Mobile data for employees abroad: a guide for managers
Pick one way and write it down. Roaming on the company contract is easy but hard to control outside the EU. Local SIMs are cheap but cost time and receipts. Managed eSIMs, bought and sent before the trip, give you control and one invoice. A short travel data policy keeps everyone on the same route.
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Mobile data abroad is one of those costs nobody owns. HR books the trip, finance pays the bill, IT looks after the phones, and the traveller just wants Maps to work when they land. The result is usually a mix: some people roam, some buy SIMs, some live on hotel Wi-Fi, and the bill tells the story weeks later.
This guide is for the office manager, travel manager or team lead who has to sort that out. It compares the three ways to get people online, shows where the money leaks, and ends with a short policy and a one-week rollout plan.
Three ways to get staff online abroad
| Roaming on the company contract | Local SIMs on expenses | Managed eSIMs | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Setup | None | Each traveller, at each arrival | Once, then a few clicks per trip |
| Cost control | Caps and day passes, set by the carrier | None before the receipt | Package chosen before the trip |
| Visibility | Next month's bill | Expense claims | Usage per person and country |
| Traveller effort | None | Queue, passport, sometimes registration | One tap before take-off |
| Best for | Short trips inside the EU | Long stays in one country | Teams travelling often, to many countries |
Most companies end up combining them. A simple split that works: roaming for short trips inside the EU, where the Roam like at Home rules apply, and managed eSIMs for everything else.
Where travel data costs leak
- Outside the EU. Roam like at Home covers the 27 member states, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and since January 2026 Moldova and Ukraine. The UK, Switzerland, Türkiye and the rest of the world are your carrier's own pricing. See where your EU roaming actually stops.
- Day passes that switch themselves on. Many contracts start a daily roaming pass the first time the phone uses data abroad, and it renews every day of the trip, whether the traveller needed it or not.
- Fair use limits. Inside the EU, operators may cap roaming on unlimited or very cheap plans and charge a small fee per gigabyte above it. Heavy hotspot users hit it first.
- Airport SIMs. Bought in a hurry, often oversized, and paid with a personal card that turns into an expense claim and a lost receipt.
- Plans nobody used. A trip moves or gets cancelled, and the data bought for it expires unused.
When a trip changes or gets cancelled
Plans change, and a good setup lets you react from your desk. With managed eSIMs, an admin can pause an eSIM in one click and resume it when the trip is back on. An eSIM nobody has installed yet can be withdrawn instead, and the package days only start when it first connects at the destination, so a delayed trip does not eat the plan.
If someone runs out of data mid-trip, add data to the same eSIM from the dashboard. The traveller keeps the eSIM they already have, with no new QR code and nothing to reinstall.
How much data a trip needs
Video and video calls decide the total; maps, email and messaging barely register. Using our own figures for what apps really use, these are sensible starting points:
| Trip | What people do | Starting point |
|---|---|---|
| Two days of meetings | Maps, email, messaging, a ride-hailing app | 1 GB |
| A week on a client site | The above plus an hour of video calls a day on mobile data | 5 GB |
| A month on a project | Daily calls, some hotspot for a laptop | 15 to 20 GB |
| A field shoot or survey | Uploading photos or footage from the field | Size it on the files, not the days |
An hour of video calling uses roughly 0.5 to 1.5 GB, while a whole day of turn-by-turn navigation stays under 100 MB. If the plan runs short, adding data is cheaper in time than any workaround. Our guide to checking eSIM data usage shows travellers how to keep an eye on it.
A simple travel data policy
A policy does not have to be long. One page that answers these points stops most of the back-and-forth:
- Who gets data: everyone travelling for work, or only trips longer than a set number of days.
- How it is provided: roaming inside the EU, a managed eSIM everywhere else, and no airport SIMs on expenses.
- How much: a default package per trip type, and who can approve more.
- How to ask: travellers request an eSIM with their trip dates, and a named person approves it.
- Cancelled or moved trips: the traveller tells the approver, who pauses or withdraws the eSIM.
- Personal use: what is fine on a work eSIM, for example maps and messages home, and what is not.
- Security: company systems over the company VPN, whatever network the phone is on.
Put the request step where people already are. If travellers can ask for an eSIM from their own account and the approver sees it next to the trip, nobody needs a form, an email chain or a reminder.
Rolling it out in a week
- Day 1: list the countries your team visited last year and the trips already booked.
- Day 2: check the phones. Every traveller's phone must support eSIM, see the compatibility checklist, and IT must allow adding one on managed phones.
- Day 3: set up the account. With Zwitchy for Business, the admin signs the terms online, adds credit and invites the team.
- Day 4: build two or three default packages, for example a short trip, a week and a month.
- Day 5: send eSIMs for the next trips, a few days before departure, and share the policy.
- After that: check who has not installed before each departure, and review usage once a month.
Work phones, privacy and invoices
Company phones are often managed by IT, and that can block the install. Apple's own deployment guide lists restricting users from modifying eSIM settings among the controls a device management service can apply, so ask IT before the first trip rather than at the gate.
Restrict users from modifying eSIM settings on the device.
Usage data is personal data. A managed eSIM shows admins who used how much data, in which country and when. Under the GDPR, employees have to be told what is collected about them and why, so say it in the policy: usage is logged to manage the company's data, not to track people. With Zwitchy for Business the data is stored in the EU and covered by a data processing agreement.
Finally, the paperwork. Ask for invoices that carry your company name, address and VAT ID, reverse charge for EU companies, and one monthly statement, so finance books one line instead of a stack of receipts.
New to the idea? Start with what a business eSIM is and how it works. For the settings on the phone itself, dual SIM done right covers which line should do what.
What is the cheapest way to give employees data abroad?
It depends on where they go. Inside the EU, roaming on the company contract usually costs nothing extra. Outside it, a managed eSIM bought before the trip is usually cheaper and easier to control than roaming passes or airport SIMs.
Should employees use their own phones?
They can, if the phone supports eSIM. A business eSIM only carries data and sits next to their own SIM, so their number keeps working. Agree in the policy what the company pays for.
Can travellers keep their work number reachable?
Yes. The eSIM handles data while the work or personal SIM keeps the number for calls and texts. Make sure data is set to the eSIM and voice to the usual line.
What if someone runs out of data mid-trip?
With a managed eSIM, an admin adds data to the same eSIM from the dashboard. The traveller does not need a new QR code or a reinstall.
Do we need anything from IT?
Only on managed phones. Device management can stop users from adding an eSIM, so ask IT to allow it before the first trip.
