Students abroad
An eSIM for a semester abroad. There is no student discount.
Written for a semester or a full academic year, not a two week holiday. Different length of stay, different arithmetic, and a different answer in at least one place.
0%
Student discount, because the price is the same for everybody
$1.36
A gigabyte at the 50 GB tier, for everybody
8
People on one balance, parents included
100 MB
Free rescue data a month, in 145 destinations
Why there is no student discount
A student rate is the easiest marketing in this category, and it usually works by raising the list price first. We hold one price instead. Ours is $1.36 a gigabyte at the 50 GB tier, the same figure on our prices everybody else sees.
A discount also has to be policed: an ID upload, a yearly recheck, and a support queue for the people it wrongly rejects. None of that makes data cheaper. If you came for a percentage off, we do not have one.
What actually makes nine months cheap: nothing expires
A per trip plan deletes whatever you did not use on the day it ends. Across this category that is 20 to 35 percent of every gigabyte bought, because nobody finishes a pack exactly and running out abroad is worse than overbuying.
On a holiday you throw that away once. On monthly packs across nine months you throw it away nine times. Balance in the Orbislo Wallet has no end date, so the gigabytes you did not use in October are still there in June.
The most useful thing on this page: Orbislo Pool
A parent can top up a student in another timezone in about ten seconds. No card details cross a border, nothing is installed on the student's phone, and the data lands on the eSIM they already have. That is Orbislo Pool, and for a family it beats any discount.
One balance covers up to 8 people, so a household with two students abroad buys once at a tier neither could reach alone. The payer sets a cap per person in gigabytes and grants more with one tap. A cap never touches the 100 MB a month of free rescue data every account has in 145 destinations.
Your bank will text a number you do not have
A travel eSIM is data only. The network gives you an identity and no phone number, so a text has no address to arrive at. Your bank code is not late and it is not queued. It was never deliverable, and no setting on your phone changes that.
Nine months means a home bank, a university portal and a landlord all sending one time codes. There are three fixes and two are free. Read why SMS never arrives for the mechanism, receiving bank codes abroad for the fix by service, and keeping your number before you cancel anything at home. An Orbislo Number is $3.89 a month, no minimum term.
Dual SIM, on the phone you actually own
Most students want the home number kept for family and local data that is not priced as roaming. Any phone made after about 2018 usually holds a physical SIM and an eSIM at once, which is the shape that problem needs. Check your model on the device list before you fly.
Two settings decide whether this costs you money. Turn data roaming off on the home line, or it pulls background app refresh at roaming rates for nine months. Then turn off automatic data switching, or the phone falls back to your home carrier every time the Orbislo line dips.
When a local prepaid SIM beats us, and for a year it often does
Plainly: for a full academic year in one country with heavy use, a local prepaid SIM is usually cheaper per gigabyte than any travel eSIM, ours included. Local carriers sell to residents at resident prices. We buy wholesale roaming and resell it.
A local SIM also gives you a local number, which fixes the bank code problem. What it will not do is work on the day you land, work in the next country at the weekend, or follow you when you move.
Which one to buy, by situation
| Your situation | Buy this | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Arrival week, before you have an address | Orbislo wallet balance | Works from the airport, with no local ID and no registration |
| One country, one semester, light use | Orbislo wallet balance | Nothing expires between terms and there is no contract to cancel |
| One country, a full year, heavy use | A local prepaid SIM, once you have an address | Resident pricing per gigabyte, and a local number your bank accepts |
| Based in one country, travelling at weekends | Orbislo wallet balance | One balance across 145 destinations, with no second purchase |
| Parents paying from home | Orbislo Pool | A top up in about ten seconds, nothing to install on your phone |
Most students end up with both: a local SIM for the number and the resident price, Orbislo on the eSIM for arrival week, weekends across a border, and the months you are not in the country.
Arrival week, and what nine months of top ups earns
Do these five in this order, because step five needs things you will not have on day one.
One thing that only matters on a long stay. Every account earns 5% back in Miles on what it pays, one Mile is worth one cent, and Miles do not expire. Past $150 of purchases in a rolling 12 months the rate rises to 6%, and past $500 to 7%. That is not a student scheme. It is the ladder everybody is on, and nine months is long enough to climb part of it.
- Install the Passport at home, on your own wifi, before you fly. It installs once and works in 145 destinations.
- Land with data already on, and turn data roaming off on your home line at the gate.
- Register your address if your host country requires it. That appointment is usually booked online, which is the first thing you need data for.
- Fix your one time codes before your first rent payment, not after it fails.
- Only now compare local prepaid SIMs. Most countries want proof of address or a local ID to sell you one.