It’s maddening that my telco will negotiate a roaming rate on my behalf, and it’s 100x worse than what a random dude in a supermarket can sell me.
More and more people are ditching carrier roaming in favor of travel eSIMs
Submitted 7 months ago by fne8w2ah@lemmy.world to technology@lemmy.world
https://www.androidauthority.com/travel-esim-vs-roaming-3432183/
Comments
pHr34kY@lemmy.world 7 months ago
Croquette@sh.itjust.works 7 months ago
They bet on the fact that most people will pay their bullshit fees because they don’t know any better.
AbidanYre@lemmy.world 7 months ago
Is this just a switch to eSIM from regular SIM? Travel sim cards have been a thing for at least two decades.
Album@lemmy.ca 7 months ago
Yeah. Before your options were roaming or waiting till you get there to get a physical SIM.
Today I can get an app that will install the esim before I get to the country so I’m ready to go out the gate.
Rates seem really good this way.
registeredusername@lemmy.world 7 months ago
Heard Holafly 😉👍 in App Store is a money saver when traveling
Digestive_Biscuit@feddit.uk 7 months ago
It’s also the ease of it. I travelled to Indonesia a while back thinking I could pick up a SIM card once there. I didn’t realise you have to register the phone itself for tax reasons (?) to white list the IMEI of the phone before buying a SIM card. It was loads easier just to buy a roaming eSIM after I arrived. In hind sight I probably could have got a better package had I shopped before hand but it got me out of a tricky situation.
lemmyvore@feddit.nl 7 months ago
Same issues in Turkye. You have to track down a shop and they’ll fleece you because they flat out refuse to sell you the cheap options under various pretexts. If you use the SIM for 6 months you have to register your IMEI, and if you don’t they expire and you have to do it all over again. So yeah, having an eSIM is a big improvement.
alsu2launda@lemmy.world 7 months ago
Me in india paying 10 dollars for 3 months with 450 GB data and unlimited calls lol.
Western internet prices are insane
aluminium@lemmy.world 7 months ago
Convert it into median wage working hours and it all makes sense
cosmicrookie@lemmy.world 7 months ago
It only means that the prices are adjusted to get the most out of what people have, not that it costs what its worth
Scavenger_Solardaddy@lemmy.ml 7 months ago
8 USD per month for unlimited data (100GB FUP) and unlimited calls to all network. Including unlimited high speed data for social media and gaming, no data cap. Malaysia.
yamanii@lemmy.world 7 months ago
I pay that for 20GB, it’s so fucking shitty having to be vigilant about your data spending, then they do a research here where they say most people don’t spend the majority of their data. Of course we fucking don’t, if you do you can’t access ANY online service, you don’t get shitty speeds you get no internet at all so most people don’t risk it by going through the limit.
sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 6 months ago
20GB is a lot though. I use about 1GB. I spend most of my time on WiFi, so I really don’t need much.
LedoKun@lemm.ee 7 months ago
About $8.5 for 365 days with 60 GB data and 200 min calls in Thailand. If I need more calls, it’s less than $3 for every 200 min (365 days, again).
Rentlar@lemmy.ca 7 months ago
Most Canadian carriers do a “use your plan like you would at home” but the price for it is about USD 10 per day, which is a huge cost compared to many travel eSIMs or a local SIM/eSiM.
HamsterRage@lemmy.ca 7 months ago
Yes, $15 CAD/day to “roam like home”. I have an Orange eSIM that I can keep alive if I use it at least once every 6 months - with a local french number that stays mine. It costs me about $40 CAD for a 30 day - 20GB top up. My wife uses Nomad for data only, we both don’t need local numbers, and it generally costs $12 CAD for 5 GB 2 week top-up.
So I figure about $60-70 CAD for 3 weeks travel virtually anywhere in Europe. Calls and SMS included (for one) without long distance charges. Compared to $630 for “roam like home” for two people from a Canadian carrier - doesn’t matter which one as far as I can tell.
We both recently got new phones to be able to use eSIMs.
And the physical SIMs stay active. No my elderly parents can call my Canadian number if there’s an emergency and it will ring through.
In fact, on our last trip to Rome, when we used a credit card at the hotel, it was refused and then seconds later I got a text from the bank asking for confirmation on my Canadian number. I had no choice but to text “Yes” back, and that single text activated roaming for the day and cost me $15.
Rentlar@lemmy.ca 7 months ago
Yeah the EU is just awesome for being able to just hop from country to country, it’s the same with the wireless roaming as it is with your person.
JohnnyCanuck@lemmy.ca 7 months ago
Yeah, I keep that for emergencies (you only pay if you use it) and also turn my Telus on occasionally to check text messages and do two factor authentication (incoming texts are free), but CAD$15 a day to “roam like home” is more expensive than an entire month with a local SIM in many countries.
wjrii@lemmy.world 7 months ago
And yet still a vast improvement on the old model of “you went off airplane mode, please sell your plasma while applying for a second mortgage.”
stealth_cookies@lemmy.ca 7 months ago
I hate having to use it, but when so many terrible services only allow sms 2fa it is mandatory to have as an option when travelling out of country.
