Skinny, eSIM and Travel overseas

Forums › Travel (planes, train, cruise) › Skinny, eSIM and Travel overseas

Lewk

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dns4me

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#319688 22-May-2025 13:24

We will be travelling to the UK and USA shortly. I have previously used an Airalo eSIM while in Europe and South/North America. It worked very well. Recently when we were in Australia, I tested a method previously suggested on Geekzone of setting the Skinny SIM to the Spark network in NZ before leaving and disabling the calls, Messages and Mobile data areas in the settings on my Samsung S24. I had Wi-Fi called enabled but as I understand, Spark/Skinny do not allow Wi-Fi calling overseas, we didn't receive any SMS messages while we were away and expected to receive any that were send from a NZ mobile to us while we were away, when we got home and reconnected back to the Skinny network. This didn't happen. There were SMS's sent to us while we were away but we didn't receive them when we got back to NZ. Phoned Skinny but they were less than helpful.

When we go to the UK and USA this time, I want to set it up so we can receive SMS messages but use the Airalo eSIM for data. Is it as simple as connecting the new Airalo eSIM and enabling it for data and for the Skinny SIM, disabling Call and Mobile data, leaving messages on for the Skinny SIM and disabling data switching? Or is there something else that I need to do? I take it that receiving SMS messages overseas on the Skinny network is free? I don't want to take out the Skinny Overseas roaming plans - we are away for some time.

SpartanVXL

1306 posts

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#3375607 22-May-2025 13:54

I’m not sure what settings are available on android. For iPhone it’s as simple as setting the mobile network to manual and selecting your telco, don’t need to change it to another one. Disable roaming on your handset.

For me I set it it to One NZ then when I land I turn on the overseas esim for data roaming but leave the vodafone/One sim active without roaming. It will say no connection but will fallback to wifi calling using the other esim data connection. On iPhone theres no indication but it does work. Used it in Australia quite recently with Nomad esim.

Edit: also not sure if you need to VPN back to NZ, One allows overseas wifi calling.

Asteros

250 posts

Master Geek

#3375609 22-May-2025 14:08

To reach your desired solution for your S24, I think you turn off data roaming but leave network selection on Automatic. As long as you don't make calls or texts I don't think you'll be charged. If you don't buy a Roaming Add on your data won't work overseas.

https://www.skinny.co.nz/pricing/overseas-roaming/

noroad

949 posts

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#3375700 22-May-2025 17:01

Lewk:

We will be travelling to the UK and USA shortly. I have previously used an Airalo eSIM while in Europe and South/North America. It worked very well. Recently when we were in Australia, I tested a method previously suggested on Geekzone of setting the Skinny SIM to the Spark network in NZ before leaving and disabling the calls, Messages and Mobile data areas in the settings on my Samsung S24. I had Wi-Fi called enabled but as I understand, Spark/Skinny do not allow Wi-Fi calling overseas, we didn't receive any SMS messages while we were away and expected to receive any that were send from a NZ mobile to us while we were away, when we got home and reconnected back to the Skinny network. This didn't happen. There were SMS's sent to us while we were away but we didn't receive them when we got back to NZ. Phoned Skinny but they were less than helpful.

When we go to the UK and USA this time, I want to set it up so we can receive SMS messages but use the Airalo eSIM for data. Is it as simple as connecting the new Airalo eSIM and enabling it for data and for the Skinny SIM, disabling Call and Mobile data, leaving messages on for the Skinny SIM and disabling data switching? Or is there something else that I need to do? I take it that receiving SMS messages overseas on the Skinny network is free? I don't want to take out the Skinny Overseas roaming plans - we are away for some time.

Depending on if you want to pay for it or not you can still buy the Skinny weekly roaming packs and this will give you 200text, 200minutes and 1G data. Then you can use the Airalo esim for data only (set using sim manager). I have used this successfully.

