trip.com is the largest online travel agency in the world, so it's not surprising to see them move into ancillary travel-related products like eSIMs. Only this morning I had Singapore Airlines also trying to sell me an eSIM for an upcoming trip, and even Sydney Airport has their own eSIM product available on their website, so it's clear all parts of the travel industry are seeing this as an extra income stream.

The simple fact is that the eSIM market has changed significantly since this thread was started. We've gone from having a small number of companies either selling their own brand or reselling others branded products on a per-country basis, to having hundreds if not thousands of 'providers' - most of which are just re-selling the exact same unbranded product as everyone else, and in many cases using pretty much the same Shopify-based frontends to do it with.

For the last year or two I've been mainly using Yoho Mobile - not necessarily because they are any better than anyone else, but because I stumbled across them at one point, tried them, and they worked, so I kept using them. I'm sure what I'm getting is exactly the same China Mobile-based product I'd be getting from any number of others, at probably around the same price. If I have a problem with them, I'll probably jump to someone else - who will probably be selling the exact same thing (or if not, something pretty much exactly equivalent) for pretty much the same price.

Comparing the prices on trip.com above and Yoho for Japan, they are within a few cents of each other regardless of which option I pick, both are listing the same networks (KDDI/Softbank) and both offer 128kbps after you run out of data, so I'm going to guess they are, once again, both reselling the exact same product from someone else. I'm sure there's probably 50 other eSIM sellers I could find that are offering the same...

I think after three trips I finally got IMS to work right on my iPhone 15 Pro Max. I have two active eSims on it with the primary being Total Wireless (Verizon MVNO) and Mint (T-Mobile) with an active international plan as my secondary. When we landed the Mint line showed like normal and the Total line showed up as Vodaphone UK who is one of VZW's UK roaming partners (along with O2 and 3). I changed my cell setting to use the Mint line for data and on the Total line turned off roaming and manually set the Network to EE who isn't one of their partners and after a minute it changed to "Vodaphone UK via Cellular Data." which I assume that means it's working as intended and if so I have no idea why that didn't work before on my previous trips. Maybe my previous carrier AT&T has more international partners. On WiFi it changed to Verizon Wifi calling as expected. Unfortunately I can't find a list of roaming partners for France so I'll have to go back to the trial and error method when there next week.

A possible setup solution for IMS that I use may work for you also.

I am on T-Mobile for my primary voice line. In the account manager they have a section that controls roaming access and permissions. There are three choices for each line on the account. These controls are buried a few layers down in the Account heading, but will probably be different on your carrier. I need to access: Account-Settings-Permissions & Controls-International, to finally reach the relevant settings. Once I can see the controls, there are 3 choices: Allow All Roaming, Block Charged Roaming, Block International Roaming. I set my voice line to Block International Roaming and it will then always default to rejecting all International carriers. This prevents the handshake with any roaming carrier while overseas, and assures IMS is set properly to Use Cellular Data on that line. Moving regions, countries, or even continents does not require searching for a non roaming carrier. I even leave my voice line set this way at home since it should still be able to roam domestically.

I suggest a search or perhaps contact support for the possibility this type of configuration is available with your carrier. It may be a somewhat obscure setting, so you might have to really do some snooping. If this type of switch isn't a user controlled item, your carrier support can probably block all international roaming on your chosen voice line.

In years past I have had an occasional problem with areas having only one carrier. The Bahamas was one. BTC was the only service, so there was no non roaming carrier on T-Mobile, therefore IMS couldn't be set up! Having ALL international roaming disabled on one line is all that would work.

Probably Ubigi on Docomo while in Japan. https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/japa...idated-55.html

It certainly can seem that they're all the same on the surface, especially with travel specific eSIMs reselling some HK carrier's roaming network or rebundled MVNO. But then even same network factors like QCI, 4g vs 5g network & band availability & crowding, dns geolocation if it is a local MVNO can speed or slow some queries. Pitflyer's post is an interesting comparison of several travel marketed eSIMs at DisneySea opening hour (major load & performance test as basically the entire entrance crowd tries to secure same-day reservations). Most non-technical people probably don't want to weed through such details, though. Agree that plenty of major city travelers can probably lower expectations and be fine if they adjust their usage habits a bit.

I'd guess it effectively matters during high density + high demand (in burst) like at Disney opening, Osaka Expo, and some rush hour transit lines. Broadcasting live streams while moving about on legacy carriers postpaid with optimal QCI still seems iffy at times so expecting tourist eSIMs to perform well under those conditions is probably expecting too much.

