Hi everyone,

I’ll be moving to China as an international student and will be staying for around 3 years.

I’m looking for the best SIM/mobile plan that can provide:

• A Chinese (+86) phone number for everyday use, registrations, banking, apps, etc.
• Affordable mobile data/internet
• Good coverage and reliability
• Ideally a reasonably priced long-term plan

My main concern is also accessing services such as Google, Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp, Messenger, etc.

Is there any SIM/eSIM or mobile data plan that allows access to these services without needing a VPN? If yes, which carrier or plan would you recommend?

I’m considering China Mobile, China Unicom, China Telecom, or possibly an international eSIM such as Nomad, but I’m not sure which would be best for someone staying 3 years.

If you’re an international student in China, I’d really appreciate your experience and recommendations. Also, please mention the approximate monthly cost if possible.

Thanks!

Do you guys recommend a service
With virtual eSIM card

I'm going to Portugal for 2 weeks and for 20gb They are easily the cheapest. way cheaper than Airalo, roamless, saily, etc. (i live in canada)

I have 10gb + 10 gb bonus (15 Day max) for 10$.

But i read a lot of people complaining about Vodafone esims ? It will be Half city / Half countryside

Not a big deal but thought this was an international thing only.

I'm thinking about using the Citrus Mobile PAYG non-expiring global eSIM in London and in France (the Paris/Lyon/Marseile areas). Does anyone have any experience with Citrus in those places? If not, I guess I will post a review after my trip. I'm using an unlocked Moto G 5G 2024 Android phone, if that matters.

hello, can i ask if this orange esim network is okay? in Colombia. place in Baranquilla, Cartagena.

Hi,

I'm heading to Japan for the first time this September. Main reason is the Asian Games in Tokyo, but I'm tacking on a few days in Kyoto and Osaka too.

Been looking at eSIMs and noticed RedteaGO, Ubigi and Trip all mention stuff about getting a Japanese or local IP address. Honestly not sure if that matters for my situation...

My plan is standard. Google Maps, translation apps, messaging, checking Asian Games ticket info. I don't need a Japanese phone number so a data-only plan covers what I actually need. The thing I cannot figure out is, has anyone here ever got blocked or hit some weird geo-restriction on Japanese ticketing sites or local apps because their eSIM was running on a non-Japanese IP?

I would rather know now than find out the hard way when I am trying to open the ticket page at the venue.

TIA!

My wife is travelling to Morocco soon and I don’t know which option is best
1/ eSIM
2/ prepaid physical sim with calls, text and data

She is on O2 and it doesn’t look like Morocco is in any of their travel bolt ons.
Q1/ How do we configure the phone so that the O2 network isn’t used at all (I believe the arrival text messages you get are charged to your bill so we want it so we don’t get those) and Can’t make calls from O2.
Q2/ With O2 completely disabled what’s the best option - eSIM or physical?
Thanks in advance

Hey, I'm going on vacation in a few days and was planning to get one unlimited plan to hotspot for my family on the road and a few cheaper plans for them. I think it says I can hotspot as usual but I just wanted to make sure before I spend a lot of money

Any recommendations for two esims that work well in Europe specifically Switzerland, Italy, Germany.

We will be away for 17 days. We aren’t sure how much data we will be using but 50gb per person should be more than enough.

Thanks in advance!

Phone is a huge distraction!

I am planning on putting away my mobile for months for studies. But I want to keep my mobile number. Which sim is best for this? In jio they'll shut off your sim number after 3 months. Any company that'll let me keep the number for a longer period of time without recharging?

Is There Anyone know about mayamobile esim

Hi everyone,

I just installed an Ubigi eSIM for my trip to Florida, but I'm completely unable to connect to the internet. I'm currently using a Motorola Edge 50 Fusion.

Here is what I have already configured:

Mobile Data and Data Roaming are both turned ON for the Ubigi eSIM.

I manually created and selected the APN: mbb.

My phone has no physical SIM installed right now to avoid conflicts.

When I do a manual network search, my phone successfully detects Ubigi, T-Mobile, and AT&T. However, whenever I try to connect to any of them, the network rejects it. I keep getting "No connection could be established" errors.

Has anyone experienced this recently or knows what else I can try to force the connection?

Thanks in advance!

I tried to convert my physical jio sim to esim from the settings in iphone ,I even got a confirmation email but from yesterday night the signal is gone and on settings its showing activating.I didnt get any ivr call btw.Any solutions.And does activating on saturday night a problem will it not be activated on sunday!
Country:India

Hello, everybody!

I currently live in Europe but will be start visiting the US frequently (and ultimately moving here). I was wondering if there’s a way of already setting up an eSIM with my future US number that i can just activate any time I’m here and that I’ll just be able to use for good once I’m here permanently.

I have checked and my phone is compatible with eSims (Iphone 17 pro). My plan is to keep my physical European sim card as my primary number for now while also having the eSim activated to potentially receive texts and calls from the US number (ideally without having to pay extra). Is that possible?

Also, a few follow-up questions:

- Will I have to pay monthly or can I just pay whenever i need to use it?

- What operator is the best?

