esim activation

I had some data issues when I was in the UK last year. While in the UK, I purchased an Orange ESim for my IPhone. They immediately emailed me and installing it on my phone took a minute or two. It is quite easy to choose between your regular SIM (either a physical or ESIM) or the Euro ESIM you end up picking. My orange data plan was for 30 days and I was given a French number. Do you need to be able to call people during the day? Keep in mind that you can talk with your friends and loved ones at your hotel via apps or wi-if calling. If you go with the 14 day plan, order it before you leave and be ready to use it when you get to Germany. No need to start the 14 day timer before you need to. I will leave you with one other suggestion and that is do not forget to send out a text message to your friends and loved ones before you swipe over to your new eSIM number and advise them that you will be communicating with them with a strange and unfamiliar number. A couple of my friends blocked me as they thought I was spam. But, it is really quite an easy process, assuming your phone accepts ESIM.

Yes, it is easy and yes toggles appear.

On an iPhone (androids may differ) once installed, go to Settings/ Cellular,/“whatever you choose to call Airalo during set up” and turn it Off. On the plane while in airplane mode, turn your home cell plan Off and Airalo On. Then when you land and turn Airplane Mode Off, you are ready to go. Your 30 days with Airalo begins at this moment ( as long as you didn’t use it after you set it up).

I honestly can’t remember for Airalo but I am pretty sure for my French Orange eSim, I had to turn Data Roaming On. I just looked and Data Roaming is turned on right now on my U.S. number and I never change any of that, so I feel like it is on when I use my Airalo eSim as well.

And I agree that, barring special circumstances, it makes sense to be sure you have phone coverage at the end of your trip as opposed to the beginning when needing to choose which 2 days to do without.

TexasTravelmom, you’re right. You do have to leave the data roaming on for Airalo.

Why notbuy the cheapest alosim for Canada and practice ? Its easier when you are not jetlageed and still have access to your normal data. That's what I did.

I took screen shots and saved them - but also check the specific help details for your phone https://www.airalo.com/help/getting-started-with-airalo

You can purchase and install Orange travel esim while in Canada, days or weeks before your trip. The esim does not activate until you land in Europe and detects the network.

FYI on the 14 day Orange esim. The 14 days start (if you switched on the esim while on the plane) at the time you land in Europe and it finds a cell phone tower. Then it runs on 24 hour cycles.

If you connect at noon on the first day of a month, it will be good until noon on the 15th. This was critical for me on a 15 day trip.

When I landed in Europe, I didn't turn on the esim, but did turn on wifi so I could use whatsapp calling if needed in the airport or lodging that had wifi. I didn't turn the esim on until I needed to make a phone call to VRBO at about 5pm.

That allowed me to have phone service up until 5 pm on day 15 which was my departure day. By that time I was on airplane mode somewhere over USA. I didn't need it, but I had phone service until I actually left Europe.

Alternatively, if your plan expired before the last day, you could extend the service for another 14 days if needed at the last minute. I think you need to register the phone number to extend.

I used an Orange eSIM and data roaming was "ON". Since it is a French service, I think you'll be roaming whenever you aren't in France. It's no big deal to be roaming though. I think that the calls/SMS are free in France, but cost a little when outside of the borders.

Whatsapp is used so much in Europe, you almost don't need a traditional cell phone (calls/SMS). I wanted to be able to receive and send SMS texts home, so the eSIM was great for that. The big value for me was the data for Whatsapp/navigation/translation/looking up stuff etc.

I was nervous too about the install, especially being tired and frazzled on arrival. That is a real thing, because you will be tired and may be frazzled and, speaking for myself, your brain may not work very well to do tedious things like setting up eSIMs. The Orange eSIM had fairly good instructions that were dumbed down enough to understand for a foggy brain. I printed them off so I could easily find them. You simply deactivate your home SIM and activate the new eSIM in your settings. I did this on the flight over, so that the new eSIM is looking for a tower and not Verizon's built-in SIM. It's different for Apple and Android, but the idea is the same. Until you actually make the switch, the eSIM just sits idle installed on your phone. You choose when you want it to work.

twmoorehead, with Orange Travel esim, calls and texts are free and unlimited throughout the EU, not just France. You can even make free international calls and texts (e.g to US and Canada), but he number of minutes and texts are limited depending on which package you buy.