European eSIM for cellphone data
April 13, 2023 9:40 AM Subscribe
My 80 year old father in law will soon be travelling in Europe for 6 weeks. To avoid paying $16/day in data roaming fees from his Canadian cellphone provider, I would like to get him set up with a European eSIM for a flat rate.
Is there one that is recommended? Can he set it up from Canada (where I can help)?
He has an iPhone 12, so he should be able to do dual-SIM so he can still receive SMS messages on his Canadian number.
He has an iPhone 12, so he should be able to do dual-SIM so he can still receive SMS messages on his Canadian number.
The Reddit on eSIMs has a long list of options here.
Can you share what countries are on the itinerary, and where he is first landing? Also, will he want an EU phone number at all, or just data? I ask because it may genuinely be the case that a locally-activated and purchased SIM/eSIM may be so cheap and full-featured that you and your dad may think it’s worth him spending an extra 15 minutes at a shop near his hotel on the first day or something to get a data plan that comes with a phone number. (You might also be able to set up an eSIM from Canada anyway should that not be possible or if something goes wrong.)
The country where he does this matter, though; some countries make prepaid SIM use easier for tourists than others. Also, in general, EU providers must allow roaming between member states so a local phone and data plan from country X is valid in all other EU countries at the same rate as at home - but this won’t include the UK or Switzerland necessarily. More on this on this wiki here.
posted by mdonley at 10:05 AM on April 13, 2023 [3 favorites]
Can you share what countries are on the itinerary, and where he is first landing? Also, will he want an EU phone number at all, or just data? I ask because it may genuinely be the case that a locally-activated and purchased SIM/eSIM may be so cheap and full-featured that you and your dad may think it’s worth him spending an extra 15 minutes at a shop near his hotel on the first day or something to get a data plan that comes with a phone number. (You might also be able to set up an eSIM from Canada anyway should that not be possible or if something goes wrong.)
The country where he does this matter, though; some countries make prepaid SIM use easier for tourists than others. Also, in general, EU providers must allow roaming between member states so a local phone and data plan from country X is valid in all other EU countries at the same rate as at home - but this won’t include the UK or Switzerland necessarily. More on this on this wiki here.
posted by mdonley at 10:05 AM on April 13, 2023 [3 favorites]
I used Airalo in the UK last week (no more free EU roaming since brexit...) and it worked fine, and you can install the esim before hand.
posted by rpn at 10:06 AM on April 13, 2023 [4 favorites]
posted by rpn at 10:06 AM on April 13, 2023 [4 favorites]
I used BNE when I was in Europe over the winter. There are lots of options for different amounts of data in different schedules to choose from. I just bought a 2gb daily sim and ran with it. Pretty painless to set up on my iPhone 13.
posted by dis_integration at 10:10 AM on April 13, 2023
posted by dis_integration at 10:10 AM on April 13, 2023
I also used Airolo successfully while in the UK the past month.
posted by caek at 10:11 AM on April 13, 2023
posted by caek at 10:11 AM on April 13, 2023
He has an iPhone 12, so he should be able to do dual-SIM so he can still receive SMS messages on his Canadian number.
Are you sure his carrier won't charge for that? This page from Apple says additional fees may apply when receiving SMS messages in a dual SIM situation. This page seems to agree with that. The carrier may allow free texting anywhere like Telstra does, or they may just allow free incoming texts. If someone calls and he lets it go to voicemail, they may also charge him for that. I'd check into it and pull/disable the other SIM to be extra safe if it is not clear.
posted by soelo at 10:47 AM on April 13, 2023
Are you sure his carrier won't charge for that? This page from Apple says additional fees may apply when receiving SMS messages in a dual SIM situation. This page seems to agree with that. The carrier may allow free texting anywhere like Telstra does, or they may just allow free incoming texts. If someone calls and he lets it go to voicemail, they may also charge him for that. I'd check into it and pull/disable the other SIM to be extra safe if it is not clear.
posted by soelo at 10:47 AM on April 13, 2023
Response by poster: mdonley: thanks for the tips! He is doing a cruise of the Danube, from Zagreb to Prague. The full country list is: Croatia, Hungary, Slovakia, Austria, Czechia. He'll then do a cruise along the coast of Norway. Ubigi has an "extended Europe" package that seems to cover every country.
I don't think he will care much about having a local phone number or even receiving SMS, to be honest. He'll be with travel groups and on boats that will likely have some sort of wifi for most of the time. It's mainly just for maps and Googling when he's walking around the cities.
