Cheap Internet For Travel Instead of Expensive Roaming

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

* 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.

* 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