travel esim internet study 2024
Telecom News

Cheap Internet For Travel Instead of Expensive Roaming

April 18, 2024 - Ralf Beyeler

Spring has come – and for many Swiss, that marks the start of the travel season as well. One source of frustration for travelers are the fees charged for mobile roaming. But Swiss travelers with a suitable phone and the right mobile service can bypass roaming fees completely. In this guide, moneyland.ch tells you how much getting online will cost you in 34 different countries.

Starting from April, Switzerland’s residents begin traveling abroad more for city tours or vacations. That is reason enough for moneyland.ch telecom expert Ralf Beyeler to take a closer look at offers for getting online in 34 countries.

Offers from eSIM-based mobile service providers have become the new insider tip for cheap Internet access while traveling. For the first time, moneyland.ch compared the prices of using getting online with eSIMs in 34 different countries. The roaming fees of the three big telecom companies Swisscom, Sunrise, and Salt were also accounted for in the comparison.

Internet for a weekend trip

For the first comparison, moneyland.ch analyzed the cost of mobile Internet access for a long weekend. The comparison assumes that the traveler would use 5 gigabytes of mobile data over the course of four days, which translates into relatively intense Internet use. There are massive differences in costs, depending on the country and service provider. The cheapest offers start at just four francs, while the cheapest offer from the most expensive service provider costs nearly 2000 francs (see Table 1).

Table 1: 5 gigabytes of mobile data within four days

Country Travel eSIM Swisscom roaming Sunrise roaming Salt roaming
Europe
Denmark, Finland, France,
Germany, Ireland, Italy, Norway,
Portugal, Sweden, Spain,
United Kingdom
From CHF 4.50 CHF 39.90 CHF 49.90 CHF 69.90
Albania From CHF 5.50 CHF 49.90 CHF 59.90 CHF 749.75
Croatia From CHF 6.00 CHF 39.90 CHF 49.90 CHF 99.90
Bosnia and Herzegovina,
Serbia
from CHF 7.50 CHF 49.90 CHF 59.90 CHF 749.75
The Americas
USA From CHF 4.00 CHF 49.90 CHF 35.00 CHF 99.90
Canada From CHF 7.50 CHF 49.90 CHF 35.00 CHF 99.90
Brazil From CHF 11.00 CHF 49.90 CHF 59.90 CHF 99.90
Costa Rica From CHF 12.50 CHF 249.50 CHF 59.90 CHF 749.75
Argentina From CHF 18.00 CHF 49.90 CHF 59.90 CHF 99.90
Dominican Republic From CHF 18.00 CHF 249.50 CHF 59.90 CHF 749.75
Cuba From CHF 43.00 CHF 249.50 CHF 699.00 ** No data connection
Africa
South Africa From CHF 9.00 CHF 49.90 CHF 59.90 CHF 99.90
Tunisia From CHF 9.00 CHF 249.50 CHF 59.90 ** CHF 1999.75
Egypt From CHF 11.00 CHF 49.90 CHF 59.90 CHF 749.75
Morrocco From CHF 18.00 CHF 49.90 CHF 59.90 CHF 1999.75
Namibia From CHF 27.50 No data connection * No data connection
Asia
Vietnam From CHF 5.00 CHF 249.50 CHF 59.90 CHF 749.75
Thailand From CHF 5.50 CHF 49.90 CHF 59.90 CHF 99.90
Japan From CHF 7.00 CHF 49.90 CHF 59.90 CHF 99.90
South Korea From CHF 9.00 CHF 49.90 CHF 59.90 CHF 749.75
Maldives From CHF 36.50 CHF 249.50 * CHF 1999.75
Oceania
New Zealand From CHF 6.00 CHF 49.90 CHF 59.90 ** CHF 99.90
Australia From CHF 8.00 CHF 49.90 CHF 59.90 CHF 99.90

* Sunrise does not offer data bundles for private customers. Mobile data is available at the standard price of 15.60 francs per megabyte. Based on that rate, 5 gigabytes of data would hypothetically cost 78,000 francs.
** Prices as from May 17, 2024. Hypothetical costs until May 16, 2024: Tunisia and New Zealand (699 francs), Cuba (2495 francs).

