How do you use an eSIM in a transnational resort?

A snowHead

I’m going to Cervinia next month. My network lets me roam free in Italy but not Switzerland. I’m expecting to ski in both countries. I can add roaming in Switzerland for £35 (with a vast amount of data) but I could get an eSIM for Switzerland with a reasonable data allowance for £6.50. If I get the eSIM, will I have to remember to switch SIM every time I cross the border, every time I get my phone out in Switzerland or will I have to set my phone to default to the eSIM and change my settings if I want to use it in Italy? Think it might be more important than usual to be contactable as my daughter will be on a school ski trip in Austria and wife has booked a city break with her friend to Istanbul! Any advice appreciated, thank you.

A snowHead

Can you get an eSIM that works for both Switzerland and Italy? (does one exist?)

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On Android, you can access Sim Manager, enter the eSim for CH, and activate 'Data Switching and Backup Calling'.
The phone will use your preferred SIM while you're in Cervinia.
The moment you'll happily enter Toblerone God's country, he'll lose contact and switch to your eSim if it is enabled as well but not preferred

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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

I've just used esim from Firstly recently. Very impressed, easy to use. Just remember to turn off your roaming on your normal SIM when using an esim.

There's 3 plans, a free one that involves watching a few ads, and then paid versions. Cheap. Have a look. I'm sure I've got a referral code somewhere if interested

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@Dan, I think you should turn 'roaming' on for esims as well, in order to connect to local providers.
Are you sure?

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

Roaming for your esim but off for your normal SIM.....unless you want to chance additional charges.

After all it is free

@abc, I hadn’t thought of this until you suggested it. It seems like yes you can and this might be the easier option. Thanks for the idea. Hopefully cost is similar to a Switzerland only one. The other choice, I’m still trying to work out if this would work, is if I set the eSIM as the default, then would it connect preferentially to that in Switzerland? Then connect via my usual sim when I’m in Italy? Been trying to get a straight answer from google all evening. At least my provider gives me a straight answer about what is included in my plan. My wife’s network’s website is so opaque it can only be deliberate.

I'm not sure it'll automatically switch, but it's really simple to turn the esim on and off if you're concerned about it using it. Just make sure you turn off roaming for your normal SIM, then it'll default to the esim when you need it for roaming.

My esim is permanently connected but with Firstly id bought a paid service for a certain number of days in a certain country, so that's since run out, but I can use the free version in the UK if I want to watch some ads say.

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@Dan, I’m worried about the opposite; buying an eSIM then accidentally paying £1.50/MB for data anyway because I didn’t work out what to switch on and off in my phone. I’ll be able to make and receive calls for free in Italy and have 30 GB free data use there. It would be unlucky to need to call in or out in Switzerland. I’m hoping to only use a little data there. I can reduce my bill cap to avoid racking up charges too.

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I can't speak for Android but my experience of using eSIMs on an iPhone is that you tell the phone which SIM to use for voice and which to use for data - which is pretty useful because it means you can still receive/make calls on your normal number whilst taking advantage of the eSIM for data otherwise.

You can also tell it to drop back to the other one for data if the first one isn't working for some reason, similar to what other posters have said you can do on Android.

So I guess you *could* try to set it up so that the eSIM is your default for data (so it gets preferentially used in Switzerland), and the phone drops back to the main service in Italy, where the eSIM doesn't work.

BUT... you run the risk of the opposite happening... Imagine you're out of range of the eSIM network provider in Switzerland, but whichever network your main provider uses *is* in range. Your phone would drop back to the main provider... and are you sure they won't just start charging you the extortionate 'per megabyte' charges that are common in out-of-area countries?

Unless you're 100% sure your original provider will block service in Switzerland I wouldn't risk it... and would just buy an eSIM that works in both Italy and Switzerland

(Aside: on my phone I've noticed that it can't use both SIMs actively at the same time... if somebody calls me my eSIM data drops, even if I don't answer the call. Super annoying).

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I would try and get one that covers both Italy and Switzerland. Another problem with having to manually switch is that the network signal doesn't precisely align with the geographical border, so trying to predict when your phone will connect where is more difficult than you might expect. If you cross multiple times or stay near enough to the border that your phone connects multiple times, you'll never keep track. I always turn my data roaming off when I park up in Ischgl, and hope I won't need it for the day (there's always free wifi here and there), but the phone will still ring if it's an emergency.

Agree with @Scarlet, otherwise you'll need to keep turning roaming off on your normal SIM whenever you go near Switzerland

You know it makes sense.

Any sim you get in Italy (or any other EU country) will include roaming which as far as I can remember includes Switzerland. All the ones you buy in the supermarkets here have roaming as standard (not to the UK though!). The pain might be you have to go through an id process (every sim has to be linked to an individual) which I would assume you can avoid if you buy online from a UK site but then might be restricted to specific countries.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

Not all EU sims have roaming for Switzerland. My wife has a budget package from "Red/SFR" and it is not included on that. She has to remember to disable data when in CH (or nearby).

A snowHead

I've used Maya mobile before, which do a Europe eSIM covering Switzerland as well as the EU countries. 3GB for £5.39

A snowHead

@munich_irish, Austrian SIMs don't generally include CH, mine doesn't anyway, and it's a PITA at Ischgl or when driving to France.

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@Blackblade, during Covid, several of us received German isolation info by text one day out skiing, which was quite alarming as we hadn't been in Germany, they had no meaning here, and we were near Axamer Lizum, quite some distance from the border!

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@Scarlet, Mine certainly works at Zürich airport but I have a monthly Vodafone business type contract which maybe covers more than the supermarket ones.

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@munich_irish, yeah that's probably it. You can get coverage on contracts, but it can be quite expensive (my partner bought a Swiss eSIM for travelling in CH, and it's much cheaper than adding it to his contract).

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

“I've used Maya mobile before, which do a Europe eSIM covering Switzerland as well as the EU countries. 3GB for £5.39”

We used Maya in France in January and it worked well. But do read the small print if you’re a heavy data user and are tempted by the “unlimited” package. It is capped at 3 gigabytes per 24 hour period, after which you are heavily throttled. The clock seems to run from when you first activate it and there is no way to track usage on their website, making it very hard to track and manage usage. Our apartment had no wifi so we were tethering to it as our primary connection and we chewed through the allowance very easily.

After all it is free

When I'm on the mountain, my phone stays in my pocket. I'll only take it out during lunch.

If it's me, I'd just use the Italy sim card and just check for updates using wifi at lunch.

Help!!

How do you use an eSIM in a transnational resort?

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