What is an eSIM?
An eSIM is a SIM card you download rather than insert. The chip is built into the phone and the carrier profile arrives over the air — which is why you can buy one at home in the evening and be online the moment you land.
How it differs from a plastic SIM
In use, it does not. Your phone treats it as another line: its own number, its own plan, its own data. The difference is that it cannot be taken out — and that a phone can hold several and switch between them.
Why it suits travelling
Your home SIM stays in the phone, so calls and texts to your usual number keep arriving, while data runs over the travel eSIM at local prices. Nothing to hunt for at the airport and nothing to hand back.
What our eSIMs do and do not do
Our plans are data. The web, maps, mail and calls over WhatsApp or FaceTime all work, because they run on data. Ordinary calls and texts do not go over this eSIM — that stays with your home number.
When the validity starts
On most plans, from the moment the eSIM first connects to a network in the country you bought it for, not from the purchase. So you can install it at home the day before. Where a plan works differently, we say so on the plan itself.
What happens when the data runs out
The connection stops, but the eSIM stays in your phone. Your account has a top-up button for it — the data is added to the same profile and there is nothing to scan again.