For this profile, getting online in most European countries using eSIMs costs the equivalent of around five francs. That is much cheaper than roaming with Swisscom (from around 40 francs), Sunrise (from around 50 francs or 35 francs in the US and Canada), or Salt (from around 70 francs). Using an eSIM is especially beneficial for travel to Albania: The travel eSIM costs 5.50 francs. By contrast, using data roaming from Salt in Albania costs nearly 750 francs. So using Salt would be 136 times more expensive than using the cheapest available travel eSIM offer. For this profile, Salt users would also pay around 750 francs for roaming in Serbia, and in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The cheapest travel eSIM for these countries costs 7.50 francs, or 100 times less.

For travel outside of Europe, the weekend trip profile is more hypothetical, because not many people take four-day trips to Asia or the Americas. But it is interesting to see that differences are large for travel outside of Europe too. In 25 of the 34 countries included in the comparison, getting online for an extended weekend can cost less than the equivalent of 10 francs. In the nine remaining countries, the maximum cost is 43 francs. The most expensive countries for mobile Internet are Cuba (43 francs), the Maldives (36.50 francs), and Namibia (27.50 francs). Mobile roaming for this profile would cost a maximum of 249.50 francs with Swisscom, 699 francs with Sunrise, and 1995.75 francs with Salt.

“Using a travel eSIM instead of your regular mobile service provider’s data roaming can save you a lot of money when you travel,” says telecom expert Ralf Beyeler. “But it is important to note that the actual fees charged for roaming are not normally as high as those in the hypothetical calculations above. The reason for that is, mobile service providers usually disable data roaming once the cost reaches around 50 to 500 francs.”

Internet for a two-week holiday

The second moneyland.ch comparison accounts for the costs of using mobile Internet for 14 days. The results apply to travelers who use mobile Internet relatively intensely, requiring a total of 20 gigabytes of data.

For travel in many European countries, a relevant travel eSIM costs around 16.50 francs. Travel eSIMs for Portugal and Norway are somewhat cheaper, and those for Balkan countries are somewhat more expensive. The total cost of using eSIMs for travel outside of Europe range between 8 and 172.50 francs. The cost of using an eSIM for this profile only exceeds 50 francs in four of the 34 countries. The most expensive countries are Cuba (172.50 francs), Namibia (105 francs), Argentina (53.50 francs), and the Dominican Republic (53.50 francs).

Using data roaming from the three big Swiss telecom companies is much more expensive for this profile. Roaming in the cheapest countries would cost 35 francs with Sunrise, nearly 120 francs with Swisscom, and nearly 200 francs with Salt. In the most expensive countries for roaming, you would pay nearly 1000 francs with Swisscom, nearly 2800 francs with Sunrise, and nearly 8000 francs with Salt, according to published price lists.

A travel eSIM bundle with 20 gigabytes of data and a 30-day validity period is normally the cheapest solution. But in certain cases, it can be cheaper to get a much bigger data bundle. A 60-gigabyte bundle for Vietnam costs the equivalent of 9 francs. A 50-gigabyte bundle for Thailand costs the equivalent of around 8 francs, and a 35-gigabyte bundle for Morrocco costs 47 francs.

Kurios ist das Angebot auf den Malediven: Das Paket mit 6 Gigabyte Datenvolumen und das Paket mit 20 Gigabyte Datenvolumen kosten praktisch gleich viel – das gut dreimal so grosse Paket ist umgerechnet lediglich 9 Rappen teurer.

Offers for the Maldives are peculiar because you pay practically the same amount for a 6-gigabyte bundle or a 20-gigabyte bundle. The price tag of the 20-gigabyte bundle, which has more than three times as much data, is just 9 centimes higher.

