🇺🇸 United States eSIM

Before you go

• Coverage in cities and along the interstates is excellent. The gaps are in the mountain west and the desert southwest, where whole counties have effectively nothing.
• The national parks are worse than people expect. Yellowstone, Death Valley and much of Utah's park country have little to no coverage away from the visitor centres.
• The country is big enough that a 30-day plan for a road trip usually works out better value than several short ones.
• These are data-only plans. They don't come with a local phone number, and they don't carry calls or texts, so keep your normal SIM switched on for those and let the eSIM handle data.
• The plan starts when it first connects to a network at your destination, not when you buy it. Buy it weeks ahead if you like; the clock starts when you land.
• Install it before you fly, over your home Wi-Fi. Installing needs an internet connection, which is the one thing you won't have at the airport.
• Don't delete an eSIM to make room for another one. An activation code only works once, and your phone can hold several profiles side by side.

United States eSIM questions

Will it work in the national parks?

Patchily at best. Assume no data in most of Yellowstone, Yosemite's valley floor edges, Death Valley and the Utah parks, and download offline maps before you drive in.

Does a US plan cover Hawaii, Alaska and Puerto Rico?

It depends on the plan, so check the coverage list before you buy, as some US plans are the mainland only.

How much data for a three-week road trip?

20 GB is a reasonable allowance if you're navigating daily. Streaming in the car will burn through that far faster.

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