Most companies pay for data abroad without ever seeing the price. It arrives weeks later, line by line: a daily roaming fee on one employee's phone bill, a stack of expense claims from a sales team's week at a trade fair, and a manager who switched roaming off to save money and spent the trip unreachable. A travel eSIM turns that into a price you know before anyone flies. Each traveller gets their own prepaid data plan for the destination, installed at home in a couple of minutes and switched on at landing. The work number stays on the phone for calls and texts, the eSIM carries the data, and when the plan runs out it stops instead of billing more. This guide is for the people who travel for work and the people who send them: the consultant on a two-day client visit, the travel manager, the office manager booking a team's trip, and the event organiser flying a hundred delegates to a conference. It covers what daily roaming really costs, how to keep the work number, how much data a laptop needs, when unlimited is worth it, how frequent travellers save, and how companies and event organisers book an eSIM for every traveller on one quote and one invoice.
Travelling alone or sending a team: two ways to buy
The right way to buy depends on how many people are going.
If you are travelling on your own, or with one or two colleagues, buy on our website like any traveller. Choose the destination, pick a size, pay with the company card, and the eSIM arrives by email within seconds. That works the night before a flight, or at the gate.
If a company is sending five or more people, on one trip or across the year, ask for a business quote instead. Send the number of travellers, where they are going and when. Someone on our team, not a bot, comes back with team pricing, normally inside one working day. Once you accept, every traveller gets an eSIM of their own by email, and the company gets a single invoice.
Event organisers use the same quote. A conference, a trade fair stand, a sales kickoff or an incentive trip is a team booking with a longer guest list, and the events section further down covers what changes when the travellers are delegates rather than staff.
- One traveller or a few: buy on the website, pay by card, and the eSIM is in your inbox within seconds
- A company team of five or more: request a business quote, agree one price, receive one invoice
- A conference, trade fair or corporate event: the same quote, sized for the attendee list
- A frequent traveller: one eSIM topped up trip after trip, or a plan that lasts six months
What daily roaming really costs a company
Most big networks no longer charge by the megabyte abroad. They charge by the day. On the two biggest US networks, AT&T and Verizon, using the phone abroad in most countries carries a fixed daily fee, charged for every day the phone is used there. UK networks also charge a daily fee in many destinations outside Europe, the USA among them.
The fee is easy to accept for one day and hard to see across a year. A single day of the US networks' daily fee costs about twice as much as a whole month of 5 GB on our plans for the UK, Germany, France or Spain. A five-day conference in Dubai on that daily fee costs more than a month of 20 GB on our UAE plan.
On AT&T, a day is counted when you talk, text or use data, so a phone that sends a single text still pays for that day. Multiply it by every employee on every trip and roaming becomes a line in the travel budget that nobody planned for.
Expense claims add their own cost. Every roaming charge someone paid personally becomes a claim to file, check and reimburse, and a team's week abroad turns into a pile of them. A prepaid eSIM is bought once, at a known price, and the price does not move when the meeting runs over.
- A daily roaming fee: charged per person, per day of use, and visible only when the bill arrives
- Pay-as-you-go roaming outside any bundle: the most expensive way to use data abroad
- Roaming switched off: free, and the traveller is unreachable on the way to the meeting
- A travel eSIM: one known price per traveller, paid before the trip, that stops when the data runs out
Keep your work number while the eSIM carries the data
A travel eSIM sits alongside the SIM you already have. Your work number stays on the phone, so calls and texts to it still reach you, and the eSIM handles the internet: email, maps, Teams, Slack, WhatsApp and the taxi app.
Two settings make this work. Set the eSIM as the line for mobile data, and switch data roaming off for the work line, so the phone can only use data through the plan you have already paid for. Both live in the phone's mobile data settings and take about a minute.
Calls and texts on the work line are a separate question. They still run on your home plan's terms, and on networks that charge by the day, an outgoing call or text can count as a day of use even with data roaming off. If your network works that way, the cheapest habit is to make calls over the eSIM's data with WhatsApp, Teams or another calling app. On AT&T, receiving a text does not start the daily fee, so bank and login codes still arrive.
The result is a phone that behaves at the destination the way it does at home: the same number, the same apps, and a data connection with a price fixed before the trip.