Land eSIM Swisscom Sunrise Salt
Europa
Portugal From CHF 12.00 CHF 119.80 CHF 59.90 CHF 199.90
Norway From CHF 16.00 CHF 119.80 CHF 59.90 CHF 199.90
Denmark, Finland, France,
Germany, Ireland, Italy, Sweden,
Spain, the United Kingdom
From CHF 16.50 CHF 119.80 CHF 59.90 CHF 199.90
Croatia From CHF 16.50 CHF 119.80 CHF 59.90 CHF 299.80
Albania From CHF 20.00 CHF 139.80 CHF 239.60 CHF 2999.00
Serbia From CHF 23.50 CHF 139.80 CHF 239.60 CHF 2999.00
Bosnia and Herzegovina From CHF 27.00 CHF 139.80 CHF 239.60 CHF 2999.00
The Americas
USA From CHF 16.50 CHF 139.80 CHF 35.00 CHF 299.80
Canada From CHF 23.50 CHF 139.80 CHF 35.00 CHF 299.80
Brazil From CHF 28.00 CHF 139.80 CHF 239.60 CHF 299.80
Costa Rica From CHF 28.00 CHF 998.00 CHF 239.60 CHF 2999.00
Argentina From CHF 53.50 CHF 139.80 CHF 239.60 CHF 299.80
Dominican Republic From CHF 53.50 CHF 998.00 CHF 239.60 CHF 2999.00
Cuba From CHF 172.50 CHF 998.00 CHF 2796.00 ** No data connection
Africa
Tunisia From CHF 25.50 CHF 998.00 CHF 239.60 ** CHF 7999.00
South Africa From CHF 27.50 CHF 139.80 CHF 239.60 CHF 299.80
Egypt From CHF 40.00 CHF 139.80 CHF 239.60 CHF 2999.00
Morrocco From CHF 47.00 CHF 139.80 CHF 239.60 CHF 7999.00
Namibia From CHF 105.00 No data connection * No data connection
Asia
Thailand From CHF 8.00 CHF 139.80 CHF 239.60 CHF 299.80
Vietnam From CHF 9.00 CHF 998.00 CHF 239.60 CHF 2999.00
Südkorea From CHF 13.00 CHF 139.80 CHF 239.60 CHF 2999.00
Japan From CHF 20.00 CHF 139.80 CHF 239.60 CHF 299.80
Malediven From CHF 36.50 CHF 998.00 * CHF 7999.00
Südkorea From CHF 13.00 CHF 139.80 CHF 239.60 CHF 2999.00
Oceania
Australien From CHF 21.50 CHF 139.80 CHF 239.60 CHF 299.80
Neuseeland From CHF 22.00 CHF 139.80 CHF 239.60 ** CHF 299.80

* Sunrise does not offer data bundles for private customers. Mobile data is available at the standard price of 15.60 francs per megabyte. Based on that rate, 20 gigabytes of data would hypothetically cost 312,000 francs.
** Prices as from May 17, 2024. Hypothetical costs until May 16, 2024: Tunisia and New Zealand, 2796 francs. Cuba, 9980 francs.

Expert tips for using eSIMs for travel

Requirements: In order to use eSIMs, your phone mus support the eSIM standard. All new iPhones have eSIM support, but only relatively few Android-powered phone models support eSIMs. “I estimate that just over half of the phones available in Switzerland are compatible with eSIMs,” says telecom expert Ralf Beyeler.

There are eSIM offers for use in specific countries, and offers for whole groups of countries. For some of the 34 countries, the eSIM bundles for groups of countries are cheaper, while for other countries the country-specific bundles are the cheapest option.

“There are many different eSIM service providers. There are also differences in the prices charged, but you can find eSIM offers with similar price tags across different service providers,” says Ralf Beyeler.

“Using local SIM cards can still save you a lot of money. Depending on which country you travel to, using a local SIM card can be cheaper than using a travel eSIM. But buying an eSIM is easier because you can download and install an eSIM from the comfort of your own home, normally without the need for an identity check. Additionally, information and processes are usually available in English,” says telecom expert Ralf Beyeler. “When buying an eSIM, you need to be careful not to accidentally subscribe to an ongoing plan. However, most travel eSIM cards are single-use.”  

“It is important to check how much data is included and how long the data remains valid before expiring. Many bundles have a 30-day expiry period, but validity periods can be shorter or much longer,” clarifies telecom expert Ralf Beyeler. “If you want to make phone calls as well, you can buy bundles that include calling allowances. But calls will be made and received using the travel eSIMs foreign phone number.” For the comparisons above, moneyland.ch only accounted for mobile data, and not for phone calls. 

More on this topic:
Data roaming calculator
Mobile plan comparison

Expert Ralf Beyeler
Ralf Beyeler is the telecom expert at moneyland.ch and also covers other areas of personal finance.
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