Connecting you to the world
Connecting you to the world
eSIM 101
The short version: an eSIM is a digital SIM card that gets you online abroad without swapping anything. The long version is below — bookmarked TOC included.
Definition
An eSIM (embedded SIM) is a programmable SIM profile that lives inside your phone's hardware. Instead of inserting a tiny plastic card, you download a carrier profile over the internet and your phone connects to that network like it always has.
For travellers, this changes everything: you can buy data for Tokyo from your sofa in London, install it the night before, and connect the instant your plane lands. No airport kiosk markups, no fishing for an ejector pin at 1am.
QR code arrives the moment you pay. No shipping, no kiosk queue.
One app, one account, coverage across every continent travellers visit.
Doesn't connect on landing? We refund within 24 hours, no support marathon.
Your physical SIM stays active for calls and texts back home.
Mechanics
Every modern smartphone ships with an eUICC chip — a tiny piece of silicon designed to host downloadable SIM profiles. When you scan a Roameo QR code, your phone fetches the profile from our provisioning server and writes it to that chip.
From the network's perspective, an eSIM profile looks identical to a physical SIM. It has the same IMSI, the same authentication keys, the same connection behaviour — which means roaming, hotspot, and VoLTE all work exactly as you'd expect.
What's different is provisioning. Instead of a factory cutting a plastic SIM and a courier delivering it, the profile is generated on demand and signed over the air. That's why your eSIM arrives in seconds instead of days, and why we can issue, suspend, and refund it remotely.
Comparison
Where each option lands on the six things travellers actually care about.
Honest take
Roameo sells eSIMs and still thinks you should hear both sides.
iPhone
Works on iPhone XS (2018) and newer.
Open Settings → Cellular → Add eSIM.
Tap Use QR Code, then scan the QR Roameo emails you.
Label the line (e.g. Roameo Japan) and pick Primary / Secondary.
Toggle Data Roaming ON for the Roameo line — keep Primary for calls.
Android
Works on most flagships from 2020 onward. Menu wording varies by manufacturer.
Open Settings → Network & Internet → SIMs → Add eSIM.
Scan the QR Roameo sent (or pick Enter manually).
Wait ~30 seconds for the profile to download.
Set the new line as Mobile Data and enable Data Roaming.
FAQ
190+ countries, refundable if it doesn't connect.