Rentlar@lemmy.ca 7 months ago
In Canada the way to work around 2FA SMS is to have mobile data roaming off with roaming on, (then switch your sim card to your home number). The incoming text messages and leaving incoming calls ignored won’t charge you. It will only charge if you use any mobile data at all, send a text, SMS, MMS message, make any call (including to voicemail) or accept any call (some charge for rejecting a call but won’t if you let it timeout on its own).
MusketeerX@lemm.ee 7 months ago
Same as Australian carriers. Mine is $A10 /day (about $7 USD). If you’re travelling for a long time the cost can eventually add up and it’s possible to get some cheaper travel sims. But it’s just so much easier to not do anything and use your phone as normal.
Big improvement from the old days of roaming.
Yaztromo@lemmy.world 7 months ago
Got a T-Mobile eSIM while travelling in the US last year to get around this. The eSIM was a great deal (can’t remember the specifics, but pretty cheap with a decent amount of data). I was making two trips to California and Georgia in the same 30 day window, so it was useful to have.
The only downside was that I couldn’t activate the eSIM before getting to the US, and LAX didn’t appear to have any WiFi while we were there (not sure if that was generally true for the time, or if it was just offline). So I wound up having to roam to get the eSIM, and to get a text message from the shuttle that was picking us up from the airport (as I had to give them that in advance, and didn’t know what my US number would be until I got there).
Still saved us some money, but it was a bit of a PITA to activate with no WiFi available at the airport.
K3zi4@lemmy.world 7 months ago
Currently in Tokyo from UK, paid for an Airalo esim before I arrived, and I was pretty impressed with how cheap and easy it’s been- and that’s with 20gbs data, which I’ve barely used.
My service provider O2 would have charged me £7 a day with their O2 travel bolt-on, but would have still been my usual contract of unlimited calls, texts and data, just that the data would have been throttled a fair bit. This is a lot more reasonable than it used to be, but still would have amounted in a large bill compared to the one off $18 esim.
GhostlyPixel@lemmy.world 7 months ago
Used Airalo in the EU last year, only complaint was it took a few hours for the data to work reliably, but it was 100% after that.
Aceticon@lemmy.world 7 months ago
Since way back in the 90s, everytime I stayed somewhere for longer than a week (or I really really needed mobile data) I would simply buy a local pay-as-you-go SIM for it.
This has been made even simpler to do with the advent of dual SIM phones were you can have a SIM for calls with your personal phone number and a SIM for data.
Further, here in the EU ever since they passed some legislation some years ago, mobile operators can’t charge extra for roaming within the EU.
What exactly is the great advantage of eSIMs if you have a dual SIM phone?!
IamAnonymous@lemmy.world 7 months ago
In some countries it’s not easy like walking in to a store and getting a prepaid card. You need to have an ID and a local address, probably to prevent bad events which use sims cards. A travel sim could be easier but more expensive.
eSIM is much easier and can be activated using an app.
Blackmist@feddit.uk 7 months ago
Yeah, I wanted to do this in Iceland a number of years back, and they needed a local bank account in order to open one.
My Icelandic father-in-law helpfully offered to put it on his own bank account, saying he’d just cancel it at the end of the month. This was acceptable. Gave him like £10 to pay for it.
Went back two years later. You’ll never guess what he’d forgotten to do…
madis@lemm.ee 7 months ago
What exactly is the great advantage of eSIMs if you have a dual SIM phone?!
If the phone supports a normal and eSIM at the same time, they are equivalent. Because in many countries, dual SIM phones are (and will be) harder to get than single SIM ones, so having eSIM at least allows that.
BorgDrone@lemmy.one 7 months ago
What exactly is the great advantage of eSIMs if you have a dual SIM phone?!
eSim means you don’t have to go to a store to get a physical SIM. You can use a ‘SIM store’ app to get an eSIM for wherever you are.
Another minor advantage is that you don’t need a SIM PIN as the SIM is a physical part of the phone. So you only need to enter one code when you restart your phone.
cleanandsunny@literature.cafe 7 months ago
Thank you for posting, I never really pursued this but just downloaded Airalo for an upcoming trip and I’m really excited to not pay $10/day with my carrier!!!
IamAnonymous@lemmy.world 7 months ago
I love Airalo. I have used it in 3 countries and works without any issue. I even use it in the US when I reach my data limit as I’m not on an unlimited plan.
Ltcpanic@lemmy.world 7 months ago
Ah. I see you were contemplating Verizon global choice
cleanandsunny@literature.cafe 7 months ago
Ugh yes, nailed it!
dogslayeggs@lemmy.world 7 months ago
I just have a carrier that gives me free international data and calling, regardless of the level of plan.
OhmsLawn@lemmy.world 7 months ago
I’m in Chile right now. I have a local phone number and 20 gb for 30 days. eSIMs are amazing. I paid by at least 4x, getting Movistar through an app before I left, but my phone worked on the tarmac and I got to spend my first day exploring, rather than looking for a mobile shop.
