Experience with International eSIMs

[raksrules]

Hi All.
I want opinions from people here who have traveled internationally and availed eSIM prior to their departure and then activated and used in destination country. How was your experience and which was the destination country.
I am completely aware that buying physical sim at airport etc can turn out cheaper but in some countries (like Vietnam...read on internet), it can turn out to be scam too.
Hence the eSIM provides a guaranteed way of staying connected to internet as soon as land in destination country.

 

[y2s]

It works well and is cheaper than a local sim in most places including Vietnam
https://esimdb.com/ is a great reference.
I have used many different providers in many countries and there have been absolutely zero issues.

 

[ashhad]

I bought one for the US and activated it here in India itself (for calls), You can also check out mobimatter too.

 

[raksrules]

It works well and is cheaper than a local sim in most places including Vietnam
https://esimdb.com/ is a great reference.
I have used many different providers in many countries and there have been absolutely zero issues.

Thank you so much for this website. I was not aware about it and this is like a comparison website for multiple options. Much appreciated.

 

[MrGordon]

For my trip to Vietnam in 2022, I got one sim from the airport and another for my partner from the operator store in the city. At the airport I paid 350k VND and at the store I paid 200k VND (this was a lower plan too I think, don't remember the exact details), in INR that was 1200 vs 600. Both were from Viettel. Not sure where you read about scams, but atleast I didn't run into any issues.

For another trip to Kazakhstan in 2023, I opted for an eSIM from https://maya.net/, it worked well from the minute we landed. I paid Rs 600 for 3 GB, I ended up using that fairly quickly, so we got local sims from a store. Paid 9300 KZT ~ 1650 INR for two sims as we needed connectivity for both my partner and I and call facility.

I felt it is good to take an eSIM maybe with a shorter validity, basic plan so that you have connectivity the moment you land, and then maybe get a local SIM card once you reach the city where its cheaper. Again would depend on the country I suppose.

 

[raksrules]

For my trip to Vietnam in 2022, I got one sim from the airport and another for my partner from the operator store in the city. At the airport I paid 350k VND and at the store I paid 200k VND (this was a lower plan too I think, don't remember the exact details), in INR that was 1200 vs 600. Both were from Viettel. Not sure where you read about scams, but atleast I didn't run into any issues.

For another trip to Kazakhstan in 2023, I opted for an eSIM from https://maya.net/, it worked well from the minute we landed. I paid Rs 600 for 3 GB, I ended up using that fairly quickly, so we got local sims from a store. Paid 9300 KZT ~ 1650 INR for two sims as we needed connectivity for both my partner and I and call facility.

I felt it is good to take an eSIM maybe with a shorter validity, basic plan so that you have connectivity the moment you land, and then maybe get a local SIM card once you reach the city where its cheaper. Again would depend on the country I suppose.

For Vietnam, if you paid 1200 at airport then I guess the eSIM works better for me as I am seeing $12.5 something for 5GB daily limit for 10 days on Vinaphone network.

 

[DBot]

Used Nomad for Germany and Thailand. In Germany, it worked flawlessly and for Thailand, I bought 3 sims for my brother. Looks like it’s working as expected.

 

[raksrules]

I wanted to update my experience of getting eSIM for my vacation in Vietnam last month. After researching on esimdb.com and filtering as per my needs (minimum 11 days, calling should be available), I went with gigago eSIM and it was fabulous in terms of performance.
I got the eSIM before I departed from India and installed it on my iPhone and once I landed in Vietnam, it got connected to Vinaphone mobile network there. Viettel is considered best network in Vietnam and Vinaphone 2nd best.
I had coverage in almost every place I went in Vietnam (entire length of the country) and only in some hilly regions (during travel) would there be no service. But that was only for few minutes, not like several hours.
I paid around $14.5 (after using some coupon code of esimdb) for 15 days (I anyways needed only for 11 days as I was only there for 11 days) for 5GB data limit per day on 4G network (5G where available). You can get cheaper plans too with less data but I didn't want to bother with being anxious about data as for everyone in the family, we had only one eSIM so everyone was sharing internet using hotspot on my phone.

For calls, only vinaphone calling was allowed and no calls to other networks. To track data usage, I installed the "My VNPT" app which is the Vinaphone's app and I found that this number did have someone else's name associated with it (i guess this is expected) and somehow after logging in, I got like 3600 points, no clue why.
Good part was, I was able to redeem some of these points to get minutes to call non Vinaphone numbers and this way, I was able to make calls to any number within Vietnam (except landline numbers).

I have come to know that gigago is the only provider (for Vietnam, not sure of other countries) that provide native provider's eSIM and not some other proprietary one that routes traffic through some other country. Hence, one can increase validity or get more data using local recharge (through scratch card etc.)