CES is the largest technology trade show in the world and one of the biggest single waves of business travellers into the United States each year. The 2026 edition’s audited attendance was 148,392, and 55,841 of them — 37.6% — came from outside the US, from 141 countries, regions and territories. CES 2027 runs on 6–9 January. For almost everyone there, the week is a string of meetings across several venues, and for exhibitors it is also a booth that has to work. All of it runs on a phone. This guide covers how to arrive with working data and what show week actually costs.
What, when, where
CES 2027 takes place on 6–9 January 2027 in Las Vegas, spread across several venues with the Las Vegas Convention Center at its centre. At the 2026 show more than 4,100 exhibitors filled over 2.6 million net square feet, including around 1,200 startups in Eureka Park. Press events run in the days before the show floor opens, so many exhibitors and journalists arrive early and the week stretches well past four days.
Why CES attendees and exhibitors need their own data
- Meetings across venues. A CES schedule is back-to-back meetings in different halls and hotels; calendar, maps and messages have to work all day.
- Getting between them. Rides and shuttles between venues, booked and tracked on the phone, often in a hurry.
- The booth. Demos, lead capture and email at the stand — and a phone hotspot is the standard fallback when the hall Wi-Fi is overloaded.
- Everything else. Badges, restaurant bookings, boarding passes and the flight home.
Connectivity reality on the show floor
Las Vegas has fast mobile networks, and outside the halls you will rarely think about them. Inside is different: tens of thousands of people and thousands of booths competing for the same air means show Wi-Fi is strained and cellular slows at the busiest hours too. Do not build a demo that depends on the venue network. Run it from your own phone hotspot, keep an offline version of anything critical, and save your meeting schedule and venue maps to the phone before the doors open.
What show week costs in data
Usage depends mostly on whether you are walking the floor or staffing a booth. A realistic sketch for a five-day trip:
| Day | What | Attendee | Exhibitor (laptop hotspot) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Arrival, badge pick-up | Maps, rides, messaging | ~200 MB | ~200 MB |
| Show days (×4) | Meetings, rides, email; demos over hotspot | ~400 MB/day | ~1 GB/day |
| Departure | Maps, boarding passes, messaging | ~150 MB | ~150 MB |
That is roughly 2 GB for an attendee and 4–5 GB for an exhibitor running a booth laptop over the phone. On Roamzy’s live United States rate of $0.0022 per MB — $2.25 per GB — that is about $4.51 for the attendee and $9.01–$11.26 for the exhibitor for the whole week. Roamzy does not restrict hotspot use, and because it is metered per megabyte with no packages at all, a heavy demo day and a quiet travel day each cost exactly what they used. If you are unsure where your own usage falls, see how much data you need for a trip.
United States practicalities with Roamzy
Install the eSIM at home before you fly and leave it switched off; turn it on when you land in Las Vegas (LAS) and it connects to US networks straight away — no shop, no queue on arrival. Keep your home SIM active alongside it so bank and two-factor codes still reach your own number. Current US rates are always on the United States page. If CES is one stop on a conference circuit, see our guides to Web Summit and GITEX Global, and the full international events calendar.
The bottom line
CES week is too expensive to lose to a dead connection — for an attendee it costs meetings, for an exhibitor it costs demos. Install before you fly, run the booth off your own hotspot rather than the hall Wi-Fi, and pay only for the megabytes the week actually uses.
FAQ
Do I need a US SIM card for CES?
No. A travel eSIM installed before you fly connects the moment you land, and your home SIM stays active for calls and verification codes.
Can I hotspot my booth laptop from the eSIM?
Yes. Roamzy does not restrict hotspot use, and since billing is per megabyte you simply pay for what the laptop pulls. Plan on roughly 1 GB a day if you run demos and email through it.
How much will CES week cost me in data?
About $4.51 for an attendee using around 2 GB, and $9.01–$11.26 for an exhibitor hotspotting a laptop at 4–5 GB, at the current US rate of $2.25 per GB. Any balance left over never expires.