- Mobile data: set to the travel eSIM
- Data roaming for the work line: off
- Data roaming for the travel eSIM: on, after landing
- Calls: over WhatsApp, Teams or another app, using the eSIM's data
Working from a laptop: hotspot data in practice
A business trip is rarely phone-only. The laptop comes out in the hotel, at the client's office when the guest Wi-Fi refuses to connect, in the taxi before a pitch and at the airport gate. A travel eSIM shares its data with a laptop through the phone's hotspot, so the laptop's connection is the eSIM's connection.
Laptops use data very differently from phones. They download updates, sync cloud folders and open full websites rather than mobile ones. Video calls are the biggest single draw, and an hour of HD video can pass a gigabyte. The habit that saves the most data is to pause cloud sync and system updates while the laptop is on the hotspot, and leave the big uploads for hotel Wi-Fi.
As a guide for one traveller: two or three days of meetings with the phone alone fit in 3 GB. A week with daily laptop work on hotspot needs about 10 GB. A week of video calls, large files or presenting from the cloud needs 20 GB or more. These sit at the heavy end of our general sizing guide, where heavy use means 2 to 3 GB every day.
If you are not sure, buy the size you expect and top up if you need to. Most plans can be topped up on the eSIM already installed, so there is nothing to reinstall in the middle of a trip.
- Two or three days of meetings, phone only: about 3 GB
- A week with daily laptop work on hotspot: about 10 GB
- A week of video calls, large files or cloud presentations: 20 GB or more
- Before connecting the laptop: pause cloud sync and system updates
Unlimited or a fixed size for a work trip?
Our unlimited plans give 3 GB a day at full speed, then slower data until the next day, which suits someone who runs a laptop on hotspot every day. They are not always the better buy, and the arithmetic changes with the destination.
In the UK, the US and the UAE, a week of unlimited costs about the same as a whole month with 20 GB. For a trip of exactly one week with heavy daily laptop use, unlimited is the natural choice. For a trip that might be extended, or a month with a second trip in it, the 20 GB plan lasts more than four times as long for the same money.
Over a whole month the gap widens sharply in the Gulf. In the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, thirty days of unlimited costs roughly four to nearly five times a month with 20 GB. For a month-long project in Riyadh or Doha, a fixed plan with a top-up in reserve is almost always the cheaper way to work.
Unlimited earns its price for the people who cannot run out: the team lead who shares a hotspot with colleagues, the event manager on the floor all day, and anyone whose laptop is their office for the week.
- One week of heavy laptop use: unlimited, which costs about the same as a 20 GB month in the UK, the US and the UAE
- A trip that might run long: the 20 GB month
- A month in the Gulf: a fixed size with a top-up in reserve
- The person who shares data with colleagues: unlimited
Frequent travellers: one eSIM for trip after trip
People who fly for work every month do not need a new eSIM each time. Keep the eSIM installed between trips and top it up before the next one, so there is nothing new to install and nothing to scan at the airport. Keep it on the phone rather than deleting it: a deleted eSIM can generally only be put back on that same phone from its original install link, and only while the plan is still running.
For regular visits to one country, the longer plans are worth a look. In more than forty countries, including the UK, the US, Germany, France, Spain, Japan and the UAE, we sell a plan with 50 GB that lasts six months. Where a 50 GB one-month plan also exists, the six-month version costs between about the same and a little over one and a half times as much, for six times the time.
Its days are counted from the first connection at the destination, not from the purchase, so the six months begin on the first trip, not on the day you buy.
For people whose trips are unpredictable, a global plan makes a cheap safety net. Our year-long global plan covers more than a hundred destinations with 1 GB that lasts 365 days, for a little more than one day of a US network's daily roaming fee. It will not carry a week of work, but it means landing anywhere on its list with maps, messages and a ride to the hotel working while you buy the right plan for the trip.
- Keep the eSIM installed between trips and top it up before the next one
- Regular visits to one country: a 50 GB plan that lasts six months
- Unpredictable travel: a year-long global plan as a backup line
- Never delete an eSIM you might use again
Sending a team: how a business quote works
For a company sending five or more people, the quote replaces a pile of separate purchases with one conversation. It suits a single trip, such as a team flying out for a client launch, and repeat travel, such as a sales team that is on the road every month.
