United Kingdom eSIM

The UK is easy to get online in at street level, but the London Underground is still being wired up, and post-Brexit roaming means many visitors' home plans charge extra here. Most visitors also now need a £20 ETA, applied for online or in an app, before they fly.

What a week of data costs in the UK

Prices for 7 days of data, checked on 2 November 2026. Daily passes charge for each day you use the phone abroad, per phone.

A family of four on AT&T pays $12 for the first phone and $6 for each of the others: $210 for the week. Not every EU plan is free here. In Italy, TIM stopped including the UK in March 2025, WindTre in June 2025 and Iliad in January 2026.

Landing at Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester or Edinburgh

Most long-haul flights land at Heathrow (LHR). Gatwick (LGW) is south of London, and Stansted and Luton take many budget flights. Manchester (MAN) and Edinburgh (EDI) are the main gateways for the north and Scotland. Switch the kimsim line on as the plane taxis to the gate, so maps and messages work before you reach the border queue.

Get your ETA before you fly. Visitors from Europe, the USA, Australia, Canada and many other countries usually need an Electronic Travel Authorisation. It costs £20, online or through the UK ETA app, and everyone needs their own, babies included. You don't need one with a British or Irish passport. A decision usually comes by email within a day but can take up to 3 working days, and an ETA lasts 2 years or until your passport expires. Apply on gov.uk or the official app, not on look-alike sites that charge more.

At Heathrow, in order: turn on Data Roaming for the kimsim line only, go through the border, collect your bags and walk out through customs. There are SIM shops and vending machines in the terminals; with your eSIM already working, you can walk past them.

Into London from Heathrow: the Heathrow Express runs non-stop to Paddington in 15 minutes, every 15 minutes. The Elizabeth line reaches central London in under 45 minutes, and the Piccadilly line in under an hour. Both take a contactless card. From Gatwick, the Gatwick Express takes as little as 31 minutes to London Victoria. From Edinburgh, the tram stop is next to the terminal, and the ride to the city centre takes under 35 minutes.

Networks and coverage

The UK has three big mobile operators now: EE (owned by BT), O2 (Virgin Media O2) and VodafoneThree. Vodafone UK and Three UK merged on 31 May 2025. Vodafone and Three are still sold as separate brands, so your phone may show either name. The networks your plan uses are listed above.

All UK networks except O2 had switched off 3G by the end of 2025, and O2 said it would finish in the first weeks of 2026. A phone that only does 3G gets no data here. Any eSIM phone supports 4G.

At least one network covers 95% of the UK's land area. The gaps are mostly in the hills. Expect patchy signal in the Scottish Highlands and islands, in Eryri (Snowdonia), in the Lake District valleys and on stretches of the Cornish coast.

The Tube

The Elizabeth line has had 4G and 5G all the way through since December 2024. On the rest of the Tube, TfL said in May 2026 that around 60 per cent of underground stations had coverage. EE, Three, Vodafone and O2 are all part of the rollout, and the target is the whole network by the end of 2026. Until your line is finished, the signal can drop in the tunnels, so save tickets and maps before you go down.

Region by region

• London: strong at street level. Some big stations, such as King's Cross St Pancras, Victoria and Paddington, are being connected in stages.
• Edinburgh and the Scottish Highlands: fine in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Inverness. On the road to Skye, around Glencoe and on the islands, expect long gaps. Download offline maps before you set off.
• The Lake District and the Peak District: fine in the towns, patchy in the valleys and on the fells.
• The Cotswolds and Bath: generally fine in the villages, with weaker spots on country lanes.
• Wales: fine in Cardiff and along the coast. Expect gaps in Eryri and the mountain passes.
• Cornwall and Devon: expect patchy signal on coastal paths and in coves.
• Northern Ireland: part of the UK, so your UK plan works in Belfast and on the Causeway Coast. Near the border, phones can pick up an Irish network.

This is general guidance, not a coverage map. If one network is weak where you're staying, choose a network by hand.

Getting around

In London, you don't need an Oyster card. Tap a contactless card, Apple Pay or Google Pay at the gates. You get the same daily caps as with an Oyster card, but your bank may add a foreign transaction fee. Use the same card or phone for every journey, or the caps won't count your trips together. Some Mastercard cards issued in the USA, Canada and the Netherlands aren't accepted.

Between cities, trains link London with Edinburgh, Manchester, Bath and the rest of the country, and fares booked in advance are often cheaper. Download e-tickets to your phone before you board, because rural lines lose signal between stations.

Apps worth having

• Ride-hailing: Uber and Bolt both run in London. For black cabs, Freenow is owned by Lyft, which agreed in April 2026 to buy the black-cab app Gett's UK business too. Set up your accounts at home, because sign-up can send a text code to your usual number.
• Maps and transport: Google Maps or Citymapper for planning journeys, and TfL Go, London's official travel app, for live Tube updates. Use a train operator's app or a booking app for rail tickets.
• Messaging: WhatsApp is how many hotels, drivers and tour guides message you. Keep WhatsApp and iMessage on your usual number.
• Payments: contactless works almost everywhere in cities. Your bank's security codes still go by text to your home number, so keep that line on for texts.

SIM and phone rules

We found no UK rule that makes visitors register a pay-as-you-go SIM with a passport. Each network sets its own sign-up steps. A UK SIM is the way to get a UK number, but you need the card in your hand, and Three, for example, says you must make a purchase on the SIM in the UK first. In a single-SIM phone it also takes your home SIM's place. An eSIM installed at home skips all that and leaves your home number in the phone. Calls and texts on a data-only eSIM explains what still works.

Common mistakes

• Assuming your EU plan is free here. Some EU operators still include the UK, and some don't. If yours doesn't, Data Roaming on your home line is where the charges start. Why roaming goes on for the kimsim line only
• Expecting signal everywhere on the Tube. Parts of the network may still be offline. Save tickets and maps first.
• Driving into the Republic of Ireland on a UK plan. Dublin and Donegal are in another country. How regional plans work
• Letting the plan start on a stop-over. If you connect through Dublin, Paris or Amsterdam, keep the kimsim line off until you land in the UK. If your plan started early

More on the UK

• What is an eSIM? A plain-English guide for travellers
• eSIM vs roaming: which is cheaper for your trip?
• Does WhatsApp work with a travel eSIM? Keep your number

How we put this page together

We checked gov.uk, TfL, the airports' and train operators' own sites, carriers' roaming price pages in the US, Canada, Australia, Ireland and Germany, and the other sources noted above on 1–2 November 2026, and we'll keep them up to date. We haven't measured speeds or coverage in the UK ourselves, so coverage notes are general guidance, not a map. kimsim sells the eSIMs on this page.