On a modern trip, your smartphone handles almost everything — from boarding passes and navigation to booking a taxi or finding somewhere to stay.
Travellers choose most of these services themselves, comparing prices and terms across different providers. Yet mobile internet abroad is still the exception to this rule: its terms are dictated, as ever, by your home network.
Set against the way every other travel service now works, that model looks like an anachronism. This is why a growing number of travellers from Brighton, Hove, and across East and West Sussex are giving up classic roaming in favour of a new generation of eSIM providers — such as one of the pioneers of the travel eSIM market, the Swiss company Yesim.
Why the roaming model stopped working for travellers
Price and lack of transparency
One of roaming's biggest problems is that travellers rarely know the final cost of their mobile internet before the trip itself. With O2, for instance, the price of data-roaming bolt-ons changes sharply depending on the zone: 1GB costs £6 in Zone 1, £9 in Zone 2 and as much as £65 in Zone 3 — a group of 120 countries that includes popular destinations such as the Maldives, South Korea, Vietnam and Morocco.
The limits of daily passes
Daily roaming passes were introduced to move away from per-megabyte billing and the bill shock that came with it. But they don't solve the problem entirely. A clear example is the EE Travel Data Pass: even with a fixed daily charge, you get a very modest data allowance that lasts barely a couple of hours of active use. According to EE's official price guide, that works out at 500MB for £6.26 a day for Canada and the US, and 500MB for £7.84 a day for Australia, China, India, Mexico, New Zealand, South Africa, Thailand, Turkey and the UAE.
Dependence on partner agreements
The quality of a roaming connection depends directly on which local operator EE, Vodafone or O2 has an agreement with in a given country. In some destinations popular with British travellers there may be only one partner — with no way to switch to a more stable network. Yesim solves this differently: in every location, its SwitchLess Networks technology connects you automatically (or manually, if you prefer) to the network with the strongest signal.
Taken together, these points show that UK operators' roaming is overloaded with zones, exceptions and daily-pass models, and that its final cost isn't always clear in advance. As a result, it doesn't give travellers real control over their connectivity abroad — and more and more Britons are looking for an alternative to roaming in the form of a travel eSIM.
A cost-effective alternative with predictable, flexible terms
How does an eSIM work? It's a microchip built into your smartphone onto which an operator profile is loaded remotely, with no need to physically swap a card. A travel eSIM is no longer just a technology but a whole service ecosystem for travellers, including an app, support in your own language and technology that keeps you connected at every point on your route.
The main argument for a travel eSIM is a better price than operator roaming. The difference is easy to see with the example of a week's holiday in Turkey. With the O2 Travel Bolt On, a week of connectivity comes to £49 — £7 for each 24-hour period. With Yesim, an unlimited 7-day plan in that same destination costs just £20.79.
Beyond price, a travel eSIM has several other advantages:
● Predictability. The country of coverage, validity period and data volume are known in advance, with no hidden terms.
● Flexibility. You can choose a plan for a specific country, a region or a complex multi-stop route.
● Budget control. Connectivity costs become a clear part of your travel budget — with no nasty surprises after you get home.
● Keeping your main number. You can switch off your home SIM for the trip or leave it active for incoming calls only.
What draws Britons to Yesim
The Swiss company Yesim has been on the market since 2019 and has already connected more than 4 million travellers across 200+ destinations worldwide. One sign of the trust placed in Yesim as a global connectivity provider is that it has become an official partner of the World Players Super League (WPSL) — the world's largest golf tour, which runs more than 1,800 tournaments in over 50 countries each year.
Yesim's range of plans for different kinds of trip:
● Global Package (80+ countries) — prepaid bundles from 10 to 80GB, plus unlimited options for 7, 15 and 30 days. Suits those who already know their route.
● Global Plus Package (140+ countries) — bundles from 5 to 40GB and unlimited data for 7 and 15 days, for a wider travel geography.
● Pay & Fly — a pay-as-you-go plan covering 170+ countries with a single eSIM. You are charged only for the data you actually use, which is handy for short trips and unpredictable routes.
Among the technical advantages, one worth singling out is a network of 800+ partner operators with automatic switching to the best signal — which matters especially for destinations with patchy coverage, such as remote beaches or mountain routes.
The Multiple eSIMs feature is also very convenient, letting you manage several profiles from a single account — useful for families and groups, where only the main user need s to install the app.
Setting up an eSIM takes no special expertise. Downloading the app is the first step. For anyone still unsure, Yesim offers a trial pack — 500MB for just £0.45 — that lets you test connection quality without a big outlay. New users can also use the promo code GETYESIM15 for 15% off their first order.
Conclusion
Mobile internet has become a critical part of any modern trip, yet the roaming model is meeting travellers' needs less and less.
It still ties your connectivity abroad to your home operator's contract, whereas a travel eSIM lets you choose your own plan to fit the route, the data you need and the connection format that suits you. With services like Yesim, you can set up connectivity in advance, manage it through an app and fold it into your trip budget as a clear, predictable line item.
“Travellers today are becoming far more price-conscious. The cost of flights, hotels and everyday travel expenses keeps rising, especially in peak seasons,” says Dmitri Verbovski, founder and CEO of Yesim. “At the same time, reliable and easy internet access abroad has become a basic necessity. We believe that staying connected while travelling should be getting simpler and more affordable, not harder.”
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