eSIM Revoluts

I blogged about eSIMs last year. Among all the features which make my phone great, this is the one of the most used. Mobile data abroad has always been an issue due to outrageous pricing plans. So travelers seek alternatives. Of course free WiFi here and there helps but it continues to be shaky and slow. And only available in more inhabited places. But move further into the wilderness and there is no WiFi. While mobile (mostly LTE and 5G) continues to be available. And speeds are decent (LTE) to great (5G).

The problem with 5G is that you can easily transmit data at a rate of many dollars per second and also quickly exhaust the "global" allowance from your home carrier. My recent experience shows you should plan for 1GB per day for moderate use (uploading photos, checking maps etc) to multiple of that if you want to upload trip videos.

The solution of course was to swap SIM cards to a local prepaid plan, but that required physical shopping. Now with eSIMs the local data rates are at the fingertip. Of course the phone must support eSIMs in the first place, and then you need an eSIM provider. I was using Truphone (now 1Global), as it was convenient to have one payment type configured and buy local plans quickly. But despite 1Global positioning themselves as a global carrier, they do not have plans available for every country.

I happened to visit the gorgeous Bosnia & Herzegovina twice in a row. Love the people and the landscape there - it is great for overlanding trips. But no 1Global plans available there.

Interestingly, there are other companies addressing the global data roaming issues with eSIM offerings and Revolut is one of them now. And yes - they do have Bosnia & Herzegovina (and just about any country you can imagine) available. With Revolut being the personal go-to finance app (it started with personal banking and credit cards), paying for eSIMs is even simpler - one touch.

eSIM handling in iOS is still quite complex - tons of settings and it takes (a bit of) time between the purchase / activation and when it actually starts working. Sometimes a full device restart helps. But once it starts working, it just works. Tested in Balkans and now in the United States.

Interestingly Revolut reinforces their go-to traveler's app position. As mentioned, they started by conquering the currency exchange fees by offering no-markup multi-currency payment cards. Over time they added peer to peer money transfers, travel insurance, airport lounges, and now the eSIMs. And all that without even having a web site. A truly mobile-first strategy, probably the purest mobile-first company ever.