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Originally Posted by Igottago
Some great info here on eSims, much appreciated. I am heading to Portugal for a couple of weeks in September and looking at using one. Just to clarify -- If I use an eSim for the trip, but I receive a regular call or a regular text message, I will be charged pay per use roaming fees by my carrier (Telus)? Or will the carrier's full daily roaming fee kick in if I take one call or text?
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First you would want to make sure your carrier's 'Easy Roam' or 'Roam Like Home' feature is disabled. (Telus calls it 'Easy Roam')....
https://www.telus.com/en/ab/business...-easy-roam-faq
Without disabling that, Canadian carriers will typically use any excuse to charge the daily $13 fee, the moment you transfer one byte of data while travelling or receive a phone call or text.
But it varies by provider. Telus claims if Easy Roam is activated, it won't be triggered with an incoming text.
With Rogers on the other hand, I've had the daily 'Roam Like Home' fee triggered while the phone was in airplane mode the entire time, seemingly due to incoming calls or texts.
I've found the easiest way to really be 100% sure is to just remove the Canadian sim before travel.
Anyways, back on topic, once you disable 'Roam Like Home' or 'Easy Roam' you no longer have the $12-$15/day fee the moment you use a byte of data, but are back to being charged whatever pay-per-use your Canadian provider charges you for roaming for texts and phone calls and data in another country.
So you would need to be even more careful with the Canadian providers if 'Roam Like Home' or 'Easy Roam' is deactivated and your Canadian SIM is active. It can add up *very* quickly.
Telus charges $5 per MEGAbyte for pay-per-use U.S. roaming. Yes, $5,000 per Gig. Hilarious. That's approximately $15-$20 per *minute* for a typical video call.
$25 for a 15 minute traditional voice call. $0.75 per text.
Pay-per-use roaming in Portugal is about the same (more expensive for voice calls).
https://www.telus.com/en/mobility/travel
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