You land in Bangkok. You switch your phone off aeroplane mode, and the travel eSIM you bought two weeks ago is right there in your settings, marked Installed. The provider's confirmation email says your plan is active. And you have no internet.

This is the single most common support ticket in the travel eSIM business, and it is almost never what it looks like. In most cases, nothing is broken: the profile is sitting on your phone exactly as it should, switched off, waiting for a setting you haven't touched yet.

South Africans travel a lot — Statistics South Africa recorded roughly 9 616 000 resident travellers in 2025, of which 4 849 000 were departures (Stats SA, International Tourism 2025) — so it is worth ten minutes to understand what "installed" actually means before you're standing in an arrivals hall with no data.

Landing with an installed eSIM and no data is usually a settings problem, not a broken plan. (AI-generated image)

"Installed" and "switched on" are two different states

This isn't marketing vagueness. It's written into the standard that every eSIM on earth runs on: the GSMA's SGP.22 specification.

The spec defines exactly two states a profile can be in on your phone's eSIM chip:

> "Enabled Profile: A Profile in a state where all files and/or applications (e.g., NAA) are selectable."

> "Disabled Profile: A Profile in a state where all files and applications (e.g., NAA) present in the Profile are not selectable."

> — GSMA, SGP.22 v3.1, §1.5 

"Selectable" is the whole ballgame. A disabled profile is physically present on the chip and completely unusable — the phone cannot select it, so it cannot register on a network with it.

Crucially, downloading a profile and enabling it are two separate procedures in the specification. Section 3.1.3 covers "Profile Download and Installation". Section 3.2.1, a different procedure entirely, covers enabling — and it opens by telling you what it assumes:

> "This procedure is used to enable a Profile already downloaded and installed on an eUICC."

The chip is strict about this. When your phone asks it to switch a profile on, the eUICC first checks that the profile is currently off:

> "Verify that the Target Profile is in the Disabled state. Otherwise, the eUICC SHALL return an error code profileNotInDisabledState."

So when your provider's system says "installed", it is telling you the truth about a step that was never the last step. Scanning the QR code puts the profile on the chip. Something else has to switch it on, and a handful of settings have to agree before data flows.

The five checks, in the order that actually finds the problem

Work through these in order.

In practice, the first two solve the overwhelming majority of cases.

1. Is your travel eSIM the data line? Your phone can hold several lines but only route data through one of them.

> "One number at a time can use cellular data." — Apple, Using Dual SIM with an eSIM

> "Only one SIM can be the default for data. If you already have one set up, you'll get a notification." — Google, How to use dual SIMs on your Google Pixel phone 

If your Vodacom or MTN line is still the data line, your travel eSIM is installed, enabled and idle while your home SIM quietly tries to roam. On iPhone: Settings > Cellular > Cellular Data, then select the travel line. On Pixel: Settings > Network & internet > SIMs, then set Mobile data.

2. Is data roaming on for that line? This trips up more travellers than anything else, because it feels wrong — you bought a local plan, why would you need roaming? Because a travel eSIM connects you to a network that isn't its own issuer's.

> "Data Roaming permits internet access over a cellular data network in regions that are not covered by your carrier's network." — Apple, About cellular data roaming options

> "Roaming: Let your phone send data over other carriers' networks when you leave an area covered by your carrier's networks." — Google, Connect to mobile networks on a Pixel phone 

The setting is per line, which is exactly why people miss it. Apple's instruction is explicit:

> "If your device uses Dual SIM or Dual eSIM, turn on Cellular Data, tap the number you want to modify, then tap Cellular Data Options, and make sure Data Roaming is on."

On Samsung: Settings > Connections > Mobile Networks > Data Roaming. And note Samsung's own warning about a trap that wastes a lot of time:

> "If the Data Roaming switch is greyed out, check that Mobile data is activated." — Samsung, How to turn international data roaming on or off 

3. Is the line itself turned on? A profile can be installed and still be toggled off.

> "Make sure 'Turn On this Line' is enabled next to the primary eSIM you want to use." — Apple, Use eSIM while travelling internationally 

4. Is the APN right? Rare with a decent provider, but when it's wrong, nothing else matters.

> "The APN defines the network path for all cellular data connectivity." — Apple, View and edit your APN 

Some plans need one typed in manually. Only do this if your provider gives you the value, because Apple is blunt about the consequences: "If you enter incorrect APN settings, you might lose cellular data connectivity and receive additional charges," and "Don't edit the APN unless directed by your carrier or mobile device administrator."

