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Comment by reustle | Hacker News Reader

If you travel to more than 1 or 2 countries per year, especially less developed countries, you'll learn that your life (connection) depends on picking up cheap $5-15 sim cards at the border for each country.

I couldn't imagine them jumping on the esim train in any useful way in the near term.

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In theory, eSIMs actually make life easier in that scenario.

Easier to get online in a new country if you don’t have to first seek out a physical SIM card. Plus you keep your home SIM secure in the phone where there’s no danger of losing it.

Instead, just get on WiFi when you arrive, take your pick of cheap offers, and download the eSIM directly to your phone.

> ”I couldn't imagine them jumping on the esim train in any useful way in the near term.”

Depends on the country. Thailand, for example, is very eSIM friendly. But there’s plenty of “developed” countries in Europe where eSIMs are almost unheard of.

> Instead, just get on WiFi when you arrive, take your pick of cheap offers, and download the eSIM directly to your phone.

Or before you even get there.

There are multiple companies like Airalo offering pre-paid $5-15 eSIM cards for most countries in the world. They also offer continental and global eSIM working in multiple countries if you are moving a lot. The offering is a lot better than what you find at the border and you don’t have to get your passport scanned by a random person. Most backpackers I know switched a long time ago.

It’s actually the scenario that finally convinced me that eSIM was a good idea.

I've used Airalo for years as well, but their global sim only supports 84 countries, and is usually 5-15x the price a local sim per GB. If you're spending a considerable amount of time in the country and tethering, it adds up.

I think you need to compare the service tier of what world eSim carriers provide before mentioning the price.

Yes, you can get service for that price. It has paltry data allowances compared to what OP is describing.

I can. I have used them extensively while travelling (always local offers - I never needed a sim for multiple countries but a European one is barely more expensive than a single EU country one for example). Airalo sells local esim for something like 200 countries with prices which are competitive and offering which are often better tailored to travellers.

In plenty of countries if you try buying straight from a local provider you can’t buy low amount of data or have to get voice with it. Meanwhile Airalo allows you to buy 1, 5 or 10GB for very cheap and topping up is pushing a button in their app.

I meant it when I said it was insanely more convenient.

But without a major company pushing for the technically superior solution, it will never change, so I don’t get the pushback.

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