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Activating Airalo eSIM in Switzerland

Posted by (Vancouver) on

Has anyone had success activating and getting cell service using an Airalo eSIM in Switzerland?

A week ago I purchased online and installed an Airalo eSIM while at home in North America. I am now in Switzerland. In Settings/cellular I cannot see any Airalo eSim though it shows as installed in the Airalo app on my iPhone. The app gave activation directions which I followed but still “no service” after searching. Have been trying for 3 days.

I got professional help in a Salt cell provider store in Switzerland and they confirmed I’d done everything right. Salt/Orange is supposed to be the provider in Switzerland according to the installed Airalo app. But the Salt professional also said Orange is no longer a provider in Switzerland.

Has anyone had success with Airalo in Switzerland. Or even no success? Knowing it just won’t work would even be helpful to know.

Posted by
26 posts

Try contacting Airalo, I’ve found them to be very prompt and helpful. I’ve installed on my phone in preparation for my trip to Italy and Switzerland.

Posted by
689 posts

I use an iPhone 13 mini for travel. The below steps were my last ditch effort to get my Airola eSIM working properly. I was not disappointed.

  1. Open Settings
  2. Go to 'Cellular' and select the appropriate eSIM data plan
  3. Tap 'Network Selection', and on the following screen, switch Automatic to OFF.
  4. In a few moments, a list of available networks will appear.
  5. Manually select the appropriate carrier
  6. After selecting a network wait up to 10-15 minutes to get a data connection.
  7. If you are not getting a connection after 10-15 minutes toggle Airplane Mode off and on again to reset the connection.

Edit: 10-15 minutes was the recommended wait time but the connections happened very quickly

Posted by
689 posts

Their product is great when it works but your experience is similar to one that I had last year. I was never able to get the eSIM to display on my device. It was quite frustrating since I had used the product successfully in the past. If you’re not getting the desired results including communication, resolution and/or refund from them then you may need to contact your credit card company to settle the matter.

I have used them successfully maybe three times and on that one occasion unsuccessfully. This past winter their eSIM worked flawlessly.

Posted by
1020 posts

This may or may not help you but it was the only solution that got my Airalo eSIM to work last month. Someone suggested turning off "Find My Phone" and the eSIM started working within minutes.

Posted by
32 posts

Update from Teresa:

Airalo solved the problem and I wanted to share this in case anyone else has a similar issue.

Airalo finally messaged me back on WhatsApp, and asked for lots of screenshots of the cellular settings under Cellular, and also the ICCID numbers under Settings-General-About.

They noticed that the ICCID for the Airalo eSIM hadn’t updated from the last eSIM I’d used.

Under SIMs in Cellular, I was told to turn on the one with an “S” in a box just left of the word “Secondary”.

So the takeaway is - when activating your Airalo eSIM don’t just turn on any secondary SIM in the choices under Cellular. Use the one with the “S”. And then go to Settings-General-About to see that the ICCID number matches the eSIM you purchased.

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