eSims, what is your experience.

[MEL_Traveller]

Just bought my first ever esim… through Agoda, for thailand. AUD6.89 for 10days, 50GB plus calling minutes. Paid, received a QR code and operational one minute later.

Surprised that it works for ipad too. Set-up is completely automatic.

Might be worthwhile searching klook, agoda and the like for country-specific esims.

 

[Quickstatus]

Who’s your Oz telco?

Hellstra

 

[SYD]

Hellstra

Yeah, you don’t want to be triggering $10 pd, everyday….

But they do support wifi calling. From/to Oz.

Just bought my first ever esim… through Agoda, for thailand. AUD6.89 for 10days, 50GB plus calling minutes. Paid, received a QR code and operational one minute later.

Surprised that it works for ipad too. Set-up is completely automatic.

Might be worthwhile searching klook, agoda and the like for country-specific esims.

That’s quite a good deal and appears to be a resale of the local telco.

How did you find it?

It might also be a peculiarity of the Thai market. I’ve seen other eSIMs that come with calls/txt with the Thai country plans.

 

[moa999]

Also came across Firsty.
Which has a "Free" ad-supported tier designed for Email, Maps. Claims 160+ countries.

Firsty: Top eSIM Travel App for Global Mobile Data & Connectivity

Explore Firsty, the best eSIM app for international travel. Stay connected globally with our mobile data app, designed for hassle-free travel. Get the app!

www.firsty.app

Possibly worth having as a backup.
Their paid plans are €1.00-2.50 a day, so maybe not as attractive.

Haven't used it myself.

 

[asterix]

Also came across Firsty.
Which has a "Free" ad-supported tier designed for Email, Maps. Claims 160+ countries.

Firsty: Top eSIM Travel App for Global Mobile Data & Connectivity

Explore Firsty, the best eSIM app for international travel. Stay connected globally with our mobile data app, designed for hassle-free travel. Get the app!

www.firsty.app

Possibly worth having as a backup.
Their paid plans are €1.00-2.50 a day, so maybe not as attractive.

Haven't used it myself.

I had a go with Firsty last week using the free ad-supported tier. It gave me 30 minutes of access for watching a 15 second ad. Watching multiple ads does not stack additional 30 minutes, it just resets the clock on the 30 minute access. It connected me to the Vodafone network when I tried it at home.

 

[SeaWolf]

Also came across Firsty.
Which has a "Free" ad-supported tier designed for Email, Maps. Claims 160+ countries.

Firsty: Top eSIM Travel App for Global Mobile Data & Connectivity

Explore Firsty, the best eSIM app for international travel. Stay connected globally with our mobile data app, designed for hassle-free travel. Get the app!

www.firsty.app

I had a bit of a look. You watch an ad and it gives you access for predefined period of time (varies by country), usually an hour. Once it runs out you need to watch another ad to extend it.
I might have a play around. I'm wondering if, once your time runs out, you'd still be able to watch the ads or if you'd need to find WiFi to do that.

 

[RealtimeY]

Interesting one. I will give it a go. It could be tolerable for very short layovers and 30 minutes is long enough to quickly buy a new eSIM.

 

[asterix]

I had a bit of a look. You watch an ad and it gives you access for predefined period of time (varies by country), usually an hour. Once it runs out you need to watch another ad to extend it.
I might have a play around. I'm wondering if, once your time runs out, you'd still be able to watch the ads or if you'd need to find WiFi to do that.

I was able to watch an ad without any other connectivity once my allocated time had run out.

 

[moa999]

The suggestion from an ozbargain thread is the Firsty free plan is capped at about 300kbps (hence light services only), and that after you get the notification that time has run out, you have a 15Mb data allocation to watch a new ad.

So if you watch the ad immediately you can continue. If you keep using data then you might have to connect to Wifi or another Sim to watch the ad.

 

[SeaWolf]

I was able to watch an ad without any other connectivity once my allocated time had run out.

Sounds like worth keeping in the back pocket then, for things like a transit or if you have trouble with your paid for eSIM.

 

[SYD]

Sounds like worth keeping in the back pocket then, for things like a transit or if you have trouble with your paid for eSIM.

That’s where something like Eskimo comes in very handy - a few GBs on a 2yr Global plan for transits and getting out of a pickle.

 

[SeaWolf]

That’s where something like Eskimo comes in very handy - a few GBs on a 2yr Global plan for transits and getting out of a pickle.

I've found Eskimo really great, but the one strange gap they have is that, despite being a Singapore based company, they don't work in Singapore.

 

[SYD]

Anyone seen any decent BF promos?

Saily has an extra 5GB promo - which isn’t much use to me.

Flexiroam has another 50% OFF all 5GB+ Data Plans. Which I might take as 30D Euro regional plan for US$13.50. Airalo is currently about US$20.