eSims, what is your experience.

[lissie45]

Off to the 4 Stans (no Turkmenistan) soon and wondering what eSIM to get.
Hoping someone with experience might be able to help me out as I am new to the eSIM world.
I am using a iPhone 13 Pro.
Thanks in advance

Which stans? I did all 7 last year: Pakistan, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbeckistan, Tajikistan, Krygystan, and Kharzakstan.

I used Roamless on all of them and the results were:
Northern Pakistan - useless - only one local physical SIM actually works - that was the experience of the group of us using different esims
Afghanistan - OK In Herat and Kabul - otherwise no connectivity for anyone
Turkmenistan - efficient firewall- nothing works
Uzbeckistan - fine
Takikistan and Krygystan - fine in the cities - limited to no coverage outside but again that wasn't the eSim - that was general
Kazakhstan - fine except in the middle of the steppe

 

[SYD]

Good to know about cruising, we'll be in the Med next week.
Coincidentally activated the amaysim 1 month +$20 roaming yesterday, includes very little data

The $20 bundle has zero data, just calls / txt (100mins / 100 SMS). So no risk turning your phone on OS and leaving it “roaming”. Especially on ships and aircraft (but you cann’t use those mins/SMS over CaS.

My kolet and Eskimo esims don't seem to work anymore, so deleted.

Don’t work or expired?

I’m finding th amaysim roaming (for calls/txt*) and Eskimo’s long duration eSIM data plans perfect for my travel patterns at the moment. There are some coverage gaps to be aware of and mange accordingly.

Although their own info isn’t up to date. It says they don’t cover Tahiti (French Polynesia) - yet when got in sight of land, text message welcoming me to Tahiti and email.

*I rarely make calls / send text from OS these days but have the convenience so cheaply is great.

 

[prozac]

Thanks all; I'll look closely at amaysim. @prozac , Kolet is my current go-to but only data at the moment.

Update regards calls soon


I had to know for myself so I messaged Kolet via "Chat". Gotta love how responsive Kolet are. They even have 2 selections to either talk with a AI bot or with a human. Human respoiinse came back within 30 seconds. Answer to question regards calls.

Kolet eSIMs currently provide data plans only and do not come with a phone number attached.

However, you can now make calls using our International calls feature directly in the Kolet app. With this feature, you can use your Koins to place international calls to phone numbers without needing a traditional mobile line.

You can also continue making voice calls and sending messages using VoIP apps such as WhatsApp, FaceTime, iMessage, MS Teams, Viber, and Messenger.

If you prefer to make regular calls or send SMS using your personal phone number, you can still use your primary line. Please note that this may incur roaming fees depending on your operator.

Let me know if you’d like to learn more about our international calls feature — I’d be happy to guide you!

 

[Brissy1]

The $20 bundle has zero data, just calls

Oh so I checked, I've bought the $24.99 bundle = 2gb and some calls and texts; amaysim prepaid.

Don’t work or expired?

Didn't know that esims expire, might start again.

 

[SYD]

Oh so I checked, I've bought the $24.99 bundle = 2gb and some calls and texts; amaysim prepaid.

I often ponder that plan, it’s continent to have data included but it’s usually not great value compared to say Eskimo (during a promo).

Didn't know that esims expire, might start again.

The eSIM itself shouldn’t but the plans do - although, Eskimo are 2 yr plans but you may have just used up the GBs? It should show in the app.