5 Benefits of eSIM for Digital Nomads and Remote Professionals
Publié le 23 August 2024
For workers looking to take their careers international, there are 5 benefits of eSIM for digital nomads and remote professionals.
Whenever you open a modern travel guide, you’re bound to encounter a tip that you should buy a local SIM card. This way, you get to talk and send SMS text messages and you get access to the local mobile internet. An SIM card is often cheaper than roaming plans from major cell phone providers, saving you money and helping you stay on the grid.
The biggest problem with this is the hassle of constantly switching your SIM cards. These are delicate devices, and on some phones you need a special needle that you get with the phone (and that you’ve probably already accidentally thrown out) just to access it. Moreover, the majority of modern phones use micro-SIM cards, which makes them even harder to operate.
For an average user, this is not as big of a deal, but for someone who’s always traveling, like a digital nomad or remote worker, this could turn into a frustrating and time-consuming issue.
That’s why eSIM technology offers a better alternative.
An eSIM card is a digital version of a SIM card that can be programmed to emulate a SIM plan remotely. In other words, you can change a plan in a similar fashion, such as changing a VPN server—you just pick it from a list of locations and you’re good to go.
Here are the top 5 benefits of eSIM for digital nomads and remote professionals.
- Amazing for international travel
Even in the introduction, we mentioned that while people who travel only on occasion also struggle to replace their SIM cards, this is nothing compared to the ordeal that people who travel for work go through. If you’re an international traveler and have to switch countries on a regular basis, you have to go through so many SIM cards.
Even if you have a dual-SIM device, this won’t be enough, and you need a better solution. Imagine being from Los Angeles and having to travel to Hong Kong for work on a bi-monthly basis. In this scenario, with a dual-SIM, you could technically just use two cards (one for each location) and handle this pretty easily.
However, what happens when you have to travel to Tokyo, Dubai, and Singapore to oversee your organization’s international expansion? Well, in the latter case, you could get internet in Singapore with Holafly eSIMs and avoid having to change your card altogether.
This is incredibly important for international travelers since they seldom have the luxury of going off the grid. This way, there’ll be no chance your lines of communication will go down.
Now, since the connection to the internet is the primary function of your phone, whether or not the device supports eSIM functionality should be checked as soon as possible. You also need to do your research on reputable eSIM providers in every region.
- Taking full advantage of your dual-SIM device
Previously, we’ve mentioned the prospect of having dual-SIM devices and using them in a default way. This default way involves the use of two standard SIM cards. However, what if you were to think outside the box and get a dual-SIM phone with an eSIM option enabled?
This way, you could have one of the SIM slots occupied for your home network and use the second one as an eSIM. In other words, you can have one card that’s permanent on the network that you use the most and the second card as an adjustable eSIM card that you can switch between networks and providers as you travel.
Just keep in mind that when you’re traveling between more than two or three locations, it’s so easy to have a long list of potential SIM plans. So, make sure only to keep those profiles that you’re actually using and delete everything else in order to avoid unnecessary confusion.
Before you make these plans ensure that you actually have the device that supports dual-SIM, one of which is actually an eSIM. You would be surprised at how easy this oversight is to make. We’re not just talking about people who have never done this before. Establishing that you have the right device and setup beforehand can save international travelers and remote workers a great deal of stress.
- Cost-effectiveness
One of the costliest aspects of communication is international roaming, regardless of whether we’re talking about phone calls or internet data use. Roaming is incredibly expensive, and the cost of SIM cards is primarily done as a means of avoiding it. After all, an average business trip already costs $1,293, so why not try and make it less expensive?
The concept of international roaming is nothing scammy; it’s just expensive. Roaming allows customers to use the services of their home country network even when abroad.
The reason why this is so expensive is because, since your mobile service provider has no infrastructure in these foreign countries, they have to pay the local providers to “lend” them their network. They’re just passing down the cost to the end consumer.
For a remote professional, everything is a game of cost management. The cost of roaming can be very high, especially for remote professionals and digital nomads who spend days, weeks, and months abroad. Without a local SIM card or an eSIM, the costs could amount to such an astronomical figure that the cost-effectiveness of the entire trip can be brought into question.
At the same time, eSIM plans are cheaper than standard SIM cards. Namely, eSIM plans usually come from major vendors, which means that the price control is a lot tighter than with physical SIMs, where every small seller dictates the cost.
In other words, while the cost of eSIMs is significantly cheaper than exposing yourself to roaming, they’re even cheaper than their conventional SIM alternatives.
- More reliable connection
You shouldn’t overestimate your ability to find a SIM card at any given moment you might need it. The store might be closed, or you might not be able to find one right off the airport. With eSIM, this is a problem that you’ll never have to worry about.
This is especially the case in some of the more remote and rural locations that you, as a digital nomad, might be especially attracted to for cost effectiveness..
For example, a digital nomad could rent out a remote cottage and use Starlink and eSIMs to stay (technically) somewhat off the grid while simultaneously being away from the rest of the world. This allows you to take advantage of the absolute best aspect of reclusiveness while, simultaneously, not having to worry about any negative aspects of it.
Just check local availability, and don’t expect your eSIM to do miracles. When it comes to mobile service providers, there’s no such thing as global coverage.
- Simpler device management
So far, we have gone to great lengths to discuss how having just two SIMs is restricting and how changing SIM cards can be exhausting. The truth, however, is that smartphones are not that expensive, and people are lazy and try to save time and effort in the most innovative of ways.
This means that instead of replacing their SIM cards, they’re likely to have more than one phone. People who are just starting their remote careers may find that they already deal with too much software and hardware, which makes this an even bigger problem.
Many business people already do this, as their smartphones can only hold so many SIM cards, but it’s so confusing. Managing so many digital devices leads to so much confusion.
First of all, you can’t keep an eye on all of them, so you might end up losing a device or two. Although cheap, these are still a significant loss and can set you back financially. Moreover, when we say cheap, what we mean is that you can buy a phone that’s not the latest generation and that they’re far cheaper than they once were.
Second, you could have valuable data on this phone, which means that a loss is both a loss of an asset and a potential security risk.
Ultimately, it can lead to confusing device management in terms of answering the wrong phone at the wrong time and with the wrong phrase. You would be surprised at just how much these instances can hurt your business.
With an eSIM, this is a lot less likely.
The use of eSIM can have a revolutionary impact on a digital nomad and remote professional
Just knowing that no matter where you are, you have an easy way to get access to the local mobile network is so reassuring that it might alleviate a lot of anxiety that digital nomads feel. Sure, digital nomadism is all about freedom, but there’s a catch: the word ‘nomad’ has a word ‘digital’ next to it, which means that you’re free to roam as long as you’re on the grid. An eSIM can make this a lot easier and more reliable. The 5 benefits of eSIM for digital nomads and remote professionals can make this type of career simpler and more effective for anyone who wants to get out and explore the world.