Fishytricks@lemmy.world 7 months ago
I prefer to use my pocket wifi that uses sim card for data. Then I can share my data with my partner or/and friends.
JohnnyCanuck@lemmy.ca 7 months ago
So… What SIM do you use when you’re in other countries?
kamenlady@lemmy.world 7 months ago
Why would i use my SIM in other countries?
/s
baseless_discourse@mander.xyz 7 months ago
Is there a FOSS implementation of esim any where? AFAIK all privacy/security rom need to download a proprietary component to use esim, and such component need to run as root (as of now).
I wonder if this is another HDMI situation where implementing a FOSS version would violate some NDA of some sort.
DreamlandLividity@lemmy.world 7 months ago
Well, this is a bit tricky to answer:
- The e-sim in a phone is a separate chip with proprietary firmware. The chances of a FOSS version of this HW are nearly nonexistent. It would require developing your own silicon and putting it into your own phones. Chances of FOSS FW for this proprietary HW are also very small, because there is not much reason to do so.
- Currently, registering an e-sim requires a proprietary app (usually google). There is no FOSS alternative and work on one is slow and there are some IP issues.
- Using an e-sim does not require a proprietary app. So you can remove google services or remove their acess to the e-sim HW once you have it registered. GrapheneOS uses this.
leanleft@lemmy.ml 7 months ago
free trial tmobile (esim)
BreakDecks@lemmy.ml 7 months ago
Kinda nice that Google Fi gives you global roaming at no extra charge. Too bad it hardly ever works and text messaging is a shitshow.
Still used a travel esim on my last trip just to be able to reliably use my phone.
Probably dropping them soon because text message reliability is already a joke at home with them…
59QRRwD@lemmy.ml 7 months ago
Interesting that you’ve had such a negative experience with Google Fi. My job requires regular relocation around the globe plus frequent international travel. I have yet to visit a country where it doesn’t work for the ~10 years I have been with them.
JoyfulCodingGuy@lemmy.ml 7 months ago
The problem I had with products like Airalo is that if you are traveling and need to actually call a hotel, excursion, or any company in the country you are visiting you cannot do that with just a data eSIM like Airalo.
Sure you could use WiFi calling maybe but in my experience when I really needed to call someone I had to switch back to my original carrier and incur the $10/day fee.
swampdownloader@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 months ago
There are certain esim providers that give you a number. Esimdb.com
mundane@feddit.nu 7 months ago
Unless you live and travel within the EU. Then you can use your phone as much as you want and know that you won’t get a higher bill than usual.
uzay@infosec.pub 7 months ago
Unless you are dangerously close to a non-EU country and can’t reliably prevent your phone from connecting to its networks
lemmylommy@lemmy.world 7 months ago
IMO they should have just made any roaming on non-EU-terms strictly opt-in. It’s madness that you can get billed ridiculous amounts of money just for being too close to a border or ship.
themadcodger@kbin.earth 7 months ago
shakes fist at Andorra
mundane@feddit.nu 7 months ago
Never thought of that. Scary though.
Tippon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 months ago
This time last year I stayed on Bardsey Island, off the Welsh Coast. There’s hardly any phone signal on the island, but they warned everyone to turn off roaming on their phones anyway. It turns out that because of the mountain on the island blocking the signal from the UK, lots of phones automatically connect to Irish providers, and cost more than people expect
GissaMittJobb@lemmy.ml 7 months ago
I’ve always been sent a text when I connect to the network of a different country. It happened immediately when I crossed over from France to Monaco, for example.
BearOfaTime@lemm.ee 7 months ago
Let’s look at landmass - the US is equivalent in landmass to 16 Western OECD countries.
I haven’t seen roaming fees in the US for over 20 years. So you could travel 2500 miles and not once pay a roaming fee. Same with SMS - all messages have been included in my plan since at least 2005.
It’s hard to compare EU to US with something like roaming. Very few Americans travel outside the US regularly, so we’d need to look at something like hours outside home area per year, or something, to be any kind of useful - and there’s zero roaming within the US.
Frozengyro@lemmy.world 7 months ago
Also, you can go to Alaska/Hawaii and not pay roaming. Some plans include Mexico and Canada as well.
guacupado@lemmy.world 7 months ago
Yeah I find it hilarious when Europeans make all the jokes about Americans not traveling abroad when traveling through several countries for them is just driving from Miami to Disney World for us.
sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 6 months ago
Yup. My wife went to Canada for a few days, so I bought a roaming plan. $20 and we were set. Yeah, that kinda sucks, but I’ve only needed to do that once.
If we go on a long trip somewhere, we’ll probably get a SIM, but it just doesn’t come up often.
wjrii@lemmy.world 7 months ago
I’m always cautious about comparing the US to the EU too closely, but in this case it fits, as both are continent-wide common markets. If you “live and travel within the EU,” it barely counts as international travel for economic concerns.
n2burns@lemmy.ca 7 months ago
The rest of North America would like a word with you…
Beryl@lemmy.world 7 months ago
Beware of Swizerland