In my travel to Taipei city, Nov, 2022, it was my first trip to abroad with eSIM machines. In Japan, I am regularly using eSIM (KDDI) + physical SIM (NTT docomo) combination.
I purchased an eSIM by China Mobile Hong Kong (中国移動香港) or China Mobile (中国移動) itself through KKday, as my 4th network.
Let me share how it was, but my first language is Japanese, my iPhone 13 Pro is set as Japanese.
I purchased a plan, 500MB/ day, and 3 days, please see how it is cheap!
>>KKday Taiwan unlimited data eSIM
I didn’t catch which companies eSIM in the sales page above, what I could find were; the wire is by Chunghwa Telecom (中華電信), the most stable network in my experience, and it must be a roaming SIM, because we need to turn its “Roaming” on.
Setting up— you must use WiFi to set up
I purchased it from KKday, one day before the date I wanted to use. They sent me an email with QR code to set up, within one hour after my purchasing.
If you don’t have another mobile/ tablet/ PC to show the QR Code, hmm, you should print it out to scan it, or ask someone to help. I regularly carry two iPhones, iPhone SE2 and iPhone 13 Pro, there are no problem.
Even I am regularly using eSIM in iPhone SE2, but I am not regularly setting eSIMs up. I perfectly forgotten that WiFi is required to set up eSIMs. On the point of security, I don’t recommend to use WiFi in hotels/ stations/ airports. I recommend to set it up with well secured WiFi network.
I did it at the airport hotel in Haneda Airport, Japan, with tethering from iPhone SE 2 with Japanese mobile network.
“activation” steps
I scanned the QR code, and found this SIM is by China Mobile HK.
They sent me an SMS below really quickly, the +86 is the country code for Mainland China, not Hong Kong. Also “金” means “Friday” in Japanese.
Seems this SIM is not by China Mobile Hong Kong, which is a branch of China Mobile, but by China Mobile itself.
Also, I misunderstood that I had done with activation, but this “Set Up” is not meaning I was finished “activation”.
On the next day, when I’d wanted to start to use this eSIM, I arrived at Taiwan and turn my iPhone 13 Pro on to start roaming, I got those SMS. “土” means “Saturday” in Japanese, by the way.
APN is “cmhk”, I am not quite sure whether it is by China Mobile itself or by China Mobile Hong Kong!!! The most important was I could use Twitter/ Instagram/ Google maps etc with this eSIM.
Anyway, I leant two things; 1) you can “set up” before your purchased date, 2) the activation is finished after it is start roaming.
5G, but not stable
I also carried physical SIMs by Taiwan Mobile, and Chunghwa, they were on the same iPhone 13 Pro machine.
I had expected it is a 4G plan what this eSIM purchased in KKday, but it catch 5G network.
In the screenshot above means I put this eSIM and physical Taiwan Mobile SIM on iPhone 13 Pro.
Also I purchased Chunghwa eSIM on Chunghwa counter, it was on iPhone SE 2. iPhone SE2 is 4G machine, my plan was 4G plan. Please see also: Taiwan: eSIM by Chunghwa Telecom.
Using this 5G network, it was often QUITE slow, especially in morning. In the same place to switch the mobile network to physical SIM (Taiwan Mobile or Chunghwa), there were no quite good speed to use mobile networks.
Both of my physical SIMs are authentic prepaid SIMs by Taiwanese cellphone network companies, and also I need to note as they are 4G plan.
I am not quite sure this unstable connection is because of the eSIM is a 5G plan, or a roaming plan.
Also, tethering and talking are not included this eSIM.
Slow, but connected with cheap price & easy to use
I thought this SIM is SLOW, but I say it was connected. Also it is cheaper than authentic prepaid plan in Taiwan.
We need to submit personal information to purchase prepaid SIM in Taiwan, even it is a tourist plan.
We have no need to submit those information to buy this roaming eSIM, KKday has our information, and it is not an anonymous, but I say it is easy to use.
Under current situation, I recommend to use SIMs including talking plan, but this eSIM is so cheap and useful as a second/ third network.
>>KKday Taiwan unlimited data eSIM
