e-sim recommendation
- Thread starter JZ67
- Start date
Public Mobile.
Their Canada/US plan is back;
I presume you mean travel eSIM, i.e. you are not looking for a new domestic cellular provider?
Correct. I'm looking for travel esim
Got one on Amazon.ca for my US Rockies motorcycle tour in June
and Vodafone for my stay in EU in September and October
Wife got an easy roam travel pass from Koodo while travelling in Europe as an alternative . Her friend got a Vodafone sim. Both worked well. Easy Roam Travel Passes | Koodo Mobile
eSim is just a provisioning service.
When traveling, *which* service provider you use is the most important decision, not the way it gets its service onto your phone.
Most providers today have an eSim option.
Which provider you should choose depends on what country or countries you are visiting. Coverage, speed and reliability are all different for each provider and the market it plays in.
Where are you traveling to? If it is a large country, which parts are you visiting? Urban or rural?
These are probably more important questions than whether the provider offers an electronic way to load their chip onto your phone - because most of them already offer eSim.
When traveling, *which* service provider you use is the most important decision, not the way it gets its service onto your phone.
Most providers today have an eSim option.
Which provider you should choose depends on what country or countries you are visiting. Coverage, speed and reliability are all different for each provider and the market it plays in.
Where are you traveling to? If it is a large country, which parts are you visiting? Urban or rural?
These are probably more important questions than whether the provider offers an electronic way to load their chip onto your phone - because most of them already offer eSim.
Priller
Well-known member
Glad you got it sorted. For future reference, I bought a 10-day unlimited use eSim from Giant Tree for our last US trip in October, and it worked well. Used the TMobile network, though I think they sell others. Cost $33ish, I think. Much cheaper than the Telus Easy Roam at $14/day, and where we were in western New York, TMobile had much better coverage than the AT&T network that Telus uses.
The only caveat is it takes a couple days to get the eSim number and activate it, which I didn't know, so ordering on the day of our departure meant I had to pay Telus for a day until the Giant Tree eSim kicked in.
The only caveat is it takes a couple days to get the eSim number and activate it, which I didn't know, so ordering on the day of our departure meant I had to pay Telus for a day until the Giant Tree eSim kicked in.
We're with Freedom Mobile. $34 / month, 5G, US and Canada talk, text and 50GB of data. We used the U.S. service in September and it work fine.
Phone works fine in the Kawarthas about 20 minutes outside of Lakefield.
Freedom has a bunch of low cost travel options outside of US an Canada. For $35 / month, a buck more than the basic plan, you can add Mexico.
www.freedommobile.ca
Phone works fine in the Kawarthas about 20 minutes outside of Lakefield.
Freedom has a bunch of low cost travel options outside of US an Canada. For $35 / month, a buck more than the basic plan, you can add Mexico.
Freedom Mobile | Talk, Text & Data Plans | Cell Phones & Smartphones
Freedom Mobile Gives You True Mobile Freedom With Affordable Talk, Text & Data Plans Along With $0 Phones And No-Term Contracts.
Companies like Airalo negotiate deals with various existing carriers. I'm not sure what term applies for them, MVNO doesn't seem appropriate, but it would make sense to me that the deals would be for a limited amount of licenses and that they would have to re-up their agreements continually. The parent carriers probably intentionally limit the number of these deals that are active at any one time to manage load on their networks / help preserve the artificial scarcity of cellular access
Relax
Well-known member
Not sure if what you mean is (for example) that someone visiting Canada should get a sim from Rogers/Bell/etc., but as far as I know, none of them offer short term plans (7,10, 15 days). Do other countries?
They do. Thailand for example, i bought a 3 week unlimited data plan w/30 local minutes + esim/sim in the airport after i landed from a local provider. Was $10 CAD last i recall.
The option you are looking for is Pre-Paid or Pay-As-You-Go.
In Canada, here are the big three pre-paid plans.
Telus: Prepaid, Pay As You Go Phones & Plans | TELUS
Bell: Prepaid Cell Phones and Rate Plans | Mobility | Bell Canada
Rogers: Prepaid Phone Plans and Add-ons - Rogers
All of them provide provisioning via eSim.
Typically in North America, the shortest term for pre-paid is 30 days, but in other countries, you can choose the length of time and/or # of GB/minutes by plan. When the time/GB/minutes expire, you just throw out the SIM chip, or delete the eSim from your profile.
Relax
Well-known member
Yeah, thats what I was aware of over here. I mostly travel in the US, and only for day trips or max 2 weeks. Whenever we go to the Hawk Rally for the August long weekend, my friend has to stop after the border at a Target or someplace to pick up a SIM. Meanwhile my provider through Airalo is already working. The convenience and being able to get a 5 day plan is worth it to me, even if I'm not on the most reliable provider. But then the data is more of a nice to have than being critical. Before I started using Airalo, I just used Google offline maps on my phone for nav and then my friend's wifi at his house.
Some Canadian providers have US voice+data rolled into their plans.
I'm with Public Mobile and for $34/mo I get 50GB at 5G + unlimited calling and SMS for Canada and the US. The rollover is seamless when I cross the border and no additional plans or fiddling around with SW or HW.
