eSIM thread
 

I thought I'd start a thread to talk about carriers that offer eSIM functionality on Android or iOS. On a lark, I just set up a Ubigi account and paid $5 for 500MB of data. It was surprisingly easy to do and works pretty well. T-mobile downloaded and uploaded at about 20Mbps in my speed test, while Verizon (my main carrier) did 120 down and 20 up.

I'm looking forward to using this in France this summer.

What other fun things have you found with eSIM?

Can you tell us about Ubigi ?
not much on Google about it ,

Oops found the page , interesting and looks easy to setup as you can use PayPal
prices are not bad but not cheap either ,

let us know how it works out,

Thanks

It worked fine. I'll use them again when I go to France this summer. Much cheaper than Verizon's $10/day roaming.

Interesting. I've been keeping a Vodafone NL SIM alive for use in Europe -- it is €15 for 2GB, €20 for 3GB in a month (30 days) good all over the EU. And often there is a special where they double the data. My original plan was to move my T-Mobile plan over to the eSIM and put the Vodafone in for data. But T-Mobile seems to be taking forever to release the eSIM for post paid plans (and yes I know if you work the reps you might get it to work). This is a tad more expensive but gives more options should I travel somewhere else. And I don't have to wait for T-Mobile :)

I agree this is interesting. I also had initially thought that I'd try to use an eSIM for my primary carrier and then buy local physical SIMs when traveling. What I like about this concept, assuming its dependable and cost competitive, is I don't have to hassle with waiting in line at an Orange shop in Paris for 20 minutes, then taking another 20 minutes to get the deal done (and having them photocopy my passport, etc.)

This is very interesting indeed. Curious to see if others offer a competing product in this eSIM space.

Regards

I too like The Mad Brewer have been waiting on t-mobile to get the e-sim on post-paid plans. Leaving at the end of the month wish I could just have my eSim working so I could have my Three sim card in the slot. Or Three had an eSim compatible sim card.

Anyone have experience wit GigSky eSIM? Pricing is higher than Ubigi, but looks a bit more polished. Also, Ubigi site says 'Data Roaming' setting needs to be set to On, which worries me when traveling internationally - what if Ubigi 'fails' somehow and then my primary account data gets used. With GigSky data roaming is left off (according to their site), as their service is 'local' to the country you are using it in. There always seems to be trade-offs.

This is a big part of my interest as well. In some countries it is quite easy to get a prepaid SIM, but in others it is a pain. Your reference to Paris made me laugh, as my experience took closer to an hour before I finally had a working SIM. I'd just rather not have to give up that time dealing with a SIM.

LOL, oh mine likely was much closer to an hour as well, I was just being nice! :)

And in some ways, the whole photocopy your passport thing is actually more annoying/concerning to me than the time, but certainly would just prefer to hit the ground running, no fuss no muss.

Regards

The only issue I see of the top with GigSky is the plan's terms are a bit short -- 15 days for 2GB plan. That would probably be enough but occasionally my trips are a bit longer: 16-18 days or even 3 full weeks. I could use my T-Mobile plan for the extra days and be OK, but it would be nice if the plan lasted longer.

That is what I do now but entails two phones (since I have to be available on my US number). Before the Euro Tariff it would require a local SIM for each country but now I just have a Dutch Vodafone SIM I keep alive (can top-up with US credit card) which is good in EU + Switzerland. Plan was to transfer my T-Mobile postpaid to the eSIM but TMO has been dragging their feet so this (Ubigi/GigSky) seems like an alternative.

I'd be interested in Thai AIS Sim2Fly roaming sim within Asia & AU if it were a little easier to top up SIM2FLY the best-value roaming SIM for everyone! They currently only setup eSIM in store and top up can be tricky outside Thailand for non-Thai residents. They also offer a "Global" 15 GB/1 year for ~ $90 USD = $ 6 per GB. It might be an interesting option for those who can't get/don't want ProjectFi/T-Mobile and want to minimize some of the local sim signup hassles. Same plan is available with a physical sim.

Are there any other non-US local sims with better roaming packages than global roaming providers?

iPhone, yes?

You can, you just have to add it manually after calling them to set it up. There's a reddit thread on how to do it. I used iMessage business chat to contact them to do it. It's very easy and worked instantly. You just have to "convince" the t-mobile rep to do an EID based SIM swap and give them your EID. "convince" wasn't at all difficult to do. Just ask them to do the EID based sim swap and you will take care of the rest of it without any assistance. (the first rep needed convincing for my phone. The 2nd rep just did the sim swap for my wife's phone.)

https://www.reddit.com/r/tmobile/com...w_to_activate/

Once you move your home sim to the e-sim "slot", that frees up your physical sim slot for travel.

-David

I am interested in an Egyptian sim card for a 10-day trip that also includes 36 hours in Zurich (in addition to the 10 days we are in Egypt). We are flying home from CAI through connections in AMM to DOH then direct home to BOS. I'm with AT&T, and currently have their $10 Day Pass which will cover the 36 hours we're in Zurich. But that plan doesn't work in Egypt, Jordan, and Qatar, and I would have to switch to their Passport plan for which 1GB is $60 and 3GB is $120 (a one-time charge for 30 days).

