TL;DR: If you’re in a hurry we recommend buying 200gb (30 days) eSIM card for 50€.
After 2 hours you can get online. Continue reading to learn why it’s the best option.
Using 4G for the work
Our van doesn’t have a fancy electric system to support Starlink so we decided to use our smartphones as hotspots for our work. Onni is working as the software engineering team lead and Meri is providing Finnish lessons remotely. We both needed low latency for video calls and since 4G is very widely available in Europe it was an easy choice for us.
This means that before parking for the night we need to ensure that there are good enough 4G speeds to do work on our laptops the next day. Usually, this means that ping should be under 150ms and that there’s at least 10mbps download and upload speed.
Do you need unlimited data?
We are from Finland 🇫🇮 and we are used to having unlimited data at very cheap prices. For example, in 2023 we have been using mobile subscriptions from DNA for 26€ per month. This contains unlimited 4G data with full speed in Nordics + Baltics plenty of phone calls and 32 GB monthly roaming data in other European countries.
We started our Vanlife trip from the Nordics so we knew we had enough data to use Google Meet for video conferencing and streaming shows from Netflix. We noticed that we needed 70-90 gigabytes of mobile data per month. Using this amount from our phones would be expensive after going from Denmark 🇩🇰 to Germany 🇩🇪 so we started to look for different options.
Different providers, we have used
ConnectPls
The first company we tested was ConnectPls.
They have eSIM and physical SIM card options which both cost 59£ per month which at the time of writing this was ~69€. A physical SIM card contains 400 GB of data and eSIM 200 GB so both should be more than enough for us.
The nice thing about their service is that you can cancel anytime and they have automated the payments of your subscription and charge your credit card monthly.
Both options were similarly priced and eSIM cards can’t be easily swapped between 2 phones so we decided to get the physical SIM card. After ordering they contacted us through email and arranged delivery to a local post office in Germany using DHL Express.
I needed to enable data roaming in the settings and then we had blazing-fast 200mbps download speeds 🚀.
We used the SIM card for 3 weeks and then suddenly it stopped working. Luckily we had a second mobile subscription still and were able to connect to ConnectPls Support using WhatsApp. They then sent us a replacement eSIM as a QR code and it worked immediately.
Their monthly fee is pretty high and the suddenly dying SIM card did not make us too happy so we started to look for different options 👎.
4gsim.es
We noticed that ConnectPls uses Movistar SIM cards. When we searched for alternatives providing 400 GB Movistar cards we found 4gsim.es.
They provided exactly the same service but just for less money and we were happy to start using them instead.
Data deals
4gsim.es is supporting the Traveling Van Problem and if you buy using the following links we will get a small commission. The price you pay remains the same, affiliate link or not.
❓ You need to pay for the delivery fee for the physical SIM cards so if 200gb is enough for you we recommend ordering the eSIM instead.
Delivery time for the eSIM cards
We tried first ordering the eSIM card which they sent us in an email attachment after 2 hours from the order. You need to scan the QR code in the attached SIM card and you’re ready to go.
Delivery time and mandatory verification for the physical SIM cards
We stayed in the same place at Onni’s uncle’s house in Liguria, Italy 🇮🇹. Because of this, we had the chance to try ordering a physical card from them as well. Physical is better since we can easily swap it between different phones or mobile routers.
It took 7 business days for the SIM card to get delivered from their office in Fuengirola 🇪🇸 to Imperia 🇮🇹.
❗The physical card is not activated automatically. You need to send them a photo of your passport in the same picture with your SIM card.
Renewing 4gsim.es cards
♻️ After your 30-day period is over your card will be paused for 90 days. Paused cards can be activated with the renewal links below. If you don’t renew your card during these 90 days the card will be deactivated forever. This works in the same way for SIM and eSIM cards.
📩 I reached out to them by email and they mentioned that if one wants to renew every month, they must pay for the renewal 2 days before the end of your period.
Renewal links
Other providers?
We spend a lot of time on finding this information and we are sure this is a pretty good deal. If you know cheaper options please let us know 💪