Now that I settled on a ‘travel friendly world mobile device – a dual SIM Android phone that allows me to have apps from different countries – Best Phones for World Travelers.  What is the easiest way to obtain data access while traveling internationally?  Previously, I had to enable an international data plan for a specific duration which is very costly or purchase a pre-paid SIM card.

Most of you are familiar with pre-paid SIM cards, right?  I used to buy one at the kiosk at the destination airport but what a pain it is to try and remove your local SIM card and replace with the pre-paid SIM card.  And where do you store your local SIM to use when you return back home?  – the thing is so tiny and can get easily lost.

I discovered digital SIM cards otherwise known as an eSIM.  These eSIM’s are still relatively new and not very common.  Newer mobile devices are starting to provide eSIM capabilities.  Unfortunately, my dual SIM Android devices doesn’t support eSIM – bummer!

But what about support for your older devices?  How can most any device without eSIM capabilities take advantage of eSIM?

I stumbled upon a company out of Germany that provides a physical reprogrammable SIM card that you can store 10 eSIM profiles to with provided Android software available on the Google Play store.  I purchased 2 of these SIM cards from eSIM.me.  The price was reasonable with free shipping.  One of the reprogrammable SIM cards reside in the 2nd SIM slot of my Android phone and the other will be used in my unlocked hotspot while I am in the US or abroad.

Now my dual SIM android phone has eSIM capabilities & I can provision eSIM for my hotspot – sweet!

You can purchase eSIMs from numerous providers.  Using the eSIM.me software on Android, you can download the eSIM to the reprogrammable SIM card as profiles.  The reprogrammable SIM card holds 10 eSIM profiles at any given time – one for US data usage and others for specific countries whole abroad.  Swapping between eSIMs is as easy as enabling one for use and disabling the others.  What a novel idea and no more waste.  The idea appeals to my desire to be more eco-conscious.

According to eSIM.me, you can use the reprogrammed SIM card in any device like iPhones without native eSIM capabilities.  The only hitch is you have to program on an Android device using their software and then swap to the other device.  This is what I will be doing for my hotspot.

There are numerous eSIM providers on the web but I found a company that provides service in many countries, by region with competitive data rates – Airalo.com.  They even have eSIMs for the United States.  Airalo has it’s own software to buy & download the eSIM and register on your device via QR code or enter in manually.  An added benefit to the eSIM’s purchase through Airalo is that most of them can be “topped off” when you run out of data.  Meaning, you won’t have to purchase & register a new eSIM.  Of course, eSIM’s sold have various durations – 7 days, 30 days and out to 180 days) so choose wisely.  What I found out too is that the cost of an eSIM is cheaper than it’s equivalent pre-paid SIM card with the same amount of data.  This is an added benefit extended to you for using eSIMs.

For my hotspot, I will no longer use pre-paid cards from local providers.  I will just download an eSIM on the reprogrammable SIM card and insert into the hotspot – easy peasy!

Anyway, I’m excited about trying the eSIM.me card along with an eSIM purchased from Airalo.com on my next trip across the pond to the UK.

More to come about my experience with this setup -stay tuned!