SpartanVXL

1306 posts

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#3375756 22-May-2025 18:09

Ah yep sorry missed that, if you just want to receive texts then keep your settings to automatic but disable roaming. Your 2d sim will connect and you’ll get texts for free, just don’t send txts or make/receive calls.

shk292

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#3375769 22-May-2025 18:21

SpartanVXL:

Ah yep sorry missed that, if you just want to receive texts then keep your settings to automatic but disable roaming. Your 2d sim will connect and you’ll get texts for free, just don’t send txts or make/receive calls.

I’m not sure if this will work, because the airalo SIM may need roaming enabled in order to work

you can set airalo as the preferred sim for data, but there is a risk that if it loses coverage, your data connection will switch to Spark, incurring roaming charges

I found the safe way is to switch off my Spark sim when overseas, and only turn it on for short periods to check for sms, when the travel sim has a good connection or wifi is available

note that android doesn’t allow roaming to be enabled on one sim but not the other

openmedia

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#3375866 23-May-2025 08:22

Other risk while roaming is if someone calls you. If your Skinny SIM is detected as roaming you'll still be charged for an inbound call even if it goes to voicemail.

SMS for 2fa etc is very frustrating when travelling with a data only eSIM like Araolo.

I use skinny and for shorter trips (around a week) I use their roaming pack. Sometimes I also buy a data pack from Aralo or others so I've got extra data, but I really need to have inbound SMS and inbound calling working on my NZ number.

Generally known online as OpenMedia, now working for Red Hat APAC as a Technology Evangelist and Portfolio Architect. Still playing with MythTV and digital media on the side.

nztim

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#3375870 23-May-2025 08:33

Spark block Wifi Calling for from overseas IP addresses

With One NZ (or 2degress) you can use an overseas esim for wifi calling by setting your the only connect to your network prior to leaving NZ

This does not work for Spark (or any MVNO using the Spark network), so roaming pack it will have to be

Any views expressed on these forums are my own and don't necessarily reflect those of my employer.

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Lewk

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dns4me

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#3376057 23-May-2025 15:18

Thanks for all the suggestions. I can certainly turn on roaming if I need a text for 2FA but the issue we experienced in Australia was that texts sent while we were in Australia from friends here in NZ, didn't show up when we got back and connected back into the Skinny network. We had the Skinny SIM turned off whilst in Australia and just used the eSIM. When I phoned Skinny help desk, they said that it was because those sending the text didn't have international text enabled. I pointed out that our SIM was turned off before we left NZ so how did they know that we were overseas? They said it didn't matter - even if the phone was turned off, they ping networks and know we are overseas. This seemed far-fetched to me. I just thought that someone sending a text from a NZ Telco while we had the SIM turned off, would come up once we re-connected the SIM to Skinny.

I want to try turning off calls and data on the Skinny SIM while overseas and only leave messages enabled for the Skinny SIM. I will enable data for the eSIM and disable auto data SIM switching. Has anyone tried that on a Samsung Mobile?

shk292

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#3376119 23-May-2025 16:27

The bit about sender needing international texting enabled sounds like complete BS to me. However, perhaps there is a maximum storage time for sms messages, which could be why you didn’t receive them on return to nz?

The problem with what you’re proposing is that I don’t believe you can turn off data and calls on one sim in Android. You can set a preferred sim for each service, but not enable/disable per sim. However, what I’m not sure about is whether disabling data switching and standby calling effectively does this. Worth a try, because if it works it would enable you to receive texts without incurring roaming charges. You’ll presumably still get charged if someone calls you

openmedia

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#3376179 23-May-2025 18:16

@Lewk Issue with missing SMS is usually delivery timeout. If you're offline over a certain period the SMSC will drop the messages.

You can't turn off calls/data and only have txt with Skinny/Spark while roaming.

Generally known online as OpenMedia, now working for Red Hat APAC as a Technology Evangelist and Portfolio Architect. Still playing with MythTV and digital media on the side.

noroad

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#3376277 24-May-2025 06:06

The bottom line is if you need text and incoming/outgoing calls working reliably you need to enable the Skinny weekly roaming packs which honestly are not that expensive in the scale of an overseas trip. There are then options to use esim and wifi to give yourself more data than the 1G/week as required.