What is a day pass eSIM?

A day pass is a mobile data plan priced by the day rather than by the gigabyte. You buy a number of days, and each day comes with an allowance at full speed that resets when the next one starts.

How it differs from a data plan

A data plan gives you a pot: ten gigabytes, say, good for thirty days. Use it in two days or spread it over four weeks, it is the same pot, and when it is empty the line stops.

A day pass gives you a rhythm. Each day you get an allowance at full speed; past it the connection is slowed rather than stopped, and the next morning you are back to full. You cannot run out in the sense of being cut off, and you also cannot save today's unused data for tomorrow.

The practical difference is what happens on the day something goes wrong. On a data plan, one evening of video calls can empty a pot meant for a week. On a day pass, that evening gets slow and tomorrow is fine.

When it costs less

Day passes suit trips where usage is steady and heavy:

• you are working, so there are video calls most days
• you are navigating constantly, which is light on data but relentless
• you are sharing the connection with a laptop
• the trip is short and you would rather not think about it

Where they cost more is the opposite shape. A ten day holiday where you mostly use hotel wifi and want maps in the street is a few hundred megabytes in total, and paying for ten days of allowance you never touch is money for nothing.

The honest rule: if you would use most of the daily allowance on most days, a pass is cheaper. If you would use a fraction of it, a small data plan is cheaper.

What to check before buying

Three things decide whether a given pass is any good, and providers are uneven about publishing them.

• The daily allowance at full speed. This is the number that matters.
• The speed after it. "Reduced" is not an answer. A figure in megabits is.
• When the day resets, and in which time zone. A pass that rolls over at midnight UTC behaves differently in Tokyo than one that counts from activation.

Our passes carry the daily allowance on the plan itself rather than in a footnote, because it is the thing that decides whether the plan fits the trip.

Quick answers

Does unused data carry over to the next day?

No. The allowance resets, it does not accumulate. That is the trade for not being able to run out.

What happens when I use up the daily allowance?

The connection is slowed for the rest of that day, then returns to full speed at the reset. On most passes it does not stop.

Is a day pass the same as unlimited?

It is usually sold as unlimited, and what that means is unlimited at a reduced speed once the daily allowance is gone. The fair use policy spells out both numbers.

When does the first day start?

Normally when the line first connects, not when you buy. Worth confirming, because a pass that starts at purchase loses you a day if you install early.