eSIM for Business Travel: Staying Connected on Work Trips (2026)

An eSIM for business travel gives your phone local mobile data at your destination while your usual work number stays on the phone for calls and texts. Install it before you fly, switch mobile data to the travel line when you land, and you can join video calls, tether your laptop and reach email without paying your carrier’s daily roaming fee.

The catch on a work trip is rarely the eSIM itself. It is the company phone you are not allowed to change, the client who calls your Canadian number, the hour-long video call over mobile data, and the hotel Wi-Fi your security team would rather you skipped. This guide works through each one, with a setup table for the most common trip types.

Company phone or personal phone: where does the eSIM go?

Start with the device question, because it decides everything else. Many employers manage their phones with mobile device management (MDM) software, which lets IT control apps, settings and sometimes mobile plans. Whether your company allows you to add an eSIM is a policy decision, and it varies from one employer to the next.

So ask before you travel. Send IT a short note with your destinations, your dates and the fact that you want to add a data-only travel eSIM for mobile data. Some teams will say yes, some will say no, and some will issue a travel device instead. The Canadian Centre for Cyber Security’s guidance on mobile devices and business travellers suggests requesting a dedicated travel device from IT for high-risk trips, so do not be surprised if that is the answer for some destinations.

If the travel eSIM goes on your personal phone instead, you still have options. You can tether the work phone or laptop to it (see the hotspot section below), as long as your company permits that kind of connection.

Whichever phone you use, it has to support eSIM and be unlocked. Our compatibility checker and our guide to checking if your phone is eSIM compatible cover both checks in a couple of minutes.

How do you keep your work number reachable abroad?

Our plans are data only. They do not come with a phone number, so they do not replace your work line for regular calls and SMS. On a Dual SIM phone, that is an advantage: the travel eSIM handles internet while your usual line stays active for calls and texts.

Apple’s guide to using Dual SIM with an eSIM shows the setup on iPhone. You pick one line as your default for calls and texts and choose which line carries cellular data. Only one number uses cellular data at a time, so set the travel eSIM as the data line and leave your work number as the default for calls.

Two points matter on a work trip:

• Your carrier’s roaming rules still apply to the work line. If you answer calls on it abroad, that line is roaming. Check your plan or company policy for how those calls are billed.
• Internet calling uses the travel eSIM’s data. Teams, Zoom, WhatsApp and similar apps work over mobile data, so clients and colleagues can reach you on those without the work line using data at all.

Apple also notes that while you are on a call on one line, calls to the other line may go to voicemail unless Wi-Fi Calling or cellular data switching is set up. If you expect important calls, set up call forwarding or a clear voicemail greeting before you leave. Our guide to keeping your Canadian number with Dual SIM covers the settings step by step.

Sign-in codes and two-factor authentication

Work accounts often send sign-in codes by text message. The Government of Canada’s page on cyber security while travelling warns that multifactor authentication may not work when roaming or with an in-country SIM. Before you fly, ask IT whether you can switch to an authenticator app or a hardware key, and sign in to the accounts you need while you are still at home.

How much data do video calls use on a business trip?

Email, messaging and maps barely move the needle. Video calls are what drain a business traveller’s data plan, especially when you join them from a taxi or tether a laptop.

Zoom’s system requirements page lists the bandwidth it recommends for each kind of meeting. Converting those rates into data per hour gives a useful upper estimate for budgeting:

Call type (Zoom recommendation)	Recommended bandwidth	Data per hour if fully used
Audio only (VoIP)	60–80 kbps	About 55–70 MB (both directions)
Screen sharing, no video	50–75 kbps	About 25–35 MB per direction
One-to-one video, 720p	1.2 Mbps up and down	About 1 GB
Group video, 720p	2.6 Mbps up / 1.8 Mbps down	About 2 GB
Group video, 1080p	3.8 Mbps up / 3.0 Mbps down	About 3 GB

Real usage is often lower because apps adapt to the connection, but these figures are a safe way to plan. Three one-hour HD group calls a day for five days would be about 30 GB on their own.

Ways to cut video call data

• Turn your camera off when you are listening rather than presenting. Audio-only is a tiny fraction of HD video.
• Lower the resolution in the app’s video settings, or turn off HD.
• Switch to speaker view instead of a large gallery of faces, which pulls in more video streams.
• Join long calls on Wi-Fi you trust, such as a client’s office network, and save mobile data for travel days.

For everything else on the trip, our guide to how much data you need when travelling breaks down typical daily use by activity.

Using your phone as a hotspot for your work laptop

On many work trips the phone is the modem. Tethering your laptop to the travel eSIM gives you a private connection in an airport, a train or a conference hall where the venue Wi-Fi is overloaded.

Most of our plans allow hotspot, and each plan page shows this under “Coverage & networks”. Check it before you buy if tethering matters to you. Apple explains how to connect to an iPhone’s Personal Hotspot, and Google’s Android Help covers hotspot and tethering on Android.

