We wrote earlier this year about Simify’s rebranding and new offers for Aussies heading overseas. Taking your mobile with you on an overseas jaunt used to be a bit of an effort – you’d have to arrange roaming with your Australian telco, and depending on which one you used, you could be up for some significant expenses just to take your mobile number and a tiny amount of data on holidays with you.
eSIMs changed that idea on its head – instead of paying your carrier a fortune for roaming, or paying a small amount and ending up with a substandard service, you can add a second travel eSIM to your phone and enjoy faster internet with much greater data allowances for much less money.
This works for most people, as many modern phones support dual SIM anyway, and for those that don’t, you can just turn off your Australian SIM and use the travel eSIM easily.
We gave a couple of Simify eSIMs a try over the last couple of months, first in Bangkok and Samui in Thailand, and just recently, for some time in China on a lengthy stopover. The results are in, and the verdict is clear – Simify eSIMs are super easy to order, install, and use. They just work.. and very well, too!
How do I order?
Easily! Head to https://simify.com/en-au and select your travel destination. For us, we picked a South East Asia eSIM, with unlimited data and 90 days use, which covers China and Thailand. It would also work elsewhere in Asia – HK, Macau, Indonesia (inc. Bali), Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and Vietnam.
Those plans cost $186.75 at the moment, which works out to around $2 per day. If you’re on a long trip, that’s an absolute bargain, but there are options for shorter durations too – anything from 7 days to 90 days are available (naturally, there’s better value in the longer plans).
Once you click Buy Now, you simply complete some basic billing details, including your name, email, phone number and address etc. and pay using your chosen payment method (all major cards and PayPal are accepted). It took about 5 minutes.
Once ordered, you’ll receive an email with your eSIM installation details will be emailed to you within a moment or two. Ideally, you’ll scan the QR code from a laptop screen or something using your phone, but there’s a manual option if you’ve only got your phone handy.
Whichever way you activate, your eSIM will be installed and ready within a couple of minutes. You don’t need to worry about turning the eSIM on before you go, as it simply won’t work – it will only work in one of the target countries. Simify recommend that you install the eSIM before leaving, and once you activate it on the ground in your chosen destination, your time starts then.
How’s it go?
Once we landed in Bangkok, we turned on the travel SIMs and had service within a couple of minutes – it wasn’t instant, but equally it happened quickly enough. Initially we thought there might’ve been an issue, but it turns out that there are parts of Bangkok Airport that have fairly awful mobile reception. As soon as we got outside, everything worked.
In most places around Bangkok we had 5G service, and from memory, we did in Samui too but the more remote areas had only 4G available. In saying so, we were never left wanting for speed nor coverage – the Simify service worked everywhere, and the data was incredibly fast.
So seamless was the process that I know I completely forgot about the fact I was using a travel SIM – I used my phone just as if I was at home, and it worked without a hiccup. In some cases, the Simify travel eSIM was faster than the WiFi in the hotels we stayed at. Surprising, but welcome!
More recently, my partner took her travel eSIM to China where she had stopovers on the way to and from Hungary, and found the same experience. The eSIM worked quickly, connected immediately, and – unlike some other services – did not appear to be hobbled by the Great Firewall of China.
All the normal services – reading websites, email, socials etc – all worked perfectly, and quickly too with none of the signature lag that some other services experience, especially in China.
Are there any quirks?
Honestly, no. I’ve used some travel eSIM providers in the past where things either didn’t work at all, or they did but were horribly slow and unreliable. Simify had none of these issues – the eSIMs activated easily, connected promptly on arrival, and were rock solid at all times.
They also compare rather favourably to taking your Australian service overseas with roaming turned on – anyone who’s done this will know the data is always very slow, phone calls often don’t work properly, and you pay a lot for it. It’s also quite laggy, as your data has to go from your phone, to the local network, then back to Australia, before it hits the internet .. and the same happens in reverse, so forget trying to do anything that needs a fast response.
Simify has none of those issues, and if you need to make your traffic look like it’s coming from back home – e.g. to access a corporate resource or something that’s geo-locked to Australia – you can easily use a VPN over the top e.g. from Mullvad.
Honestly, though, there’s no downsides. I’ve also – on a previous occasion – used a Simify travel SIM in Bali and had the same experience, though it wasn’t an unlimited plan or a long term one – just a couple of days so my needs were less. There’s definitely places in Bali where it didn’t work, but that wasn’t anything of Simify’s doing – there’s some remote parts of Bali where there’s no electricity, much less mobile infrastructure.
Conclusion
If you’re travelling overseas and want or need connectivity, then Simify’s eSIM plans are well worth considering. Chances are you can roam with your Australian SIM … but there’s catches. Firstly, it’s expensive, it’s not usually very quick or reliable, you don’t get a lot of data to play with, and it can be hit or miss. Sometimes telcos partner with fairly ordinary providers overseas and this can mean you’re left using a substandard network with poor coverage and speeds. Add to that the woes of your data coming back to Australia before doing anything, and it makes for a frustrating experience.
Contrast this with a Simify travel eSIM that just works and you never have to think about it… and I know which I’d choose. Yes, $180 or so is a lot for data for 90 days.. but if you’re overseas for three months and wanting to stay connected, it’s not all that much. As the saying goes, it’s less than half a cup of coffee per day for more data than you could practically use.
Simify has both unlimited eSIM options and cheaper fixed inclusion options which might save you a bit of money if your needs are a bit less. Unlimited data in south east Asia for 7 days would set you back $33 at the moment, or if you really only need to check a couple of emails and things, you can get a 5GB plan for $18.75 (with 7 day expiry), or you can get 10G for $29.95 (albeit with a longer expiry which you mightn’t need).
With options for every situation, Simify offers great value and convenience, in an easy to use product that just works.. and you can’t say that about too many things.
5 stars.
