What is a business eSIM? How it works for teams
A business eSIM is a data-only eSIM that a company buys, sends and manages for an employee's trip. The company picks the country, data and days, follows usage and pays one invoice. The traveller installs it with one tap and keeps their own SIM for calls and texts.
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Most companies still handle travel data the old way. Someone roams on the company contract and the bill arrives a month later, or someone buys a SIM at the airport and hands in a crumpled receipt. A business eSIM moves that decision to before the trip, into the hands of the person who books it.
This guide explains what a business eSIM is, how it differs from a personal travel eSIM and from roaming on a carrier contract, how the day-to-day works, and which teams get the most out of it. If you already know you want one, Zwitchy for Business is where to request access.
Business eSIM, travel eSIM or roaming: the difference
All three get a phone online abroad. What changes is who chooses the plan, who can see what happens, and who deals with the paperwork afterwards.
| Business eSIM | Personal travel eSIM | Roaming on a company contract | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who buys it | The company, before the trip | The employee, then claims it back | Nobody: it starts when the phone lands |
| Who controls it | An admin can pause it or add data | Only the employee | The carrier's rules and caps |
| What you can see | Usage per person and country | A receipt per purchase | A line on next month's bill |
| Paperwork | One balance and one invoice with your VAT ID | One expense claim per trip | Carrier invoice, often split by number |
| Phone number | Stays on the employee's own SIM | Stays on the employee's own SIM | Same SIM, same number |
Roaming is not always expensive. Inside the EU, the Roam like at Home rules let most travellers use their home allowance in the 27 member states, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway, and since January 2026 in Moldova and Ukraine too. The regulation runs until 2032. The catch for companies is everywhere else: the UK, Switzerland, TĂźrkiye, the US and Asia are outside it, and that is where the surprise bills come from. Our guide to where your EU roaming actually stops maps the border.
The validity of this Regulation is set for 10 years, until 2032.
How it works, step by step
With Zwitchy for Business, the whole flow is built for an office manager, so nobody in IT has to set anything up.
- Request access. Once approved, create your Zwitchy account with the same work email, and accept the business terms and the data processing agreement online.
- Build a package: the countries, the data and the number of days. Everything is shown before you confirm.
- Send it. Pick a person and a package, add the trip date if you know it, and the traveller gets an email with a one-tap install link, a QR code and your company logo.
- The traveller installs it before take-off. The package days only start when the eSIM first connects at the destination, and if it is still not installed the day before the trip, they get a reminder.
- Follow the trip. Usage shows up per person and per country, and you can add data or pause the eSIM from the dashboard.
Travellers can also ask for an eSIM themselves from their Zwitchy account. The request lands with the admin, who approves it with one click or declines it.
What a company actually gets
The point of a business eSIM is not cheaper data for one trip. It is control and paperwork that work for a whole team, month after month.
- Control: pause an eSIM in one click when a trip is cancelled and resume it just as fast. Add data to an eSIM someone is already using, with no new QR code and nothing to reinstall.
- Visibility: a usage log with the person, the country, the megabytes and the time, plus a list of who has not installed yet. Departments and cost centres keep it sorted for finance.
- One balance, one invoice: prepaid credit by bank transfer or card, invoices that carry your company name, address and VAT ID, reverse charge for EU companies, and a monthly statement.
- Data protection: company and traveller data is stored in the EU, in a database in Ireland, and covered by a data processing agreement your admin signs online.
- Less plastic: every eSIM is a plastic SIM card that never gets made. The dashboard counts the SIMs and the CO2e your team has avoided.
The CO2 figure comes from an independent lifecycle study by Fraunhofer IZM for Giesecke+Devrient, which put a physical SIM card at 229 g CO2e over its life and an eSIM at 123 g. Compared with buying a physical travel SIM, that is about 106 g CO2e avoided per eSIM.
If your phones are managed by IT, ask them one question before the first trip: are employees allowed to add an eSIM? Apple lets device management restrict eSIM changes on company iPhones, and a locked phone will refuse the install.
Who it suits, and who it doesn't
Business eSIMs pay off where people travel often, to many countries, and someone has to answer for the bill afterwards.
- Consultancies and agencies: client-site teams land connected, and every euro of data is traceable to a person and a project.
- Distributed teams: offsites and workations without anyone hunting for a local SIM at the airport, and one place to see who is where.
- Field and production crews: shoots and surveys in 180+ countries, paid from one balance, with data added from the office when a laptop on hotspot eats the plan.
They are not for everything. A business eSIM is data only, so it brings no local phone number, and calls and texts stay on the employee's own SIM. The phone must support eSIM, which most phones from the last few years do; our compatibility checklist covers the exceptions. And it is not for resale: it is for your own people.
What to check before you choose a provider
- Coverage: every country your team actually travels to, including the awkward ones.
- Control: can an admin pause an eSIM, add data and see who has not installed?
- Invoices: does every invoice carry your VAT ID, and is there a monthly statement?
- Data protection: where is your data stored, and is there a DPA to sign?
- Sign-in: if you use Okta, Microsoft Entra ID or Google Workspace, is single sign-on available?
- Phones: do your people's phones support eSIM, and does IT allow adding one?
Two related reads: how eSIMs actually work, and our guide for managers on mobile data for employees abroad, with a policy you can copy.
What is a business eSIM?
A data-only eSIM that a company buys and manages for an employee's trip. The company chooses the country, data and days, sees usage and pays one invoice; the employee installs it with one tap.
Can employees keep their own phone number?
Yes. A business eSIM only carries data, so the employee's own SIM keeps their number for calls, texts and login codes. Both lines work side by side on any phone that supports dual SIM.
What happens if a trip is cancelled?
An admin can pause the eSIM in one click and resume it later. An eSIM nobody has installed yet can be withdrawn, and the package days only start when it first connects at the destination.
Can we add data to an eSIM someone is already using?
Yes. Top it up from the dashboard and the traveller keeps the same eSIM, with no new QR code and nothing to reinstall.
Who can see the usage data?
Your company's admins see usage per person, country and time. The data is stored in the EU and covered by the data processing agreement you sign, so tell your travellers what is logged.
