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Stay Connected With eSIM When You Travel Abroad

Whether you are traveling abroad for business or pleasure, you will want to stay connected. There are numerous good reasons to do so, such as keeping in touch with your family and friends back home via messaging services. Also keeping them updated on your social media accounts with nice pictures and videos of beautiful sceneries, landmarks, local cuisine, the local people you met or new friends you made throughout your entire trip. It's a good way to put your family at ease, knowing that they can get updates from you and communicate with you regularly while you travel. If you are travelling for business, needless to say, it is really important to have easy means of communication with your local business associates and your work colleagues to get that business deal or work done smoothly.

Today, there are a few options available for travelers to stay connected during their travels. If you have an eSIM compatible smartphone or tablet, staying connected is so much simpler, easy, and convenient. At esim-online, we help travelers stay connected with eSIM data plans, eSIM data packages or you can simply refer to it as eSIM. But what exactly is an eSIM? Before we delve more into eSIM, let's briefly go through each of the other available options first.

Local Wi-Fi

Free Wi-Fi hotspots are widespread in most countries these days. Chances are you will encounter it in the local coffee shop, restaurants, airports, bus stations, tourist spots, etc. However, free Wi-Fi connections can be really slow. Another downside is it is unsecured and poses a high security risk. Malwares can be planted into your devices and your sensitive personal data, well, actually almost everything stored in your devices can be stolen through a compromised public Wi-Fi connection. Thus, you have to be cautious when you use public Wi-Fi.

International Roaming

International roaming is expensive, period. Most of us have heard of one or more stories of travelers receiving shocking phone bills when they return from their trips abroad. You will be tempted to use data roaming on your primary phone plan when you are abroad as you probably think ‘oh, I’m just going to use it for a couple minutes’ but a couple minutes of usage here and there can rack up data usage and cost you hundreds of dollars. If you have apps running in the background, you will get charged for that data usage, even if you aren't using your phone.

Local SIM

If you have an unlocked phone, you could purchase a local prepaid SIM card and use it throughout your trip. These days you can buy one right at the airport of your destination and top up at any convenience store or mobile store if you need more data. However, if you are visiting a few countries throughout your business trip or vacation, having to buy new SIM cards and top ups can be annoying and a waste of your travel time. 

MiFi Device

A MiFi is basically a mobile Wi-Fi device that contains a SIM card and a router. You can buy a MiFi device that is unlocked, put in a local SIM card and use it as a Wi-Fi hotspot for your devices. Or you can rent one of those pay-as-you-go MiFi devices and use it throughout your trip. Although, a MiFi device is portable, it is still another gadget to buy (or rent), manage, and carry around with you during your trips.

eSIM

An eSIM (embedded SIM) is a chip that is built inside your device. It is a programmable SIM card, allowing you to install and activate a mobile plan or data plan (data packages) either with an activation code or by scanning a QR code. Note that the mobile plan, data plan or data package for eSIM devices are also commonly referred to as eSIM.

Majority of mobile operators today offer eSIM plans to their customers. Although, physical SIM remains popular, there is no doubt that eSIM popularity is rising due to it’s convenience and ease of use. This is evident when you consider that the majority of mobile devices newly released into the market from various manufacturers today are eSIM compatible.

eSIM is fast gaining popularity among travelers as the preferred method to stay connected during their trips abroad. You can go online to purchase an eSIM plan or eSIM data package at any time, even before you start your trip and install the eSIM into your device by just scanning a QR code with your device’s camera. As soon as you arrive at your destination, it will activate the moment your device connects to an allowed network at the destination and you can start using data.

At esim-online, we have a variety of travel eSIM data plans/packages to various popular destinations and more. Browse our data packages today and select an eSIM plan (or plans) that best meets your data needs during your travels.

Bon voyage.