eSIM for the United States
The United States is not one mobile market, it is three networks with genuinely different maps. A plan that is flawless in Manhattan can be useless in a national park four hours away, and the reason is almost never the plan size.
So the useful question about a United States eSIM is not how many gigabytes you get. It is which carrier you land on.
Plans are not on sale yet
The three networks, honestly
Verizon and AT&T have the widest rural footprint. T-Mobile has the strongest mid band 5G in cities and has closed much of the rural gap, but not all of it.
If your trip is New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and Las Vegas, any of them works. If it is Utah, Montana, the Dakotas or the long empty stretches of Route 66, the difference is the difference between having a map and not having one.
Why not use your home plan
Some home plans include the United States. Many include it at a daily fee that quietly exceeds the cost of the whole trip, and a few include it with a speed cap that makes video calls unusable.
Check the daily rate before you assume roaming is the easy answer. The maths on a two week trip is usually not close.
When to install it
At home, before departure, on wifi. Most United States airports have free wifi that needs an email address and a captive portal, which is one more thing between you and a working phone after a long flight.
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Plans are not on sale yet
We are testing which destinations people actually need before we connect a supplier. Tell us where you are going and you will be first to know when plans for that destination go live.
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What a data eSIM will not do
It will not give you a United States number, and in the United States that has a specific consequence: a lot of everyday services want to text you. Rideshare apps, delivery, restaurant waitlists, event tickets and hotel check in all lean on SMS to a domestic number.
Most of them will accept your home number. Some will not. It is worth knowing which before you are standing outside a restaurant.
eSIM, roaming or a prepaid US SIM
A prepaid United States SIM from a carrier store gives you a real number and generous data, and costs you an hour of your first day plus a store visit. For a month or more it is the better deal.
For a week or two, a travel eSIM you activate on the runway is worth more than the price difference.
See connectivity options
Compare optionsCommon questions
Will an eSIM work in national parks?
Sometimes, at the visitor centre and the main road, rarely on the trails. No carrier covers the backcountry properly. Download offline maps.
Can I use it for Uber and Lyft?
The apps work on data. The driver calling you may not reach you if you are not carrying a usable number, so keep your home line reachable.
Does 5G matter here?
For speed in cities, yes. For whether you have signal at all in rural areas, no. Coverage is the older bands, and that is a carrier question.