I have 2 old iPhones (a 5s and a 6 - one for me, one for my daughter traveling companion) that could be used instead of our current phones if I went the Egyptian sim card route. Would we have to have the Egyptian tour guide take us to a store upon arrival to get this set up? Or should I go the eSim route with GigFly or Ubigi?

What are your opinions as to my options?

Well, I made the mistake of calling. Her problem was she contacted support who told her it could not be done. I will try your method by live chat.

I've called twice and gotten the same "it can not be done" but haven't pushed it. I am a little hesitant because even if they do it they (TMO) says it is not supported and I don't want to be in East Podunkia and have stuff stop working :) It TMO hasn't released eSIM for Postpaid by my next overseas trip I may try the GigSky/Ubigi route since there is no long term commitment there.

Don't mention e-sim. Just tell them you need to an EID based SIM swap. If they question it, just tell them you don't need any support for it, you just need them to process the EID based SIM swap and you'll take care of everything else.

I waited till I got home from my last trip to do it in case something went wrong I could just go to a local t-mo store and get a new SIM.

Do you know how to use the business chat feature? Open Apple Maps, and find a nearby t-mobile store and select it. Slide up for the details. There should be a Messages button there. Make sure you are on wifi if you are using the target phone.

-David

[MENTION=27026]LH[/MENTION] Prem, I did contact chat about the eSim. She kept me on chat for over 40 minutes to tell me it was too complicated to explain through chat. Told me to call Support. I will probably call them when I get back from my next business trip.

What did she have to explain? All you have to do is ask them to do an EDID based SIM swap, following the directions in the reddit thread. If they don't know how to do that or won't do it, hang up and try again. Don't bother calling support.

You weren't asking them for help doing it, were you? It's not officially supported but works if you just follow the instructions in the reddit thread, which IMO, are very simple and straightforward.

-David

[MENTION=4034]LIH Prem[/MENTION] all I said was I wanted a sim swap with this phone# and with this EID number. I tried to tell her that it was pretty straight forward, but she contacted support and that person told her it was too complicated to do over chat so I need to call in. This was after something like 40 minutes on chat. I left.

Actually.... the eSIM2Fly is now showing up for sale online. You can google the AIS SIM2Fly eSIM. This is a perfect sim when you compare to something like Gigsky charges the same price for 1GB as you pay for 5GB with Sim2Fly. And you can keep it valid for 1 year at a time. Just do a top up and each time you add funds you get 1 month validity. When you want to use it again, just enter a USSD code for a new plan. For example, you enter *111*356# for 1GB for 2 days in Asia for just under $4.

As for easy top up of the SIM2Fly, lots of recharge sites can do it, but found MobileTopup.com about the cheapest.

[MENTION=10045355]boardsports[/MENTION] - Yup, Sim2Fly eSIM reseller was mentioned by [MENTION=320827]beep88[/MENTION] on the Japan Forum https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/30832359-post482.html The physical sim cards purchased from resellers are registered to someone else (not the purchaser) and prevents some of the functions of app working when Line Pay used to be available to US Line holders. MobileTopup checkout uses Verified By Visa 3DS and Chase CC's are a bit fiddly with that https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/chas...olution-3.html though I'd probably pre-load some more credit on an eSIM than physical as I lend out physical sims.

Wow, [MENTION=320827]beep88[/MENTION] is on top of his game, I didn't realize it was already mentioned. It does appear for the moment that eSIMs can not be shared, like a physical SIM. My guess is the Apple and carriers decided to close this loophole as the sharing of eSIMs would be as easy as sharing photos. Anyone know more about sSIM sharing?

gfunkdave: Can you talk me through this? When I've traveled to Europe in the past, I've used a Three SIM (UK) and roamed through Europe. Now that I have a newer iPhone that has eSIM capability, I'm wondering if there are better options. I'm on Verizon, so don't want to pay the $10/day access. With Ubigi, can you make wifi calls/texts/facetime using your Verizon number? How do you set it up in Europe? Turn off Cellular Data on the phone and then all traffic will be routed through the Ubigi connection? Would appreciate any insights or instructions you can provide! TIA

Do you think the trend is to put eSim plus regular sim on some of lower and mid range phones ?

I don't think it's a plus for the Carriers to push dual sims as it's taking $$$$$ out of their pockets.

And most phones do not have the LTE bands for overseas even if you do get them unlocked,

I am doing a Moto e5 play up for overseas use as it has a lot of LTE bands , but it sure would be nice to also have a eSim to put something like Google Fi along with a local sim.

Read Apple's article: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT209044

You can get started with Ubigi eSIM here: https://cellulardata.ubigi.com/esim-ios/

Their plans are just for data. They don't offer voice service. If you want to make wifi calls with your Verizon number, then just leave your phone in airplane mode and connect to wifi when you want to.

Alternatively, you can sign up for a T-Mobile US eSIM account which might allow for their free roaming (I'm not sure).

