The Unlimited Data Myth - always read the small print

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There has been a huge rise in the latest scam to hit the travel eSIM marketing playbook... the Unlimited Data eSIM. 

This product is the pinnacle of psychological manipulation and it is working like a charm with travelling consumers clamouring to compare eSIM vendors' equivalent offers in an attempt to find the best deal.. So in the interest of fairness, let us be clear from the start...there is no such thing as an unlimited data sim, let alone an unlimited data travel eSIM. 

These products are riddled with fair usage clauses, peak/off peak hours, and speed restrictions. They even come with a clause that says the network can simply kick you off if they feel you are using too much, too quickly. Read that again...

All mobile networks that offer “unlimited data” plans include a Fair Usage Policy to make sure their service runs smoothly for everyone. Although these plans allow heavy use, providers often place reasonable limits on behaviour that could impact the network for other customers.

In practice, this can mean that unlimited plans may have soft caps where speeds are reduced after a certain amount of data is used. Providers may also limit very high-bandwidth activities such as large-scale video streaming, hotspot use, or downloading extremely large files. These restrictions vary between companies, but the general idea is to prevent network congestion and keep service consistent for the majority of users.

Speed restrictions are commonly used by mobile networks to manage performance across large numbers of users. They allow providers to control how much bandwidth each customer can use at certain times, ensuring that the network remains stable and responsive for everyone.

These restrictions are usually applied from the moment the SIM is activated abroad. Some roaming plans set a fixed maximum speed so that users can browse, message and navigate without overwhelming the host network. Others allow full speeds initially but reduce them once a certain amount of data has been used. This is a common way for providers to keep roaming costs predictable while still offering travellers access to affordable mobile data.

Speed controls can also be triggered by certain types of activity that roaming networks classify as heavy usage. Examples include tethering, large file transfers or continuous streaming. Because roaming infrastructure is shared across many travellers and partner operators, these activities may be deprioritised or slowed down to protect network performance for all users.

IMPORTANT: AAll unlimited travel eSIM plans have small daily usage limit thresholds before the speed restrictions kick in. Some are as low as 500MB. This means that a single Zoom video call can trigger your restrictions rendering the so called "Unlimited" product almost completely unfit for purpose.

The promise of “unlimited” data while traveling sounds like a dream... and it is supposed to...

Freedom to browse, stream, and stay connected without worrying about costs... Sounds like a perfect product right?  But in reality, this marketing tactic always hides a catch. It will tell you that T's and C's apply, but they are never on the marketing itself. They are always on the company website somewhere. Forcing consumers to go searching, which they know we rarely do.

All travel eSIM providers who now advertise unlimited data, will also simultaneously throttle your speeds or impose hidden limits, making it virtually impossible to use the data freely. What feels like a great deal can quickly become frustrating, leaving you with a connection that crawls when you need it most.

The truth is that controlling how fast you can consume anything, (let alone cellular data) whilst at the same time claiming that it’s unlimited, is intentionally misleading. Travel eSIM providers exploit our desire for value, creating the illusion of freedom while actually restricting usage. 

Apart from the fact that even heavy users rarely exceed 30GB of data in a month, this surge in popularity of unlimited data sims is based upon misleading marketing. Unlimited in name only, these plans prioritise marketing over actual functionality, turning what should be a convenience into a subtle, built-in scam. At trvllr. we believe that travellers deserve transparency, not hype disguised as generosity.