruise.

It has been too many years since I have traveled outside the US.

Trying to figure out the best eSim option for our trip. I know it will not work while on the cruise ship itself but will need it for our land portions and excursions.

We both have iPhone 16 ProMax phones.

We will start in Naples, Italy and Bari, Italy for a few days prior to our cruise and the Rome, Italy area after our cruise for a few days before coming back to Atlanta.

Our cruise will have ports of call in Trieste, Italy and Katakolon, Greece and Piraeus, Greece and Kusadasi, Turkey and Istanbul, Turkey and Corfu, Greece.

Have to admit I am a neophyte on this issue so appreciate any assistance.

Thanks

Check to see if you iPhone is unlocked. Settings, general , about then scroll to Carrier Lock. If the value is “No Sim restrictions”, you can add a local eSIM. If not, you will need to contact your carrier to have the iPhone unlocked. My trips to Europe have been to other countries.

‘it says “No SIM restrictions”.

Who is your carrier in Atlanta, and does your current plan have any included or optional roaming available? How many in your party, and are they all on the same carrier & plan back home?

Depending upon how much data you expect to need or want, you might just be able work with what is on your current plan. Your hotel should have WiFi, and your US carrier probably has US WiFi calling available. MSC will have WiFi plans available aboard the ship, but you will be in port enough you'll probably want service before and after the cruise. I am familiar with T-Mobile roaming services and visit Europe once or twice a year just using my current plan. AT&T & Verizon have options also, but they do not seem to be as generous with their roaming services on most plans.

There are several forum regulars who are able to give solid advice once we hear what your goals and current options are, so consider sharing that information.

We are both on a Verizon plan.

I will use internet for touristy stuff. Husband will use WhatsApp and internet and check in with elderly parents in Colombia often.

Correct me if I am wrong, but turning off international roaming I believe only turns off roaming data, not roaming calls. That can be a good thing if you want to receive SMS two factor authentication texts. It can also be a bad thing as you can be charged for calls conditionally forwarded to voicemail.

My suggestion if you don't want to make and receive calls when roaming is to turn off data roaming, and unconditionally forward all calls to voicemail. This means you will not be charged for incoming calls, but can still receive SMS.

I use WiFi calling on my domestic line over the data of the local sim for calls and texts without incurring charges. This setup has been discussed in this thread and others. I have received 2FA texts. I am not charged for incoming calls or outbound texts. iPhone 16 plus eSIM only version is my phone. iPhone WiFi calling also allows texts over WiFi

yes, but samsung has this annoying CSC/CID manager.

if you disable your USA sim, then likely samsung will see the CSC on the esim, and ask you to reboot.

the esim CSC likely won't work for verizon wifi calling (tmobile should be fine, YMMV on att).

you can re-enable your USA sim and get back the USA CSC with wifi calling, but you may have problems re-enabling wifi calling internationally

There seem to be Europe or EU eSIMs which would include all the countries in the EU as well as Switzerland. So it would include Italy and Greece.

But you may have to go for a global eSIM to get Turkey as well.

Or get a Europe eSIM like Orange and then find one specifically for Turkey when you're at Turkish ports. That would involve installing and activating two different eSIMs which you can just tap the one you want in Settings App of your iPhone, under Cellular.

This thread has various third-party eSIM providers, that is they are not associated directly with mobile carriers which offer the connections, like Orange in France or TIM or Vodafone in Italy.

For instance, this one is for Europe but doesn't list Turkey.

https://cellulardata.ubigi.com/rates...oaAqxVEALw_wcB

This one is first-party, offered by Orange, a major mobile carrier in France. Note the their Europe eSIM doesn't include Turkey either:

https://travel.orange.com/en/buy-a-s...TzJRnFBbtsGj--


There are "world" eSIMs but my guess is they're more expensive than just Europe or a single country eSIM.

I was explaining the difference beteeen disabling and deleting an eSIM because the user thought that was needed to use a local eSIM. The user has an iPhone 16.

I disable international roaming not the US eSIM. If Samsung doesn’t support WiFi only calls, why would anyone purchase a Samsung? My personal iPhone and my work Pixel both support WiFi only calls and texts.

SOrry, mixed signals then .. I was just mentioning that info... Samsung is not the phone you want to use to have good experience, iPhone is better then pixel, then Samsung

(If csc change, reboot... There's a way to disable this mechanism via adb).
https://xdaforums.com/t/is-there-a-w...-sims.4560793/.

With wrong csc code, Verizon wifi calling won't work. TMobile is less strict with csc code
https://www.reddit.com/r/USMobile/co...ultra/ih3db2j/


If you switchback to your (Verizon) sim, disable the esim, reboot .. the wifi calling option should come back, but might be the off state. Then enablign the option outside of usa may be tricky

https://bobistheoilguy.com/forums/th...the-us.389158/

The US Samsungs do not allow you to use one SIM for data and a different one for voice - which I suspect would get in the way of the technique of using SIM1 for voice/SMS, and using a data SIM as SIM2 to allow calls from SIM1 to use the data connection on SIM2.