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using Airalo in Italy

Posted by on

Hoping someone can help me understand all this! I have quite a few questions....

Traveling to Italy. Four of us have phones - husband, me, and two of the kids. Mine is a Samsung Galaxy S25, it supports two eSims. Husband and kids all have iphones. iphone 13, iphone 12, iphone SE 3rd gen.

  1. I don't know if they are "unlocked". Do they have to be unlocked to use Airalo?

  2. We will need to be able to make/receive calls from the US while we are in Italy (elderly parents). My understanding is I can switch between the two Sims. Should we just give the Airalo eSim number to anyone that needs to reach us? I believe if we are out and about and using the Airalo eSim, anyone that calls our normal numbers won't be able to get through to us, correct? How does Whats App work with Airalo - does it connect to my existing normal Whatsapp account, and everyone sees my normal whats app number? or does whatsapp get a new number to use when I'm connected to the Airalo app?

  3. Related question, if I switch back to my normal US eSim when I am on wifi, and I turn off data so I make sure it stays on wifi, do I avoid any charges? I can make calls using What's App on wifi, but would I receive texts if I switch back to my US eSim and use only wifi with data off? I'm unclear as to what settings I need to change on my phone to make sure I don't get charged by my carrier. We have an AT&T plan, it charges $12 per day per phone, plus $6 per day each additional phone. This seems really steep to me, we'll be gone 15 days.

Basically, my husband and I need our parents to be able to reach us and us to reach them from the US to Italy for daily check-ins while we're away, plus we need to be able to call each other and the kids in case we're separated (and likely will be, since we're a family of 8 traveling and will need 2 taxis, etc.) and access google maps, online tickets, etc. We will not be doing any video streaming, gaming, etc. The kids really don't need to be able to connect with the US, they can use What's App for texting with friends.

Would love some advice!!

I'm unclear about how straightforward it is to toggle between the Airalo esim and my existing AT&T esim, and how to be able to connect with the US without paying the $12/day fee from AT&T.

One last question - when i use the Airalo esim, but I'm connected to wifi, it won't count against however many GB i purchase, right?

Posted by
2020 posts
  1. Yes, your phone must be unlocked in order to add an eSIM.
  2. Airalo has Local eSIMs (for a single country), Regional eSIMs (for a region, like all of Europe), and Global eSIMs (for 137 countries). Only the Global eSIMs include telephone. You can set your phone to use either SIM for calls, texts, and data. You are right that the S25 supports two eSIMs, so you don't have to switch between them when receiving calls. They'll both be active simultaneously. It's when you make a call or send a text that you'll have to determine which SIM to use. On the Galaxy, you can set it to ask every time you make a call if you want, or you can set it to use one or the other. And you can change the setting at any time. WhatsApp will work just fine. No one will know what SIM you're using.
  3. When you are on WiFi, you won't be using the SIM, you'll be connected directly to the internet via the WiFi. So yes, there will be no charges. You don't have to turn off the eSIM to do that. If you don't want to be charged by AT&T, you can completely disable that SIM and use only Airalo.

I would strongly recommend you get your elderly parents set up with WhatsApp so they can always reach you and you an always reach them. If you do that, you won't have any need to toggle back and forth.

On your last question, correct. When you are connected to WiFi, you are not going to be using the Airalo data plan.

Posted by
13 posts

Thank you, Lane, this is very helpful.

Ah. I didn't realize there were local/regional/global eSIMs. Am I understanding correctly then that a local eSIM for Italy will only work within Italy, and is data only, no texts or calls? If I want texts and calls I'd need a global eSIM with data, voice, and text?

So, if I have a local Italy data only eSIM installed, and an incoming call from the US comes to my US number, will my phone ring, if my AT&T eSIM is disabled? What if I put my phone on Wifi Calling and I happen to be on wifi when a call comes in, will it ring then?

And am I correct in that SMS text messages will not come in at all, even on wifi, unless I enable my AT&T eSIM and pay the international daily fee?

My parents do indeed have WhatsApp and currently use it. No issues there, thankfully.

So basically, I should let everyone know to use WhatsApp to reach us, either texting within Whatsapp or voice calls within whatsapp. We will be able to text or voice call each other using Whats app while in Italy, if we all have data only eSIMs, right?

Posted by
13 posts

Wait, another dumb question, but Facetime would work, too, right?

My mother has whatsapp and is well versed in using it but my father in law doesn't. I was thinking we'd get him set up, but, he has an iphone and so does my husband... if he can use Facetime, which he already knows, then we're set.....

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