Laptops are hungry. Cloud storage sync, operating system updates and backup software can download gigabytes the moment they see a connection. Pause syncing and updates before you tether, and set the hotspot connection as metered on Windows if your IT policy allows. Our guide to using your phone hotspot for a laptop while travelling has the full set of data-saving settings.

Tip: If you know you will tether every day, choose a larger data plan from the start. Topping up mid-trip is easy, but running out in the middle of a client presentation is not.

Is mobile data safer than hotel and airport Wi-Fi?

For work, generally yes. The Cyber Centre’s guidance for business travellers says to use your cellular data plan where possible and avoid unknown, unsecured or public Wi-Fi when accessing sensitive information. It also notes that in some countries hotel business centres and phone networks may be monitored, so treat no network as private.

The same guidance lists simple habits worth following on any work trip:

• Update your phone and laptop and back them up before you leave.
• Turn off Bluetooth, auto-connect and location features you do not need.
• Keep devices with you, and be mindful of people reading your screen in public.
• Change passwords for accounts you used abroad once you are home.

A travel eSIM does not replace your company VPN or its security rules. It simply removes one of the riskiest parts of a work trip: logging in to a shared network you know nothing about. The Government of Canada also advises activating eSIMs only through official provider channels and not scanning QR codes posted in public places. Your ArriGo QR code arrives by email, so install it from that email at home. Our guide to public Wi-Fi safety in airports and hotels covers what to do when Wi-Fi is the only option.

Buying eSIMs for a team travelling together

When several colleagues travel to the same conference or site visit, one person can handle connectivity for everyone. You can buy up to 10 eSIMs in one order and send all QR codes to yourself, or each one to its own email address. The QR codes arrive within about a minute.

Each eSIM installs on one phone only, so send each colleague their own code and ask them to install it at home on Wi-Fi. Validity days start when the eSIM first connects at the destination, not when it is installed, so there is no penalty for setting everything up a week early. Our guide to installing an eSIM before you fly is a useful link to forward with the codes.

A short checklist for team trips:

1. Confirm with IT which phones may take a travel eSIM.
2. Check every phone is eSIM compatible and unlocked.
3. Buy one eSIM per traveller, choosing a data size that matches each person’s role (presenters and people who tether need more).
4. Send each QR code to its owner, with a deadline to install it before departure.
5. Remind everyone to switch mobile data to the travel line when they land.

Which plan for a multi-country work trip?

Business trips often chain cities: a client in London, a trade show in Frankfurt, a day in Amsterdam. Instead of one eSIM per country, a regional plan covers them all.

• Europe plans come in 7, 15, 30, 90 and 180-day lengths and suit trips that stay within Europe. See the Europe plans.
• Global plans come in 7, 30, 90 and 365-day lengths and suit itineraries that cross regions, for example Europe and Asia on one trip. See the Global plans.
• Single-country plans make sense for a one-city trip, such as a conference in the United States or meetings in Japan.

Plans can connect to several local networks in each country, and each plan page lists them. Our networks page shows every operator our plans use, and our guide to which network to use in Europe explains why that matters in busy business districts.

Trip type to recommended setup

Trip type	Recommended setup	Watch out for
Short conference in one country	Single-country plan on the phone you will carry, work line kept on for calls	Venue Wi-Fi congestion; tether instead
Multi-city trip within Europe	Europe plan covering every stop	Plan length versus total trip length
Trip across several regions	Global plan	Data budget if you tether every day
Team trip to one event	One order of up to 10 eSIMs, each QR code emailed to its owner	Each eSIM installs on one phone only
Company phone managed by IT	Ask IT first; if blocked, eSIM on a personal phone with hotspot, if policy allows	Never work around a company policy
Video-heavy week	Larger data plan, camera off when listening, HD off	Laptop cloud sync while tethered
High-risk destination	Follow IT’s travel-device process and the Cyber Centre’s advice	Assume no network is private

What about carrier roaming on work trips?

Some employers simply pay for carrier roaming. It is convenient, but the daily fees add up quickly for a team. At October 2026 rates, Bell Roam Better is $16 a day internationally, capped at 20 charged days per line per billing period, as listed on Bell’s travel page. Rogers charges $18 a day internationally and also sells Travel Passes, with international passes from $45 for 3 days to $120 for 30 days. Telus Easy Roam is $18 a day internationally.

For a five-person team on a seven-day trip to Europe, daily roaming would be $560 on Bell and $630 on Rogers or Telus. On Rogers, a 7-day international Travel Pass would bring that to $375 for the team. Our comparison of Bell, Rogers and Telus roaming vs an eSIM shows how those costs compare with a travel eSIM.

Before your next work trip

Sort the device question with IT first, then check compatibility, buy the eSIM and install it at home. Set the travel line for data, keep your work line on for calls, and pause laptop syncing before you tether.

If you need help along the way, our help centre covers installation and settings. Browse all our destinations to find the plan that fits your itinerary.