Apple SIM Cellular Data Plans Now Available in Over 90 Countries

Apple has reached a partnership with mobile connectivity company GigSky to expand Apple SIM cellular data plans to over 90 countries and territories around the world. iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 3 users that have Apple SIM installed can now purchase short-term data plans while traveling in a long list of countries throughout Europe, Asia-Pacific, Africa, South America and other regions worldwide.

GigSky Apple SIM
Apple SIM is now available for purchase at Apple Retail Stores in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States. Apple SIM cellular data plans were previously limited to participating carriers in the United States and United Kingdom, including AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile in the U.S. and EE in the U.K.

"With Apple SIM in iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 3 with Wi-Fi + Cellular models, you get the convenience of choosing a cellular data plan from select carrier partners right on your iPad. And when you travel abroad, Apple SIM gives you the added flexibility to stay connected in more than 90 countries and territories around the world. So when you reach your destination and want to check your email, find directions, or send a message back home, you can purchase a cellular data plan for the duration of your trip — whether it’s a day, a week, or a month."

GigSky cellular data plans are available on a pay-as-you-go basis with no long-term commitments. Exact prices are listed on GigSky's website and vary based based on the country, data amount and length of plan. Given that iPads are unlocked, travelers can also insert a SIM card belonging to a local carrier if preferred.

Apple has posted a full list of countries with Apple SIM coverage on its website.

Related Roundup: iPad
Buyer's Guide: iPad (Don't Buy)
Related Forum: iPad

Top Rated Comments

dlewis23 Avatar
115 months ago
This in the iPhone would be awesome.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
yg17 Avatar
115 months ago
Those plan prices are a ripoff compared to what you'd pay if you just got a SIM from a local carrier at the airport.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
lincolntran Avatar
115 months ago
The beginning of Apple cellular network
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
CmdrPuffin Avatar
115 months ago
It's a pretty cool system but it's really overpriced compared to just getting a sim directly from a local carrier. Looking at the UK plans it's $25 for 400MB with GigSky. If you just get a pay as you go SIM directly from Three you can get 10GB for £15/~$24. I'm sure the other countries are pretty much the same.

Handy for convenience I guess but I'd love it if Apple just opened the AppleSIM up to local carriers worldwide so we could get the best possible prices when we travel without having to juggle a bunch of nanoSIMs.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
yg17 Avatar
115 months ago
Neat, but I've never once left the area that was covered by AT&T but covered by someone else, so roaming has never come up for me in the States. I think most people in the States have had the exact same experience, so we don't really consider roaming to be a particular problem 99.9% of the time.
This SIM card isn't for people who stay in their country. It's for people who travel internationally (and are too stupid/lazy/rich to bother researching the much cheaper alternatives out there).
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
katbel Avatar
115 months ago
Did you look at the prices?! Not competitive at all!
I'm Canadian and when I go to the States I pay 25$ for 1 gb per 3 months
Gigsky charges 50$ for 1 month
In Europe with 3 TRE ( England and Italy) I pay 5 Euros for 1 GB per month.
Gigsky charges 10 $ for 3 days and 75 mb in Italy

BTW just today there is a good news about Europe ('http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-33325031')going to end roaming charges in 2017.
From April 2016, telecoms operators will be able to add a surcharge of no more than:

* €0.05 (3.5p) extra per minute for calls
* €0.02 extra per SMS sent
* €0.05 extra per megabyte of data used

The cap would make roaming within the EU 75% cheaper during the interim period, the European Commission said.

When are we going to have something similar in North America?
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Popular Stories

iOS 18 Siri Integrated Feature

iOS 18 Rumored to Add These 10 New Features to Your iPhone

Wednesday April 24, 2024 2:05 pm PDT by
Apple is set to unveil iOS 18 during its WWDC keynote on June 10, so the software update is a little over six weeks away from being announced. Below, we recap rumored features and changes planned for the iPhone with iOS 18. iOS 18 will reportedly be the "biggest" update in the iPhone's history, with new ChatGPT-inspired generative AI features, a more customizable Home Screen, and much more....
Apple Silicon AI Optimized Feature Siri

Apple Releases Open Source AI Models That Run On-Device

Wednesday April 24, 2024 3:39 pm PDT by
Apple today released several open source large language models (LLMs) that are designed to run on-device rather than through cloud servers. Called OpenELM (Open-source Efficient Language Models), the LLMs are available on the Hugging Face Hub, a community for sharing AI code. As outlined in a white paper [PDF], there are eight total OpenELM models, four of which were pre-trained using the...
maxresdefault

Apple Announces 'Let Loose' Event on May 7 Amid Rumors of New iPads

Tuesday April 23, 2024 7:11 am PDT by
Apple has announced it will be holding a special event on Tuesday, May 7 at 7 a.m. Pacific Time (10 a.m. Eastern Time), with a live stream to be available on Apple.com and on YouTube as usual. The event invitation has a tagline of "Let Loose" and shows an artistic render of an Apple Pencil, suggesting that iPads will be a focus of the event. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more ...
apple id account

Apple ID Accounts Logging Out Users and Requiring Password Reset

Saturday April 27, 2024 12:41 am PDT by
There are widespread reports of Apple users being locked out of their Apple ID overnight for no apparent reason, requiring a password reset before they can log in again. Users say the sudden inexplicable Apple ID sign-out is occurring across multiple devices. When they attempt to sign in again they are locked out of their account and asked to reset their password in order to regain access. ...
macbook pro purple february

Best Buy Introduces Record Low Prices on Apple's M3 MacBook Pro for Members

Thursday April 25, 2024 7:41 am PDT by
Best Buy is discounting a collection of M3 MacBook Pro computers today, this time focusing on the 14-inch version of the laptop. Every deal in this sale requires you to have a My Best Buy Plus or Total membership, although non-members can still get solid second-best prices on these MacBook Pro models. Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Best Buy. When you click a link and make a...
macos sonoma feature purple green

Apple's Regular Mac Base RAM Boosts Ended When Tim Cook Took Over

Friday April 26, 2024 6:34 am PDT by
Apple used to regularly increase the base memory of its Macs up until 2011, the same year Tim Cook was appointed CEO, charts posted on Mastodon by David Schaub show. Earlier this year, Schaub generated two charts: One showing the base memory capacities of Apple's all-in-one Macs from 1984 onwards, and a second depicting Apple's consumer laptop base RAM from 1999 onwards. Both charts were...