EE eSIM Not Working Abroad – Pay As You Go

[Stevens27]

Hi, I’m a Pay As You Go customer and have had ongoing issues with my EE eSIM abroad. For years, whenever I travelled, I would receive EE welcome texts but couldn’t reply to select a roaming bundle — the SMS would always fail, not just to EE directly but to any of my contacts too. 

Before moving to Costa Rica, I called EE from the UK to resolve this. They reset my SIM, but since then the situation has worsened:

• I now receive no welcome texts at all abroad.
• My eSIM cannot connect to any network, either automatically or manually.
• I cannot receive any SMS, which is urgent because I need texts from my daughter’s doctors.

Attempts to resolve:

• Called EE from my husband’s phone (30 mins): They said I could get a new eSIM once back in the UK, but couldn’t help remotely.
• EE App & Website: Live chat doesn’t appear, possibly because I’m outside the UK.

Technical Issue Summary:

• eSIM has never worked properly abroad (SMS  and phone call failures).
• After EE reset the SIM in the UK, it now doesn’t connect to any network at all.
• I’m stuck without SMS and phone call access.

Could this be related to legacy Orange-to-EE account transfers in the background? Has anyone else experienced this, and is there a way to get EE to re-provision or activate an eSIM remotely while abroad?

Any advice or workarounds would be hugely appreciated.

Thank you

[Northerner]

Hi @Stevens27 

There is no EE eSIM on PAYG I believe. 

If your contract was moved into PAYG and you didn't activate the SIM on the UK network it won't work. (If you received a SIM).

Lastly depending on when you last made a chargeable call or text your number maybe in hibernation: https://community.ee.co.uk/t5/Pay-as-you-go/Understanding-Pay-As-You-Go-Hibernation-and-how-to-keep-...

Thanks 

[XRaySpeX]

@Stevens27 : As stated by @Northerner , you can't normally get eSIMs on PAYG. Could this be a Travel eSIM intended for travellers to the UK to use while in UK? These would not have roaming abilities.

[Chris_B]

@Stevens27  If you have a EE roaming eSIM these are for short term use for international travellers to the UK.     Other than that you can’t have eSIM on PAYG and I believe EE can deactivate the travel eSIM if they believe you’re not using it with in the conditions of travelling. 

Any account change from Orange to EE was years ago ( pre 2020 )  so it’s nowt to do with that.   

You can’t do anything until you came back to the UK and get a physical SIM card as a PAYG customer.  Your issue also is no network offers long term usage abroad for UK network users.   It’s for UK usage and trips abroad not long term says.    You say you’ve moved to Costa Rica that’s not a short stay abroad,   You’ll be charged accordingly for international usage.   You might be ok with that ? 

[Stevens27]

Interesting. I've had this eSIM since 2020/21 (?) when I lived in Nepal and text messages and calls worked fine then, I think it was set up as a PAYG because the phone was paid for out right and I only needed to text/call on rare occasions. I travelled to the UK frequently so my number wouldn't go into hibernation. Any further thoughts? 

[Stevens27]

Please see my response to @Northerner - I don't believe it's a travel eSIM, just a normal EE eSIM. 

[Stevens27]

Hi there, please see my responses above, it's not a travel eSIM. I come back to the UK every so often so I need to keep the number. Any further thoughts? 

[Chris_B · Accepted solution]

@Stevens27  You can’t have an eSIM on PAYG. eSims are at present for contract customers.  
you can only have an eSIM if it’s a travellers eSIM as these are for international travellers when they get to the UK to use the EE network, and you get these at an airport.    Live chat is for contract customers only.   The problem you’ve got is that you’re on a roaming network and if I remember correctly, the Costa Rica network isn’t that good it’s very patchy ( this is based on other posts on here about other users roaming within Costa Rica)