Looking for an easy way to keep in touch while you are overseas? Then this article is for you.
Until recently I was futzing around with physical SIM cards when I traveled overseas. My Verizon cell phone plan covers only the United States, Mexico, and Canada, so if I wanted service beyond that I was always looking for a sim card. This usually meant a trip to Amazon.com and then poring over reviews to find the least bad option for a SIM card. Then once it arrived some number of days later I had to remember to take it with me, swap it out in my phone among cramped airline seats, and jump through whatever esoteric activation hoops were involved. It worked, but it was at times painful.
Airalo and eSIMs to the Rescue!
In January 2024 I traveled to Spain and Morocco and my new iPhone 15 Pro forced me to move to an eSIM. After some research on the web I came across Airalo and decided to give it a try. While Airalo sells eSIMs for many different countries I chose to purchase their global plan since I was going to be in multiple countries. The specific features were:
- Global Plan covering 124 countries
- 20GB of Data
- 365 Days of Service
- No Text or Voice Service
The purchase was very straightforward and the current retail price for this plan is $69. At the time I purchased I was able to find a sale that brought the price closer to $60. They also have a referral program and you can get $3 off by using my referral code: BEN0840 —That said it may be worth checking whether you can get a bigger discount through your favorite shopping portal.
Set up
The instructions provided by Airalo are excellent. On my iPhone 15 Pro running iOS 17 the entire process took about five minutes from logging into their website to the eSIM being installed and ready to go on my phone. Since I had chosen a global plan that included the United States I was able to immediately test it out at my home in Iowa which quickly established a connection to the AT&T network.
Usage
So now the real question – how would it perform when I traveled overseas? The short answer – it worked perfectly!
To enable the eSIM on your iPhone you simply go to Settings->Cellular and then scroll down to eSIMs. Here you can turn on and off the eSIMs you have configured. For me this meant turning off my Primary Verizon eSIM and then enabling my Travel Airalo eSIM. I did this just after the plane landed in Spain and once I turned off Airplane mode it immediately connected to the Movistar network at 5G.
Coverage throughout my time in Spain was very good (primarily Madrid, Sevilla, and Jerez). Most of the time I had 5G coverage and the only times that there weren’t coverage were in a couple rural areas on the train and when I was completely underground out of signal range.
Next up was Morocco! This time on landing in Casablanca I didn’t even have to change my eSIM configuration. I simply turned off Airplane mode and my phone connected to the Inwi network at 4G speeds. Again my experience with my Airalo eSIM was very good across Morocco. Over the course of two weeks I was in over ten cities ranging from the largest in the country (Casablanca) to rural areas with beautiful dark night skies. In all locations there was at least some level of coverage. Most coverage was 4G with a few areas being 3G. Connectivity just worked the way I expected at home.
So, Were There Any Downsides?
I only ran into two downsides, neither of them a problem with Airalo or my eSIM directly.
First, turning off my Verizon eSIM meant that I did not receive phone calls or messages on my primary line while I was gone. I was also gone long enough (about three weeks) that my texts/iMessage messages did not deliver when I returned home. As such, I’ll never know who tried to contact me during that time. It’s worth noting that if you have setup WhatsApp in advance that you will still get messages to your number through that mechanism as it only relies on data and not the cellular network itself.
Second, not being able to receive text messages meant that I couldn’t complete some two factor authentications. This happened when I tried to sign up for a Cabify account Spain and also for some websites at home that require two factor authentication via text. For most sites I find that a Google Voice account is a good alternative to send two factor text authentication to. Alternatively Airalo does sell a package with text and voice available if you feel that is important to you. It’s worth noting that my eSIM was issued an Austrian phone number (country code 43) so this may or may not solve these issues for you depending on the number you are issued and how the website or application works with such a number.
Would I Use Airalo eSIMs Again?
Absolutely! The experience was excellent, I saved a ton of time and hassle over the traditional SIM card method, and I felt I got good value for money too. I also only used 6GB of data during my three week trip so I’m looking forward to using the same eSIM over the next ten months on my travels.
