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I'm looking to buy a SIM card – not an eSIM, as my phone doesn't support them – with a reasonable data allowance for Bolivia, and which ideally supports tethering. Because of how and where I'm entering the country, I'm not expecting to have the opportunity to buy one in a shop in Bolivia for several days, so I would like to find a way of getting one shipped to the UK. I'd be happy with an international SIM card that covers Bolivia, or one specific to that country, and cost is not a major factor. I'm really struggling to find anything. Almost every supposedly international SIM card I can find does not include Bolivia (e.g. OneSimCard). The one exception seems to be AIS's SIM2Fly cards, but so far as I can see, it is not possible to order these without a Thai ID card number. Can anyone help?

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    almost everywhere in Bolivia which has cell coverage also has shops which can sell SIM cards, but if you are entering the country by land and want to have service even before you get to a town, you could consider buying a SIM in the country you are coming from and activating roaming there
    – mlc
    Commented Sep 6 at 18:48
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    If you can only find eSIM's that support Bolivia, perhaps you can carry a mobile router that supports eSIM's and get connectivity through that?
    – Saaru Lindestøkke
    Commented Sep 6 at 22:01
  • @SaaruLindestøkke Thanks. I think you've found the solution for me. If you want to format that as an answer, I'll accept it.
    – Richard Smith
    Commented Sep 8 at 9:27
  • @RichardSmith Done, if you found a suitable router + eSIM combi, perhaps you can edit my answer to help future travellers as I can't find a working combination easily.
    – Saaru Lindestøkke
    Commented Sep 8 at 11:45
  • Note: (re-framing the question) there are also general sim cards: you can select a country and plan for each country (used by seafarers, so on cheap side). Note: you can only activate one country at a time.
    – Giacomo Catenazzi
    Commented Sep 9 at 7:24

2 Answers 2

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Not directly an answer to your question, but an alternative solution:
you can buy a mobile router (sometimes referred to as a MiFi router) that supports eSIM, load a Bolivian eSIM on it and use the router as a hotspot to provide connectivity to your devices.

Unfortunately I don't have a suggestion for a device, a brief internet search shows that the MOGO S2 provides eSIM connectivity, but the caveat is that (source).:

you can only use the MOGO eSIM. It is incompatible with other international eSIM carriers.

The MOGO eSIM does not support Bolivia unfortunately.

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    You may also be able to get a cheap second hand phone with esim functionality to use as a mobile router. Good mobile routers can easily cost hundreds, so other than battery life being weaker and phones liking to get warm while running wifi hotspots, it should be fine. You can go to gsmarena.com and pick a brand from the left, then filter by esim on top of the device list to see potential contenders. iPhone XS and XR support esim and cost 175eur in german ebay for example, pixel 2 is 110eur, pixel 4 is 150eur.
    – ave
    Commented Sep 9 at 9:51
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If your phone supports it (relatively modern android phone, made by certain manufacturers) you can use a physical SIM card that provides eSIM functionality through emulation, then buy an eSIM from a variety of providers.

One such provider of eSIM-emulating-SIMs is esim.me. You can install their app to check if your phone is supported. Do keep in mind that they mainly support installing eSIM profiles through QR codes, and some eSIM providers prefer having you install their app, and then directly install the eSIM to your phone instead, do your own research there.

I do have to say with my phone (Xiaomi 10T) I've had some amount of issues with esim.me, and I had to tweak some settings. Sometimes it stops responding to the app, and I need to remove the SIM and restart my phone before I can uses the app to switch eSIMs again.

I also found this list of other providers of such products, do note that this list aimed at a more technical crowd and you should stick to the "consumer eUICC cards" that are compatible with your device: https://euicc-manual.osmocom.org/docs/lpa/known-card/

Right now they list these four other providers:

While I have no experiences with any of these, making an objective analysis, they all look less locked down than esim.me (which has the card locked down to your phone model or brand on the more affordable tiers, forcing you to pay a fee if you change your phone), and generally the alternatives seem to cost less. estk and 9esim ship from HK, 5ber is unclear, esim.me and sysmocom ships from Germany, which may be relevant for shipping times and customs costs.

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    The question starts with "I'm looking to buy a SIM card – not an eSIM, as my phone doesn't support them". Are you talking about the same eSIM the question asker wants to avoid?
    – Saaru Lindestøkke
    Commented Sep 7 at 21:50
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    @SaaruLindestøkke No, I think this is a helpful suggestion. My phone doesn't support eSIMs, but a SIM that provides eSIM functionality allows you to use an eSIM in some models of phone that don't otherwise support eSIMs. That said, I also have a Xiaomi 10T, and this doesn't sound ideal for that model of phone.
    – Richard Smith
    Commented Sep 8 at 7:56
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    @SaaruLindestøkke it's a gadget that (half successfully) lets you use eSIMs on certain devices without eSIM support. The asker could then get a regular eSIM and have it work on their phone (sorta, shame that we have the same phone). I'd say that counts, see XY Problem.
    – ave
    Commented Sep 8 at 9:12
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    My bad, I misunderstood (and downvoted too quickly). Have added a clarification that this is a physical SIM card and upvoted instead.
    – Saaru Lindestøkke
    Commented Sep 8 at 11:35
  • @SaaruLindestøkke I'm not going to revert your edit but just as a technical nitpick the eSIM functionality is normally provided by an eUICC chip in the phone, and gadgets such as this are basically an eUICC chip on a SIM card form factor, with some added code so that the app can talk to it to install eSIMs and switch between profiles. While the eSIM installation/switch behavior is emulated, the actual eSIM handling is not exactly emulation.
    – ave
    Commented Sep 9 at 9:56

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