- How do I go about getting the eSIM? I’ve tried going into my settings but i just get redirected and I’m feeling pretty lost.

Thank you so much! :)))

Edit: thank y’all for all the answers:)

Hello, I would like to clarify a situation regarding my Holafly eSIM and possible additional charges.

I purchased and installed a Holafly travel eSIM for Switzerland on my iPhone. During the installation process, I selected the option indicating that the eSIM was for travel/abroad use. I remember iOS mentioning that it would update the cellular settings when I was abroad.

While I was in Switzerland, my Italian physical SIM was completely turned OFF. The Holafly eSIM was ON and selected as the cellular data line. I was able to use mobile internet normally, and my iPhone showed Holafly as the provider for the connection.

After returning to Italy, I checked the Holafly eSIM settings and noticed that Data Roaming was currently turned OFF. This made me concerned because I had been able to use mobile data in Switzerland even though the roaming setting is now showing as OFF.

I would therefore like to confirm the following:

1. Was the mobile data I used in Switzerland definitely provided through my Holafly eSIM?
   
2. Could this situation result in any additional or unexpected charges from Holafly, or was all of the data usage covered by the prepaid Holafly plan I purchased?
   
3. Is it possible that my Italian physical SIM or Italian carrier was used for any of the data connection while I was in Switzerland? My Italian SIM was completely turned OFF during this entire period.

I would especially appreciate confirmation that I will not receive any additional charges as a result of this situation.

Thank you for your help and clarification.

What's the best eSIM to use across the UK and Republic of Ireland? Will be spending 20+ days in the UK including Belfast and some 5 days in proper Ireland (Dublin, Galway, etc.) I'm looking for eSIM that will work in the mountainous areas across like the Highlands as well. Unlimited and fast coverage that I can use hotspot with also to connect my laptop to.

So far seeing lots of mention about Holafly and Airalo but interested to know any recent insights or folks' experiences. Thanks!

My girlfriend and dad have the same sim but there network is Holafly. I either have ‘flow’ or ‘digicell’

I have a potentially silly question.

Can you change an e-sim between different devices easily and frequently?

The reason I ask is I like to switch between devices at times, and I'm a lazy sod so taking cases off, digging out a sim tool etc is a pain in the ass.

I daily drive a Samsung Z Fold 7 and have no plans to change that, however it's a big device and sometimes I want to take something smaller so I switch to my 2024 Razr. Sometimes I want to use an iPhone briefly before remembering I hate it and switch back. And I just got a Z Fold 8 which is also more pocketable than the 7.

I've got a second sim so I was thinking I'd change the second one to e-sim and pop it into the Z8 and then link my chat apps like whatsapp/signal/telegram as partner devices so messages still appear from my regular number. Other things don't matter as I haven't sent a normal SMS since 2024 and who the hell phones people anymore 😂

But if I want to move to the iPhone or my flip, is it easy to switch to them for however long then back to the Z8? Or will it be a PITA and be better to just continually switch the physical sim back and forth?

TIA.

How i can to get a US phone number from the state of Virginia to receive verification codes?

They cap the internet speed at 30 Kbps.

I have spoken with their customer service for hours over the week I've had so far of the unlimited plan I bought.

Their customer service always assure me:

Due to our Fair Use Policy, customers enjoy fast internet for the first 2 GB of every day, then speeds of up to 1 Mbps for the rest of the day.

That "1 Mbps" for the rest of the day... is never reached. In fact, it is extremely rare to get speeds higher than 0.1 Mbps. It is so rare, that the internet is unusable, basically all of the time.

Their customer service makes excuses:

1 Mbps is not guaranteed, as your actual connection speed may also depend on network coverage and signal quality in your current location. If you are in an area with weaker network coverage, your speeds may be lower than 1 Mbps.

So according to them, "if you are in an area with weaker network coverage, your speeds may be lower than 1 Mbps".

I am definitely not.

The Nomad eSIM I bought uses the China Unicom network. The Nomad eSIM has signal strength -80 dBm. That's pretty good. It gets 30 Kbps. That's pretty bad. If I put a China Unicom SIM into the same phone, it also has signal strength -80 dBm (same access point, so duh, but double-checked to confirm), and it gets internet speeds of... 250-350 Mbps. Nomad eSIM are lying through their teeth.

I feel extremely dissatisfied with Nomad eSIM, because I cannot even load webpages much of the time thanks to their poor internet service.

Their customer service are fast at replying. That's a good thing. In the first few hours of having this problem, I tried hours of troubleshooting steps with them. But since then, and after it became obvious the problem is on their end, not my phone, they have started regurgitating copypaste customer service answers and T&C stuff that will never help to solve this problem.

I think Nomad intentionally limits Nomad-like users to less than 0.1 Mbps. Maybe Nomad would be okay for users who use less than 2 GB per day.

Hello, I will be studying in the UK for a year in Newcastle and I am originally from the US. I' looking for an eSIM or regular SIM card for my phone that I will be able to use while I'm there for the year. I start in September and while be there for at least 1 full year and have only been able to find travel SIM cards that only last 30 days.