He is very non-technical, so I'd love anything that I can set up for him before he leaves.
posted by krunk at 10:53 AM on April 13, 2023
I don't think he will care much about having a local phone number or even receiving SMS, to be honest. He'll be with travel groups and on boats that will likely have some sort of wifi for most of the time. It's mainly just for maps and Googling when he's walking around the cities.
He is very non-technical, so I'd love anything that I can set up for him before he leaves.
posted by krunk at 10:53 AM on April 13, 2023
For maps, he should download offline maps for all the areas he'll be traveling to before he goes. If that is the primary need, he can decide whether it's worth getting cell access for the trip. But it's worth taking the 10 minutes to download the maps even if he does end up having access.
posted by Mr.Know-it-some at 11:52 AM on April 13, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by Mr.Know-it-some at 11:52 AM on April 13, 2023 [3 favorites]
My recent experience with Airalo: you can set an Airolo Europe eSIM while still in North America. Your home number will continue to work for calls and SMS (assuming your provider/plan allows that) while in Europe. But you throw a single switch to route all data (including iMessage) through the Airolo eSIM when you land in Europe (and throw it back when you return). I assume Ubigi works the same.
posted by caek at 12:55 PM on April 13, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by caek at 12:55 PM on April 13, 2023 [2 favorites]
Came here to recommend setting up Airalo too.
Not recommending for your father per se, but do note that all phone plans within the European Union have to offer the same terms to home and 'abroad' countries. Which in effect means that there is no expensive roaming prices, as the phone plans within the EU MUST charge the same prices whether they are in Germany or Croatia or France. You could get a cheap prepaid SIM from any EU country and use that plan in any other EU country. Unfortunately Norway is not in the EU so this country is not covered. This path is recommended if you are price-conscious, have a bit more time to faff around with buying SIMs, generally knowledgable about fitting SIMS, and/ or staying for a longer period of time in which case the savings add up.
posted by moiraine at 1:01 PM on April 13, 2023
Not recommending for your father per se, but do note that all phone plans within the European Union have to offer the same terms to home and 'abroad' countries. Which in effect means that there is no expensive roaming prices, as the phone plans within the EU MUST charge the same prices whether they are in Germany or Croatia or France. You could get a cheap prepaid SIM from any EU country and use that plan in any other EU country. Unfortunately Norway is not in the EU so this country is not covered. This path is recommended if you are price-conscious, have a bit more time to faff around with buying SIMs, generally knowledgable about fitting SIMS, and/ or staying for a longer period of time in which case the savings add up.
posted by moiraine at 1:01 PM on April 13, 2023
Ah, I scrolled up and realised mdonley has already posted the same answer as I did, though more coherent!
posted by moiraine at 1:04 PM on April 13, 2023
posted by moiraine at 1:04 PM on April 13, 2023
One thing to note is that iMessage can get a little messy with multiple SIM cards, due to the way iMessage merges SMS and data messages. The root of it seems to be that you can't add multiple phone numbers to an iMessage account, so it gets confused when people send messages to one phone number and you respond from another. You'd think iMessage would just figure it out, but in my experience, it's kind of a headache.
In response to this, I switched the "Send messages from" setting in iMessage from my phone number to my iCloud address. Then the last time I went overseas and used a local SIM card, it went a lot better.
Or just plan on using Signal or Whatsapp and forget about trying to use iMessage.
posted by sportbucket at 3:36 PM on April 13, 2023
In response to this, I switched the "Send messages from" setting in iMessage from my phone number to my iCloud address. Then the last time I went overseas and used a local SIM card, it went a lot better.
Or just plan on using Signal or Whatsapp and forget about trying to use iMessage.
posted by sportbucket at 3:36 PM on April 13, 2023
There was this discussion which I found helpful.
posted by Snowishberlin at 9:33 AM on April 14, 2023
posted by Snowishberlin at 9:33 AM on April 14, 2023
He's not a T-Mobile subscriber, by any chance, is he? If he is, then international roaming is free and a complete breeze.
posted by Artifice_Eternity at 10:29 AM on April 15, 2023
posted by Artifice_Eternity at 10:29 AM on April 15, 2023
Response by poster: Well, my father in law came over tonight so I could set up his eSIM before he sets off. Turns out he has an iPhone X and not a 12 as he told me, so he can’t use an eSIM 🤣🤣🤣
Sigh. Thanks for all your help!
posted by krunk at 4:13 PM on April 15, 2023 [1 favorite]
Sigh. Thanks for all your help!
posted by krunk at 4:13 PM on April 15, 2023 [1 favorite]
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posted by aramaic at 9:48 AM on April 13, 2023 [1 favorite]