I do not think this works. I am a T-Mo customer and am trying to find a way to use my T-Mo phone plus another SIM. It turns out that to get a T-Mo eSIM you have to have a T-Mo prepaid account which does not have roaming. This sucks for me as I was hoping to move a foreign SIM (from a country with no eSIM offers yet) to combine two phones in one and still have T-Mo roaming and other benefits of their postpaid accounts.

They officially don't support eSIM on postpaid, but you can "convince" them to let you try. Don't mention eSIM, I gave my EID and then the person pushed back saying it wasn't 19 digits and was I trying to do eSIM? I then complained that I really needed this to put by business sim on my phone as well, and just to try it please! The person did it and everything worked. Took about 3 tries through iMessage and Twitter DMs before one did it though. There is a guide out there on how to set it up.

I have the Global Plus 15GB add-on which gives me the awesome global roaming, and now I'm adding RedPockets Verizon plan for coverage in the USA where T-Mobile isn't there. It's going to be the best of both worlds!

Sorry to be a bit dense here, but could you take me step by step through what you asked for? Many thanks

This is the rundown.

https://www.reddit.com/r/tmobile/com...w_to_activate/

Thanks! I will try this and report back.

This reminded me to read that thread again. If you sort comments by "NEW", you'll get the most recent (and thus more accurate) results.

So, I tried it. Took 10 minutes, most of which was waiting for back and forth responses (reps are handling multiple chats at a time).
This is how it went:

Did it yesterday via the in-app chat, went like this: 10 minutes, no arguing needed.

Me: Hello, I would like to do a SIM swap on my xxx-yyy-zzzz line.

EID is 890400000999988887777666655554444.

TMO rep: Sure, I can definitely help you out to activate your eSIM. just a heads, T-Mobile postpaid does not support the eSIM. Would you still like to proceed?

Me: As in, does not support, but can be done, and I accept the responsibility and know there may be issues?

Her: Thank you so much for your understanding, /me. There might be glitches, but no worries, I can activate it for you,

Her: (Warning about contacts stored on SIM / downloaded visual voicemail deleted / Should take minutes, but may take up to two hours)

Me: Yes, I would like to proceed.

Her: Got it! Doing it now! (sends PIN)

Me: (Sends PIN back)

Her: Thanks! Almost done! 2 minutes please.

Her (two minute later): Done with the process!

Instead of steps 5-7 from the reddit post, I Scanned the QR linked in multiple comments in the reddit post ( https://imgur.com/a/3G0fMZc ). Done.

I used the mobile App chat, with my physical SIM in an old iPhone SE, on WiFi, so I was able to continue through the whole process, and go on to troubleshoot a related issue with the same rep in the same chat.

I did the EID via copy/paste to avoid any typos. iCloud cross-device clipboard came in handy here.

Despite having no physical SIM in the iPhone XS during this process, the eSIM line shows as secondary.

Heads up for anyone with an Apple Watch on cellular: Watch lost connection as soon as it went through. I had to unpair and repair it. TMO rep was kind enough to check on her end, and stayed on chat to make sure things worked.

Update: 10 days later, no issues whatsoever. I have yet to travel and install a physical SIM, but so far so good.

I've been to UK, India, Germany, Costa Rica all on the eSim with no issues.

I'm genuinely not sure at this point if this is an eSIM or T-Mobile eSIM thread, but does anyone have experience using Ubigi eSIM in Europe? Any issues?

I am coming up on my next trip (Germany, Czechia) and am looking to try one of the international eSim providers but there really is very little objective discussion of GigSky, Ubigi, Truphone, eSIM2Fly, SomethingElse? out there on the web. The price differences aren't really the issue for me, the reliability and usability are the key. A few in this thread have reported good results but I was wondering if anybody had any more recent experiences, good or bad? TIA

Just back from 4 days in Barcelona. Tried Ubigi for this trip. Normally I'd bring a MiFi device and just buy a local data sim. I have a iPhone Xs max on Verizon.

I was on a trans Atlantic cruise and made the mistake of trying to set up the Ubigi profile while at sea. That really didn't work well as it needed a good data connection to validate, not just a wifi connection. Once I was finally able to set up the esim profile I didn't have any issues. I selected the 10gb plan for 30 days at $19 paid through PayPal. Apple pay would have been a nice option.

While in Barcelona the connection was almost always on Orange LTE with some time at 3G. On LTE I SpeedTested at between 15 and 20 mbps down and 10 up.

I was able to use my phone as a hotspot. Note that you have to go in and manually add the APN's for this to work. Which is outlined on their FAQ's

The one issue I had, and it just might be the way I was using the device, is that I couldn't receive SMS without activating my Verizon plan and then incurring a $10 daily international fee. iMessage and WhatsApp worked just fine. I did have WiFi calling turned on as well. I received a notification from Verizon, I'm assuming, that a SMS text was waiting form me if I activated the roaming, which I thought was a sneaky way to get me to use the international day pass.

Overall I was happy with the service. Had I just used the Verizon daily pass I would have blown through the minuscule daily LTE allotment they give you.

I'm thinking one solution for the SMS issue is to have people use email or WhatsApp to get a hold of me.