Country and region playbooks for staying connected abroad.
COSMOTE wins all seven Ookla awards in Greece for the first half of 2026. The more useful finding is buried in the previous report: Ookla could not name a Consistency winner at all, because the three Greek networks were statistically indistinguishable.
e& takes 12 of 13 Opensignal awards in the UAE and Ookla's World's Fastest Mobile Network. du wins one category, and wins it in Dubai. We read both reports, explain why they disagree by 700 Mbps on 5G speed, and cover the thing that catches most visitors: WhatsApp and FaceTime calling are blocked.
EE dominates UK 5G coverage. Three and Vodafone beat it on 4G geographic reach, and O2 leads 5G Standalone. We read Ofcom's own January 2026 Connected Nations figures, operator by operator, including the Wales gap where one network reaches 58% and another 6%.
au (KDDI) wins Japan's quality and reliability awards, SoftBank wins speed, and NTT DoCoMo wins coverage. We read the Opensignal, Ookla and Japanese government figures behind those claims, including the one nobody quotes: Japan's carriers cover 99.9% of people but only 60-73% of the land.
Three independent testing firms, three different winners. T-Mobile takes speed and 5G, Verizon takes coverage experience and reliability at the edge, AT&T takes time on network and call performance. We read the FCC data behind all of it, including the number that reframes the question: 5G reaches 95% of Americans but under 40% of American ground.
Six personal credit cards worth carrying in Canada charge no foreign transaction fee. We checked every fee, earn rate and perk against the issuers' own pages, worked out the break-even spend on each annual fee, and flagged the card that only looks fee-free.
No travel eSIM store is an Aeroplan partner. We searched the Aeroplan eStore, read every Aeroplan card's earn table, and worked out what a data plan returns once the 2.5% foreign transaction fee is counted.
Heading to the Santiago Bernabéu for the 2026 NFL Madrid Game on November 8? Skip the roaming meter. A Spain eSIM covers a football weekend for roughly $8 to $16, versus about $10 a day on US carrier day passes. Data budgets, setup, and Bernabéu game-day tips inside.
Flying to the first-ever NFL regular-season game in France? Here's how to stay connected in Paris without a roaming bill. A France eSIM runs about $10 for the trip versus roughly $10 a day on US carrier day passes, plus game-day data tips for the Stade de France crowd.
eSIMs are legal and allowed in China for travelers, with no law against using one. The catch: you can't install an eSIM once you're inside mainland China. Here's why, and how to do it right.
The CRTC's new $50 alert mandate, Bell's quiet 5GB throttle on premium plans, and a 61% spike in CCTS complaints, here's what changed in 2026 and how Canadian travelers can keep their bill predictable.
Visiting Canada in 2026? US, UK, and EU carriers charge $10-18 per day to roam here, and local Telus, Bell, and Rogers SIMs are no bargain either. Here's how to stay connected for under $20 a trip.
Apple and Android block international eSIM installation once your phone is physically inside mainland China. This guide covers the pre-trip install workflow, your options if you forget, and which Lotsotravel China plans cost $7-$31 USD.
A practical guide to using a single eSIM across Europe in 2026: how regional plans cover 35 countries, what data sizes fit ski trips, rail passes, and month-long stays, and where the eSIM approach runs into limits.