Orange eSIM question

If you can't tether with your Orange eSIM, maybe it's better just to get another one in Italy when you get there that does allow tethering? Some prepaid SIM plans don't allow tethering - depends on the company, on their individual plans, etc.

Appreciate your input Andrew H.

The Orange eSIM I bought states it allows tethering. That's one of the reasons the explanation I got at the Lyon store didn't make complete sense to me.

I really liked having an eSIM and the phone up and running when we landed. It worked like a charm other than the tethering issue (honestly I'm not convinced we weren't missing some setting and I don't think the Lyon rep understood it well enough either). We were planning to buy a SIM for partner's travel iphone anyway so he would have data when we were doing things separately so it wasn't a big deal for us. Out of curiosity, I'd still like to know why it didn't work but I didn't invest any more time on the matter.

Well, still hope to hear from someone who has been successful re-using their eSIM multiple times in different locations.

Thanks again.

I have not had success (although something like this is my goal), but wanted to ask if you successfully registered your Orange number after purchasing your eSim. If so, supposedly topping up is easily done online like the original purchase. If you were not able to register it, then it won’t work after the original 14 days no matter what.

I WAS able to hotspot my iPad to my Orange Holiday eSim, though.

One additional thought, if you are not planning to buy an Orange eSim plan for each of you, is to buy a cheap Airalo package for your husband. The Orange plan doesn’t come with a huge amount of data and by dividing and conquering, you could also hotspot to his data plan also for cheaper data.

TexasTravelmom, thank you for your reply.

Yes, I was able to register the eSIM. It also seems that I will be able to top up online. It recognizes the number and allows me to choose a plan when I’ve tried. I haven’t followed through yet because the validity starts at the time of top up, not at the first use.

We’ve used my phone as a hotspot before, but this is my first experience with an eSIM. Obviously that shouldn't have mattered, as you say, yours worked fine with your iPad.

Thank you for the great suggestion about buying an inexpensive Airalo data package for partner’s phone. I will definitely look into that.

architetta, I haven't yet used an eSIM. (My phone cannot use one.) But I have been using a Dutch Vodafone SIM for travel since 2017, and I've been able to tether easily. I did not have to change anything in my (Android) phone settings. I tether all the time at home too. I assume you've tethered at home also so if you have, I don't see why using a different SIM or an eSIM would change the way tethering works with your phone.

According to the "Prepaid Data SIM Card Wiki," tethering should be allowed on the Orange Holiday SIM, though. It is a bit confusing.

https://prepaid-data-sim-card.fandom.com/wiki/France#Orange_Holiday

Andrew H., I agree……….we have also successfully used my phone as a hotspot before without having to change any settings – this is my first experience with an eSIM however.

I bought the Orange Holiday eSIM partially because it allowed tethering so I just don’t know why it failed to work for us (it obviously has worked for others). The folks in the Orange store in Lyon couldn’t figure it out either.

Thank you for the link.

Orange doesn't give a lot of details about problems with tethering, but I was curious so I looked it up on Airalo, which I used earlier this year, and they have a series of settings to check when using your hotspot. https://www.airalo.com/help/using-managing-esims/can-i-use-tethering-personal-hotspot I don't know if this was the problem or if it would apply to Orange, but it's possible you needed to manually set the APN.

I liked Airalo because they have a lot of support online in their help center. You can also email them and they're pretty good about getting back with you (at least, in my experience). That's helpful in situations like this.

Mardee,

Thanks so much for the link and your reply.

You know I thought of that (APN setting) because I vaguely remembered reading about that possibility somewhere. This makes sense to me (more than the explanation I got at the Orange store). I wish I had tried to check this out while we were there because I’m curious and would like to have confidence using it in the future. I just didn’t follow through once we got my partner his own SIM – we didn’t want to spend any more time than necessary messing with the phones.

I did detail the problem in an email to Orange support once we got back but their response was to call their French customer service number and ask for an English speaking rep - again, I didn’t follow through. I would much prefer to be able to get assistance online or by email rather than by phone. For potential easier support and your and others good experience, I think I’ll check into Airalo instead.

I'd think that if the APN was set wrong, you would not even be able to use mobile data on the phone.

Andrew H.,

You are very likely correct.

But without a direct solution from customer support, had I thought of it, I probably would have included re-entering the APN in the "throw everything at the wall to see what sticks" method I often employ under these circumstances.