Nobody on the team has to create an account or pay for anything, and each eSIM goes straight to the traveller's own inbox, so the person who arranged the booking never forwards a QR code. Sizes can be mixed within one order: the team lead gets the bigger plan, and everyone else gets the size their work needs.
Teams change after a booking, and the account allows for it. A colleague added to the trip late can get an eSIM on the same account at any time, and anyone who runs low tops up the eSIM they already have.
The steps, from the first message to the first meeting:
- Send the details: headcount, destinations, rough dates and data per person if you know it. The form takes about a minute and needs no card
- Get the quote: a person on our team answers, normally within one working day, with team pricing and the right plan for each destination
- Send the traveller list: an email address for each person, usually their work email
- Each traveller gets their own eSIM: an email with a link that installs it in one tap, plus a backup QR code and the steps, in any of six languages
- One invoice: the company pays once for the whole order
- Support on the road: travellers contact our team directly, around the clock, so the office is not the helpdesk
Conferences, trade fairs and corporate events: data for every attendee
An event is the hardest group to connect, because the attendees never travel together. They fly in from different countries on different days, each with a different network and a different roaming deal. Some roam for free, some pay by the day, and some land with no data at all and spend their first hour hunting for Wi-Fi to find the hotel.
Including data in the delegate package fixes that before arrival. The organiser collects an email for each attendee at registration, as most events already do, and every attendee receives an eSIM for the host country alongside their joining instructions. Everyone lands with maps, the ride-hailing app, the event app and the agenda working, whatever network they use at home.
It also takes pressure off the venue. Venue Wi-Fi is shared by everyone in the hall at once, and it is the first thing to slow down when a keynote ends and the whole room reaches for their phones. Attendees on their own data are not competing for it.
Attendee lists move until the last week, and the booking follows them. Send the eSIMs one to two weeks before the event so attendees can install at home on Wi-Fi. Late registrations go onto the same account whenever they arrive, and a no-show's eSIM, if it was never installed, qualifies for a refund under our refund policy. Give the people who run the event, such as staff, speaker handlers and the stand team, a bigger plan or unlimited, because they carry the event on their phones from setup to close.
- Conferences and summits: an eSIM for the host country, sent with the joining instructions
- Trade fairs and exhibitions: a larger plan for the stand team, who demo, scan leads and share a hotspot all day
- Sales kickoffs and company offsites: the whole team on one invoice, with sizes mixed by role
- Incentive trips: a regional plan when the trip crosses borders, so one eSIM covers every stop
- Events outside the EU: attendees from EU countries leave their free roaming behind at the border, and many will pay by the day
The pre-trip checklist for business travellers
Most eSIM problems on a work trip can be settled at home in a few minutes. The one that cannot wait is the phone itself.
The phone has to support eSIM and be unlocked. On Android, dialling *#06# shows an EID when it does. On an iPhone, Settings, then Mobile Data, shows an option to add an eSIM. Company phones deserve a second look: a phone bought on a company contract may be locked to that network, and some IT teams restrict what can be added to managed phones, so ask IT before the trip, not at the gate.
Install on Wi-Fi before you leave, set the data line, and leave the eSIM switched off until you land. The clock on a plan only starts when it first connects at the destination, and an unused eSIM stays valid for 180 days after purchase, so buying a week early costs nothing.
- Check the phone supports eSIM and is unlocked, and ask IT about company phones
- Install the eSIM on Wi-Fi at home or in the office
- Set the eSIM as the mobile data line, and switch data roaming off for the work line
- After landing, switch on data roaming for the eSIM
- Save our support contact, in case anything needs fixing on the road
When the trip changes: what happens to the eSIM
Business trips change more often than holidays do. This is what happens to the eSIM in each case.
- The trip runs longer: top up the same eSIM, with nothing new to install
- The trip is cancelled: if the eSIM was never installed, our refund policy covers it
- A colleague joins at the last minute: buy one on the website in a few minutes, or add one to the company's account
- Someone runs low before the last meeting: top up the eSIM from our website or app
- IT swaps the phone mid-trip: the eSIM belongs to the phone it was installed on, so the replacement needs a new one
- No connection after landing: most often, data roaming is still switched off on the eSIM line, and our support team answers at any hour
Frequently asked questions
What is the best eSIM for business travel?