5. Is your phone carrier-locked? If it is, no travel eSIM will ever work on it.

> "To use your iPhone with another carrier when traveling internationally, your iPhone cannot be locked to a carrier." — Apple 

To check on an iPhone: Settings > General > About > Carrier Lock. "If 'No SIM restrictions' appears next to Carrier Lock, your iPhone is unlocked." And if it isn't, only one party can fix it: "Apple can't unlock your iPhone for use with a different carrier. Only your current carrier can unlock your iPhone." Samsung says the same for Galaxy devices: "Your new device must be unlocked for the transfer to be successful."

Don't trust the signal bars

Apple documents that on a Dual SIM iPhone, "When Carrier 1 is in use, the other line will show No Service." Most travel eSIMs are data-only plans — no calls, no SMS — so the display beside them can look alarming while the data connection is perfectly fine.

Test with data, not with the status bar: open a browser and load a page that isn't cached. That's the only check that answers the actual question.

What to do before you fly

Almost everything that goes wrong on landing could have been caught at home, on Wi-Fi, with time to fix it.

• Check the device supports eSIM and is unlocked. Apple's official list covers South Africa: Vodacom for eSIM Quick Transfer, and MTN, Telkom and Vodacom for other activation methods. Samsung lists Cell C, MTN, Telkom and Vodacom for South Africa.
• Install the profile before you leave, on Wi-Fi. Apple's setup requirements include "Connect your new iPhone to a Wi-Fi network or hotspot." Installation needs internet — which is the cruel joke of leaving it until you land.
• Decide what happens to your South African line. If you're keeping it for calls and OTPs, Vodacom requires you to switch roaming on in advance: "You must activate roaming before departure." And be clear that your home bundles don't travel: "Local SA data bundles only work within South Africa. While abroad, usage is billed at roaming rates or deducted from an active Travel Data Bundle." (Vodacom, International Roaming & Calls)
• Know what the alternative costs. Vodacom publishes roaming "from as low as R0.75/Mb" and travel bundles from "1GB - R99" for seven days (Vodacom, Roaming costs). That's the number a travel eSIM has to beat, and comparing it honestly is harder than it should be — most providers publish no prices you can check without buying. Ours are published as an open data feed anyone can read (https://purasim.com/en/pages/datos-esim), with the underlying network operator listed for each destination.
• Screenshot the QR code and the activation details. If the email is gone and you have no data, you cannot retrieve either.

When it genuinely is the provider's fault

Sometimes the settings are all correct and the profile still doesn't work. Here is one real failure mode, from our own system, because providers rarely describe these.

Our wholesaler returns a status for every profile — `GOT_RESOURCE`, `RELEASED`, `IN_USE` — and, separately, the line can be `ENABLED` or `DISABLED`. A profile that is `IN_USE` and `DISABLED` has been installed on a handset and switched off. Every internal dashboard shows a healthy, delivered, in-use eSIM. The customer has zero data. Unless a human compares those two fields, nothing flags it.

That's why "it says active on our side" is not an answer. If you've done the five checks, escalate, and give support what it needs to look past the happy status: your EID and IMEI (Settings > General > About), the exact error message, and whether the line appears at all.

Apple's own escalation ladder is short and worth following first: toggle airplane mode, then

"turn off the line and then turn it back on again",

Restart, check for a carrier settings update, and then

"if you still can't set up an eSIM on your iPhone, contact your carrier" (Apple, If you can't set up an eSIM).

Google's advice on a failed transfer is similarly plain:

"If you encounter an issue when you transfer an eSIM, try again. For persistent issues, contact your carrier."

The short version

Installed means the file is on the chip. It does not mean the line is on, that it's your data line, that roaming is permitted, or that your phone is allowed to use another network at all. Four settings and a lock, in that order — and none of them are things a provider can switch on for you from their side.

Ten minutes on your own Wi-Fi at home beats an hour in an arrivals hall.

About the author

Marc González runs PuraSIM, a travel eSIM store with more than 3 000 data plans across 187 countries, from Barcelona. PuraSIM resells connectivity from a wholesaler rather than operating its own network, publishes its full catalogue and pricing as an open JSON feed, and delivers plans by email with human support in English, Spanish and Portuguese. He writes about the gap between what provisioning systems report and what customers actually experience.

Reach him at hola@purasim.com.

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Tags: Travelling