jonu,


That's still the way as far as I know. The accepted term for that feature is called IMS for Apple devices. The only shortcut that I can think of is, if your carrier has a setting per line or account that blocks charged roaming. I am on T-Mobile, and they have one. It is under: Account-Profile Settings-International, then select the line to modify. My daily voice line has an ON/OFF switch setting labeled: Block International Roaming (Including Charged International Roaming). I leave this setting ON all the time. It has no effect except to never allow that line to connect to a foreign roaming carrier. It saves the trouble and possible expense of picking a non roaming carrier for IMS. I have several free lines from past promotions, and they all get 5Gb of high speed international roaming per month. I use them as my data lines per phone for the IMS featured free calling to and from US numbers while overseas.

I am also a Roamless fanboy, and have two accounts with them for our travel phones. You might explore their offerings and discussions here on FT. With discounts and referral bonuses my per Gb cost is effectively $1.16 in Europe and many other locations. That is on data that never expires. Great customer support and a simple, easy App also. A big reason I have Roamless accounts is, they have low calling rates to foreign carriers. Typically in the $0.02-$0.10 a minute rate while roaming or home. T-Mobile charges $0.25 while roaming, and $3 a minute when calling from the US!

A brief report following two weeks in South Korea (Seoul) and Japan (Kyoto and Tokyo).

Because I'd read several reports of people encountering problems (poor coverage and/or low speeds) in these countries, my spouse and I bought two different eSIMs to increase the likelihood that at least one of us would have a good working signal. One phone had an "Asialink" eSIM bought through the Airalo app, the other had Ubigi's "Best Asia" plan. Both worked well -- equally well, as far as we could tell -- in both countries.

We didn't travel outside of major cities on this trip, other than on mainline trains in Japan, so I can't offer any data on performance in less populated areas.

Currently in Thailand, with a stopover in Singapore on the way here and a few days there on the way back.

Purchased a SingTel Tourist eSIM before I left home which gives 100GB data in Singapore, plus 3G of roaming data in a few countries including Thailand and Australia. I've used these before and had no problems. You've always needed to register on their app before using the SIM, but the process seems to have changed - previously you needed to physically be in Singapore before you could start that process, but this time I had no issues doing it whilst on the bus to the airport in Melbourne, and it even successfully connected to the network there.

However it simple refuses to connect to the network in Thailand. Google shows that this seems to be a common complaint, and plenty of people have suggestions on how to fix it (APNs, manually selecting networks, etc) but none of them have worked for me. Contacted support via chat, but apparently their only option for this package is to call me back "within 1-3 days"...

My 'backup' eSIM of Firsty Free also isn't working. It at least connects to the network, but only 3G and then refuses to bring up a data connection on it. Purchased a 1 day/500MB package from Global Yo (for 59 cents), and thankfully that one is working fine.

Experiences like this illustrate why we should all have T-mobile if possible - if your eSIM has problems, you have your free T-mobile roaming as backup, which almost always works.

A valid point for those based in the USA, but please remember that lots of us here aren't. :)

I agree, T-Mobile just works. I've used it all over Asia and Europe. No issues. Even Chile was usable despite the high latency.

Never used them so can't vouch for them, but Gigsky has a promo for all Visa Infinite and Signature card holders.

Stop Roaming. Save Money on International eSIM Data Plans

Complimentary and/or discounted plans for eligible USA Visa cardholders

Visa Infinite
: 3 GB / 15 day complimentary plan + 30% off all plans
Visa Signature
: 1 GB / 15 day complimentary plan + 20% off all plans

Does anyone have experiences with Airhub or Esim4travel? I’m considering an eSIM for a couple of days and the latter has the cheapest price for my needs but I wanted to see if either of them is a now scam or something. I’m also looking into eSIM.sm and Firstly though the latter is a bit more expensive for my needs.

My daughter and I used Esim4travel last November on a trip to greece (and for me also germany). She had the Greece only SIM and I have the European SIM. Both were cheap and worked as advertised (no problems at all). My wife and I are going to a multi-country European Trip at end of april and I plan on buying their "Best Europe 35" e-sims unless I find a better deal somewhere else. Another site I've used and been happy with is esim.net where they have a pan-Europe e-sim for O2 that looks like the price has been lowered to $21 for 35gb/30days (or $23 for 50gb) of european roaming (higher in UK) and it comes with a British +44 phone number with free in-country calls for each country. That actually looks like a better deal right now. Again, I've used the O2 sim from esim.net in UK, Ireland, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Italy without any issue. The only gotcha is that the 30 days starts immediately upon purchase so last time I bought it in Boston Airport where I was about to board to a flight to Dublin -- SIM work immediately upon landing in Dublin.

Thank you for verifying! I don’t have any trips lined up to the EU just yet but I think you can also buy an eSIM directly from Vodafone Ireland online that works in the UK and EU though I can’t recall how much it costs and if it comes with a number.

Edit: Yeah it's unlimited data with an Irish phone number for €20 and lasts a month.

https://n.vodafone.ie/shop/pay-as-yo...g-ireland.html

I think that eSIM has international phone calls but otherwise is data only in Ireland?

Would be cool if it was unlimited in all of the EU for €20. Especially if you could order it and provision it all online, then you could activate it anywhere in Europe, without being in Ireland.

there are certain parts that the fine print doesn’t make very clear. I could be wrong but I think it said the data should work in the EU and UK but with a 40GB limit (which might not apply in the UK but like I said the plan description is kind of ambiguous).

There are various bad reviews for airhub floating around but I haven't tried. A lot of products on airhub are just resold esims from another provider, you should be able to find it cheaper at the origin provider

Esim4travel I tried, no issues. Didn't contact support though. Their pricing has changed a bit from the last year

I've been meaning to try esim.sm at sone point. They go through Poland.

Roamless is nice if you might need a usa IP (and you don't have a VPN etc). Their promo/free credits do expire if you don't add real$ (and they also have referral codes too). Paid credits do not expire

OK it does say 40 GB roaming but apparently it will charge €20 every 4 weeks? So it may be one of those rolling subscription, not a real prepaid plan.

Wonder what you’d have to do to make sure they don’t charge you after the initial charge.

Roaming details here: https://n.vodafone.ie/support/mobile...ml#noextracost it covers the EU, the UK and Switzerland plus the French and Dutch Caribbean and, oddly, Suriname. Unlimited plans get only 40 GB roaming; other plans get the full allowance.

It's a monthly (or rather 4-weekly, because Ireland) prepaid plan similar to the prepaid plans offered by a lot of American and European carriers. You have to top up €20, which you then 'spend' on the data pack. In order to buy another data pack you'd have to top up again. If you don't, your service quits working. They're only able to charge against the credits you've purchased.

What's not clear is whether a Vodafone Ireland eSIM has to be activated in Ireland or whether it'll activate while roaming. Anyone tried to buy one from outside Ireland and use it in another EU country or the UK without first going to Ireland? It's a pretty good deal, especially since it includes both the UK and Switzerland. It's an even better deal if you can buy one for a trip that doesn't even include Ireland.