A prepaid eSIM for each traveller, for the destination, sized for the trip: about 3 GB for a few days of meetings, about 10 GB for a week of laptop work on hotspot, and unlimited for whoever shares data with colleagues. It carries the data while the work number stays on the phone, and its price is fixed before the trip instead of arriving later as daily roaming fees.
Can a company buy eSIMs for its employees?
Yes. For five or more travellers, send us the number of people, the destinations and the dates for a business quote. When you accept the price, each employee receives their own eSIM at their work email and the company receives one invoice. For one or two travellers, buying on the website with a company card is quicker.
Are daily roaming fees worth it on a business trip?
Rarely. A single day of the daily fee on the two biggest US networks costs about twice as much as a whole month of 5 GB on our plans for the UK, Germany, France or Spain, and five days of it in Dubai cost more than a month of 20 GB on our UAE plan. Check your own contract first: if it already includes the destination at no extra cost, roaming may cost you nothing.
Can I keep my work number when I use a travel eSIM?
Yes. The eSIM sits alongside your work SIM and carries the data, while your number keeps receiving calls and texts on your home plan's terms. Switch data roaming off for the work line so all data goes through the eSIM, and make calls over WhatsApp, Teams or another app on networks that count any call as a day of use.
How much data does a laptop use on a phone hotspot?
Far more than the phone alone, because laptops sync files, download updates and load full websites. A week of daily laptop work fits in about 10 GB, and a week of video calls and large files needs 20 GB or more. Pausing cloud sync and system updates while on the hotspot saves the most.
How do I expense an eSIM for a work trip?
For a single trip, buy the eSIM with a company card, so the cost is one purchase at a known price rather than a roaming bill spread across days. For teams, a business quote gives the company one invoice that covers every traveller's eSIM, so nobody has to file a claim at all.
Can we give conference attendees an eSIM?
Yes. Collect an email for each attendee at registration, and we send each of them an eSIM for the host country, which can go out with their joining instructions. The organiser agrees one price for the whole list and receives one invoice, and late registrations can join the same account.
What happens to eSIMs for event attendees who don't turn up?
If a no-show's eSIM was never installed, our refund policy covers it, so an empty seat does not have to be money lost. Late registrations work the other way round: they can be added to the account whenever they come in.
When should an event organiser send attendee eSIMs?
About one to two weeks before the event. That leaves time for attendees to install at home on Wi-Fi and to check that their phone supports eSIM, while the list is close to final. Sending earlier costs nothing in validity, because a plan's days only start at its first connection at the destination.
Do business travellers need an unlimited eSIM?
Only some of them. In the UK, the US and the UAE, a week of unlimited costs about the same as a whole month with 20 GB, so it suits a one-week trip with heavy laptop use. For a month in the Gulf, unlimited costs roughly four to nearly five times a 20 GB month, and a fixed plan with a top-up in reserve is the cheaper choice.
Can I use the same eSIM for my next business trip?
Yes, if it covers the next destination. Keep it installed and top it up before you fly, since most plans can be topped up without reinstalling. For regular visits to one country, a 50 GB plan that lasts six months is often the better buy.
Will a travel eSIM work on my company phone?
Yes, if the phone supports eSIM and is unlocked. Phones bought on a company contract may be locked to that network, and some IT teams restrict changes on managed phones, so ask IT before the trip rather than at the airport.
Can one eSIM cover a business trip to several countries?
Yes, with a regional or global plan. At 1, 3 and 5 GB, our cheapest Europe plans are priced like a single-country plan for most of Europe and cover more than thirty destinations, and our global plans cover more than a hundred. Check every country on the trip against the plan's coverage list before buying.
How fast can I get an eSIM for a last-minute business trip?
Within seconds. The eSIM is emailed straight after purchase, and installing it with the one-tap link takes about a minute, so it can be done on the way to the airport. Install it on Wi-Fi if you can, and switch on data roaming for it after landing.