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New way to purchase mobile data while traveling if you have a phone with an eSim feature

I just discovered that my favorite world wide mobile phone service provider has started a new service.
Truphone is selling data for use on an eSim in your eSim capable phone.

It's very simple and not too involved. It starts with you installing their app MyTruphone from the Apple or Google app store.
You pick the country and plan you want. Provide a credit card and they download an eSim card into you phone and you're done.

They operate out of the UK.

In checking the app store , I just discovered another company offering similar service call Airalo but I have not looked into it or tried it.

cheers! Joe F
P.S.
I can recommend Truphone because I have been subscribing to Truphone's original service that is prepaid for years. With this service they send you a physical SIM for $30. You get $15 worth of credit to use and it never expires. It's great for someone like my sister who uses a cell phone VERY rarely and even keeps it turned off most of the time. Here in the States the usage rate is expensive: 9 cents per minute calling out but FREE for calls coming in and per text is also 9 cents out and free in and data costs a lot too at 9 cents a MB but for a phone that is rarely used it is the cheapest long term / never use setup around. Oh and it for travelers it has worldwide cell tower access but the costs are 25 cents a minute or text and higher.

Posted by
4612 posts

JoeF, this sounds interesting. And while I expect I will have an eSIM in the future, I don't yet. So my questions will show my lack of understanding. I read a bit on their website, but I'm not clear how this works.

Assuming I have a compatible eSIM phone, it looks like you buy TruPhone data for the country/countries/region you'll be in. So I buy a plan (for example) for the EU? Then I can use my US eSIM phone and it will make use of the data when I'm in Europe? In Europe, when the phone and data mode are on, if I place or receive a call or text, is that still using my home plan?