Airalo and pay as you go data
Mark discovers he can save money on cell phone data using his dual-sim iPhone's eSIM.
![Airalo and pay as you go data](/content/images/size/w1200/2020/03/Airalo-eSIM-Card-Review.jpg)
Previously I had mentioned running out of data on Google Fi after hitting their 26GB limit. I didn't want to pay $10/GB until my plan reset in March, and I wanted to play with the eSIM feature a bit. After consulting some Nomads in the #_gear channel on Nomadlist Slack, Airalo was pointed out to me as not only a solution to my expensive data problem, but also a local option when traveling internationally.
Since my iPhone 11 Max Pro is my first eSIM capable phone, I needed to figure out how to activate the eSIM. It is a bit odd in that you have to scan a QR code, but it is displayed on your phone which makes scanning impossible – I ended up taking a screen shot and uploading it to iCloud, then scanning the code on my laptop!
![](https://markballew.com/content/images/2020/03/IMG_0060.png)
Having two SIMs is pretty great, the base SIM can be my normal phone number anywhere in the world, I assuming I'm using Fi or T-Mobile as US number. Instead of paying Google $10/Gig, I can switch to Airalo and pay $3/Gig nearly anywhere i the world. I just witch the eSIM profile in my phone and that's it! Local SIM, no need to go to the local teclo store and futz around with a new SIM each time I visit a new place.
![](https://markballew.com/content/images/2020/03/eSIM.png)
Fi and T-Mobile offer global data plans, but the traffic routes back to the United States. You'll see more latency as a result, though region-locked services like Pandora and Netflix will continue to work like you are in the United States still.