Roaming add-ons are discriminatory

Lebara's roaming add-on options for physical SIM cards are more expensive and much more limited than for eSIMs. Because physical SIMs are needed by older and lower-priced devices, they tend to be used by older and less affluent people, therefore this policy is discriminatory and should be equalised without delay.

What you’re talking about is the difference between the roaming bolt-on’s for the Lebara SIM cards (as in the physical and e-sims) that offer voice, SMS and data here in the UK, for free in EU and India and via bolt-on’s elsewhere.

You’re comparing against a completely different product, you’re comparing against eSIMs that are data only (no phone number, minutes) and simply offer data only for a limited period in a certain country.

Whilst I understand your thoughts on why can’t they offer the same roaming allowances on the regular SIM cards as they do on the travel eSIMS, it’s worth pointing out it’s not a apples VS applies comparison.

You should compare the travel only eSIM offering against the other providers (loads of them out there) and the Lebara roaming offerings against other mobile providers.

E.g. Lebara offer 7GB of roaming data in Thailand along with 50 mins and texts for £10. Whereas Vodafone (for comparison) offer 4GB in Thailand along with 200 mins and 200 texts fr £30.84.

Point of my post is it’s important to do like-for-like comparisons.

You have a point xMrR, that I hadn't noticed that the eSIM offers exclude calls & texts, but that's because I'm using my SIM card in a 4G router that inherently doesn't support calls or texts, so I'm only interested in data. So, as you say, my point is more accurately, still on the same grounds as in my original post: it is discriminatory for Lebara to not offer the same data-only roaming add-on options & prices as they offer for eSIMs.
You are probably also right that I should investigate ditching Lebara in favour of a better data-only EU roaming provider. It's a shame really, as I've been happy with Lebara in all other respects.

Hey again stanwph ,

Just to be clear, the comparison isn’t between physicial VS eSIM. You’re comparing Lebara UK mobile phone services (available as both physical and eSIMS) for regular customers in the UK against the Lebara Travel eSIM product which is a data only eSIM for people travelling.

Your reply makes sense. I now understand where you’re coming from. You’re using a physical Lebara UK SIM card that offers domestic allowances for calls, texts and data here in the UK, offers free roaming in the EU and India (subject to limits) and bolt on’s in other destinations.

The travel eSIM market has exploded because there’s a whole heap of companies who are able to offer packages of data only that work in a specific country (or countries) for a specific amount of time. But there’s a reason why they’re an add on. They would never replace anyone’s domestic service as they’d be quite expensive for ongoing usage plus they wouldn’t work at home.

Like i said in my earlier reply, you can compare the Lebara Travel eSIM product against others (e.g. Holafly, Airalo, even companies such as Vodafone Travel, Orange Travel etc) but if you need a physical SIM card, none of the travel eSIM offerings are going to work for you.

If you want to keep using a regular SIM card tied to a regular mobile phone plan then yeah, absolutely shop around.

But if you’re taking this 4G modem to a country outside the EU (which it sounds like you are) then it might be worth looking at getting a local prepaid SIM card on arrival and stick that in your modem for the duration of your stay. It’ll likely work out cheaper and give you exactly what you need.

I still find local SIM cards can often work out a lot cheaper than these travel eSIMs. Plus the latency is usually better as it’s not being routed half way around the world before hitting the internet.