There was a explosion of popularity in recent years for Travel eSIM. This is due to the ease with which eSIMs are installed on a phone and how their data plans can be much cheaper than what you’ll pay in international roaming charges.
But Motorola is now making it even simpler by creating a eSIM travel experience in his smartphones.
This feature is initially available as an app that customers will need to download from the Google Play Store, called Global Connect, but the app will come pre-installed on new Motorola devices in the future. It is available for all Motorola phones with eSIM capabilities, including smartphones as inexpensive as the $180 Moto G Play 2026– although it is currently only available in a handful of Latin American markets: Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Peru and Chile. Motorola says use in Germany, the UK, and Europe will be supported in the coming weeks. The company had nothing to share yet about availability in the United States.
Travel eSIMs offer travelers an easy way to instantly access a data-only, working eSIM at their destination, before they even board the plane. This means you don’t need to stop at a SIM card kiosk at the airport and bother with physical SIM cards to connect to the Internet at your destination. You can top up your data allowance through an app and pay as you go. These eSIMs often don’t include the ability to make calls and send text messages, and that’s the case here with Motorola’s solution. (Luckily, WhatsApp is widely adopted in tourist destinations.)
The service is powered by Concertsa San Francisco company that helps businesses sell mobile data plans without having to deal with complex telecommunications negotiations and contracts. It’s the same company behind the Klarna mobile plansTHE buy now, pay later serviceand more recently, Cash app. Motorola says it worked closely with Gigs to make the experience feel like a “Motorola branded experience” and not a third-party add-on.
While Motorola says this is the first time a major smartphone maker has natively integrated a travel eSIM feature into its phones, Chinese phone maker Xiaomi offered a similar virtual travel SIM feature as far back as 2015, although it has since discontinued the feature.
Sudhir Chadaga, vice president of partnerships at Motorola, says customers need to install the Global Connect app, create a Gigs account and they will get 1GB free with their first travel eSIM (available for a limited time), after which they can top up their data as needed. Chadaga says pricing is competitive ($3 for 1GB for 30 days, up to $14 for 20GB) and the service is available in more than 160 countries. You can continue to use this same travel eSIM for all your trips.
“What we’re trying to do for our consumers is solve that friction point of quickly getting that travel eSIM on the device when they go on a trip,” Chadaga told WIRED. “With Global Connect, that’s exactly what we’re bringing to our users.”
Travel eSIMs are much cheaper than paying for data roaming, which is what you do when you rely on your primary carrier to connect to other countries’ networks. Siddhant Cally, principal analyst in the Networks and Connectivity team at Counterpoint Research, says that in some regions, existing network operators were offering roaming for half the data, but at double the price of travel eSIMs.
The cheaper rates, coupled with the ease of downloading and saving a travel eSIM to your phone before your trip, have made them accessible. incredibly popular. And since you can still use the data to make WhatsApp or FaceTime calls or send messages, the limitation of not being able to send or receive text messages or calls from your own number isn’t a big concern. This is why we carriers like T-Mobile, VerizonAnd AT&T attempted to address the challenge of third-party travel eSIM apps for their roaming business with their own travel eSIM options for people entering the United States during the period World Cup.
Another reason for the growth in adoption is that more phones than ever now offer eSIM functionality. In the United States, Apple sells eSIM-only iPhones since 2022; The entire Motorola lineup, from budget to flagship, supports eSIMs; The latest from Google Pixel 10 Series are eSIM only. Cally says adoption is still slow in Asian countries, where eSIM hasn’t spread as quickly on budget devices, but that won’t be the case for long.
Cally says the market is saturated with thousands of travel eSIM options, from Airalo to Nomad to Holafly. That’s why the next battleground will be how businesses can become the first to accompany a traveler’s journey. Some Visa card tiers, travel packages and even airlines now offer a free travel eSIM, but “nothing is closer to the first point of contact than an integrated stock app,” says Cally. He adds that this does not guarantee success, as people will always look for a cheaper package or service that is better suited to their destination.
One reason Motorola may not be launching service in the U.S. yet, Cally believes, is that the U.S. is primarily a postpaid market, with consumers preferring to rely on their primary mobile network carrier, such as T-Mobile, Verizon or AT&T. People in other countries may be more willing to experiment and find the best travel eSIM option.
It’s unclear whether we’ll see other phone makers follow suit. Cally says Motorola’s partnership with Gigs is “disruptive and new,” but it’s not something that will make people switch to a Motorola phone or stay with the brand.