I've never had to select a provider manually. Given how roaming works (even same-country roaming) I think it's a little odd that your phone wouldn't just pick the best source based on provider routing. you may see EE or Orange on your handset but you could still be on the Vodafone network. Localised traffic issues are more likely to be a problem than a specific network having issues. A close friend works in this space and the only thing they and their colleagues have in common when they're away from their home country is that they use esims... a brief strawpoll a few weeks back at a dinner showed them all on different esim providers and different networks in the same place. Their opinion was that other than pricing, there is little difference except on rollout of new tech like 5G was some years ago.

TLDR; if you're having to manually select the network, something isn't working properly.

I don't disagree, but sometimes I do manually select the network because

1) esim provider may only support 1-2 out of 5 networks. Why wait for the phone to auto try all of them versus just forcing it to the network that I know should work.

2) some global payg providers have different pricing per provider (nxtlsim, unisim comes to mind).

3) sometimes the supported network rejects the first attempt or so (maybe it hasn't gotten the auth handshakes with the foreign provider yet)

4) there is this concept for network steering, so the phone may not be actually using the best signal, just choosing the signal that has lowest cost. Some IOT sims say no network steering and will choose best signal

5) back in the earlier LTE days, it sometimes was better to drop down to 3G than LTE (LTE was oversubscribed). Not choosing network, but choosing network bands

https://www.telecom26.ch/blog/what-i...ing-of-roaming

I've found it switching networks as I moved around and the alternate network it often selected was inferior, even unusable at times.

This was with the Orange Euro eSIM.

In fact, when I noticed poor performance is when I would check the network selection.

If a SIM is supporting several networks in one country, from my understanding it's not the phone choosing the best. The system is not that sophisticated. The SIM contains a list of supported networks in each country, the list has a priority indicator, so it's the most preferred it is connecting to first.

I use two SIMs of two different carriers (not MVNO). I frequently do speed checks when I'm roaming, even when both SIMs connect to the same network. The speed varies quite often which IMHO is because of capacity issues in the local network. When roaming with legacy carriers, your exit point is in the country of the carrier.

I now rarely manually choose a network. I carry 2 phones travelling. I used to manually change networks a lot, especially when Google FI was rolling out. All connections are much improved in the past 10 years. I also do speed checks if something is a little off. But most of the time, no switching necessary. I do still carry
the "secret" codes, if i need them. Android too.
All iPhone Secret Codes – Tested and Working (October 2025) - TechWiser

Google made some changes to the Pixel Android code earlier this month which broke PixelIMS which is the app I was using to control wifi calling settings on my Australian SIM as the telco themselves blocks changing them. Without PixelIMS, that SIM will prefer using a mobile network (even if I'm roaming and don't have the ability to make calls over it) rather than Wifi or "Backup" (IMS) calling.

So I finally got around to asking the provide if they could completely disable roaming on my SIM. They originally said no, and that because I wasn't paying for roaming it was basically already off (even though it would still connect to the network and I could receive SMS). I pushed harder and they eventually found the setting to disable roaming entirely - and now everything works perfectly!! My Australian SIM jumps perfectly between wifi calling (when I'm on Wifi) and Backup calling (via a 2nd data sim when I'm not on wifi).

My US Sim (US Mobile) is setup exactly the same, and has never had problems. It's very clear that having roaming completely disabled on the SIM makes everything work so much better.

Alternatives for India, Ghana and Australia
 

Hello all,

I’ve been using Nomad for the last couple of years but of late have found their services in India to be poor (with their link with Jio). Any recommendations that would cover the three countries mentioned above like a global plan and that connects to Airtel in India? Is Frewie a good option?

thanks in advance.

I just got back from a 10-day trip to the UAE. Initially, I was going to use a e-sim for calls and data. Though based on recommendations on here, I changed plans on my Verizon account from my current plan to Ultimate Unlimited. It worked great though I didn't make any calls back to the US while I was there. I did text a few people. It was easy to switch the day before I left and switch back to my original plan once I got back. I think it will cost me a grand total of $12-15 dollars for the time I was gone. That sure beats the $10 a day they advertise for their overseas roaming plan. I will definitely do that again next time I travel overseas. Ironically, when I processed through customs at DXB, I was handed a SIM card packet. I think it was a promotional item for tourists visiting. I threw it away when I saw a trash can.

They do that for a very long time already, several years as much I can remember. The SIM is connected to your passport number, has some free data ready to use and can be reloaded. Not too bad in general but not cheap for the reloads.

It's has 10GB of data, but is only good for one day (I forget it if's one actual day, or 24 hours), after which you need to buy a plan that will be more expensive than using a travel eSIM.

The catch with travel eSIMs is that you can't (legally) buy them once you're in country, and many of the websites are actually blocked, and/or will not sell you a SIM. VPN'ing might work, but I'm not sure if a phone VPN will allow you to install the eSIM or if that might be blocked too (most low-level phone functions avoid the VPN). Buying before you're in country is fine.

You changed to a more expensive Verizon plan for a month and you can switch it back to a lower-priced plan?