Visiting the United Kingdom, you can stay online with your home carrier's roaming, a UK SIM card bought after you land, or a travel eSIM installed before you fly. Here is how our UK eSIMs work.

Illustration: a traveller with a phone on a bridge over the River Thames, historic buildings across the water.

Our UK plans

  • Networks: EE, with 5G, and Three, with 4G. Each plan's card lists the networks it uses.
  • Where the traffic reaches the internet: in France, the Netherlands or the United Kingdom, depending on the plan, so websites see an IP address from there.
  • Two kinds of plan: a pack of data for the whole validity, or an allowance for each day. Each plan's card says what speed you get once a day's allowance is used.
  • When the validity starts: for almost every plan, when your phone first connects to a network in the UK, not when you buy or install the eSIM. Start using it within 180 days of buying it.
  • Running low? Top the same eSIM up in My eSIMs, on plans that take a top-up.

Ireland or mainland Europe too?

A comparison of a travel eSIM, a local SIM and roaming: where you buy it, when it works, whether you keep your number, the documents you need and how the price works.
A travel eSIM, a local SIM and roaming, side by side.
Illustration: a traveller with a phone on a footpath through green English countryside with stone walls and sheep.

Before you fly, and after you land

  1. Check that your phone supports eSIM, in our list of devices.
  2. Buy a plan and install the eSIM at home, on Wi‑Fi: step-by-step guides for iPhone and Android.
  3. After landing, turn on the eSIM's line, choose it for mobile data and turn on data roaming for it. Abroad, a travel eSIM connects through roaming, at no cost beyond your plan.
  4. Keep data roaming off for your own SIM, so your home carrier doesn't charge you.

If it doesn't connect, see what to check when an eSIM is stuck on “Activating”. A travel eSIM is data only: keep your own SIM on for calls and texts.