eSim in England

Posted by George PR (Atlanta) on 02/14/23 05:44 PM

Hi,

My family is traveling to the UK in a few months for a family trip and on our prior trips to Europe we got a local SIM card and swapped out the SIM for our phones. However, our most recent phones have an eSim (Apple iPhone 14 Pros on Verizon) and I was wondering if anyone had any experience with how that would work with an eSim. There is the option of doing the International Verizon plan while aboard though there is a cost to that plan change and in the past, the local SIM has been much cheaper. Does anyone have any advice or experience in this vein? Thanks in advance!

Posted by funpig

Vancouver, BC, Canada

02/14/23 05:55 PM

1200 posts

https://www.traveltomtom.net/destinations/europe/united-kingdom/best-prepaid-uk-sim-card

Posted by Mardee

Duluth 🛶

02/14/23 07:16 PM

6354 posts

Here is some information from Apple about how to use eSIMs internationally. There are additional links in there that will help with the installation process and so on. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT213448

With regards to the eSIM, keep in mind that many eSIMs are data plans only. I used one last year in Germany for 30 days and used FaceTime Audio or WhatsApp for phone calls. And I only made calls to family and friends back in the states. That said, some people like to have a phone number when they travel - if you are in that category, there are a few eSIM providers that provide a phone number, like Orange, although in Orange's case, they give you a French phone number.

There are a number of threads and posts about eSIMs on the Technology Tips forum page, so you might want to check that out. If you are interested in data only, I used Airalo and was very happy with their eSIM data plan. There are others here who have used Airalo and liked it. You could do a search on this forum for Airalo and Orange and see what pops up. Here is a thread that contains information about both plans: https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/tech-tips/buying-an-international-esim-data-plan-for-your-regular-phone-with-esim-no-more-burner-phones

Posted by kathyninmd

02/14/23 10:18 PM

1 posts

My family is also going to the UK this coming summer, so I have done a little research about sim cards, and my son's family also has the new iPhone 14 pro max with eSim. I found Simify has both kinds and it looks like it's far more reasonable than sticking with our normal carriers; $49 for unlimited data and calls for 30 days. I haven't checked on any other companies.

Posted by Erin E.

Florida

02/14/23 10:47 PM

274 posts

We were recently in the UK (England and Scotland) for 2.5 weeks this past winter and used an Airalo eSIM. We found it very cost-effective (I think we paid $15 for 3 gigs of data? but don't quote me), easy to use, and convenient. You download the app and purchase the eSIM, monitor usage, and top-up right from the app. We had good service in all our cities (Oxford, York, Edinburgh, St. Andrews, Glasgow, and London) and were pleased with the experience overall.

As someone mentioned above, it is a data only plan. That means we had Google maps, social media, email, internet, iMessages, WhatsApp, etc. No phone calls or "green" (non iPhone) text messages. That worked for us because all our family and friends have iPhones, so we could easily stay in touch via text and FaceTime.