The kind of trip Thailand actually is
You came for two weeks. You're now five. Bangkok turned into Chiang Mai turned into Pai, and somewhere on Koh Phangan you booked a bus to the Cambodian border. Trips here stretch.
Roamzy charges $1.43 per gigabyte in Thailand, which is $0.0014 per megabyte. Real-time billing on actual usage. No expiry on the balance. No reset. No subscription you forgot to cancel. One per-MB rate across 193 countries — the same on day three as on day sixty-five.
How much does Roamzy cost over a long stay?
Take 1 GB/day as the realistic average. Hostels and cafés have Wi-Fi, so cellular is mostly for the street, for Grab, and for the long bus rides between cities:
| Trip length | Roamzy ($1.43/GB) | Local tourist SIM (re-bought) | Roaming on home number |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 weeks (14 GB) | $20.07 | $20–45 (8-day pack + top-up) | $80–180 ($5–13/day) |
| 1 month (30 GB) | $43.01 | $40–80 (two packs, mismatched windows) | $200–400 |
| 2 months (60 GB) | $86.02 | $80–160 (three to four packs back-to-back) | not realistic — nobody does this |
Competitor prices in columns 3 and 4 are 2025 ranges based on typical offerings; exact figures depend on your home carrier and the airport store you visit. Roamzy's rate in column 2 is our actual published rate from the pricing page.
A local Thai SIM in Bangkok looks cheap until you do the math on the trip's actual length. Eight-day "tourist packs" reset the balance and force re-registration each time. Six weeks is five SIM cards, five 7-Eleven queues, five passport scans. Roamzy has one rate — same for three days, same for three months.
What matters on a long trail?
The 2026 backpacker reality differs from the 2010 one in two ways.
- Internet cafés are gone as a category. Connectivity now lives only in the phone. There's no "30-baht computer hour" in Pai, on Koh Lanta, or in northern villages anymore — it's your phone or it's nothing.
- Hostel Wi-Fi is a lottery. Bangkok and Chiang Mai handle a video call. On the islands the network gets slammed in the evening and falls to 2–3 Mbps. Cellular goes from backup to primary.
- Google Translate is a tool, not a convenience. Thai menus without English are normal outside the tourist tracks. Camera mode on a hand-painted sign works only when you have data.
- Ride-hail is Grab, with Bolt as a backup. Local taxis without meters are their own genre; the apps neutralize that.
- LINE, not WhatsApp. Thai contacts — guides, hostel hosts, the masseuse you booked in November — all live in LINE.
Monthly data budget shapes up like this: maps ~5 GB, translator ~2 GB, messaging and home calls ~8 GB, Grab/Bolt ~1 GB, bookings and photo upload to Telegram ~10 GB, the rest is OS background traffic. That's the 30 GB month.
Where does Roamzy work in this country?
Thailand is telecom-mature, but the picture varies by region.
- Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Phuket, Samui — 5G in the centers, solid LTE around them. BTS and MRT (Bangkok metro) hold signal nearly everywhere except short tunnel runs.
- Krabi, Koh Samet, Koh Chang — stable 4G in tourist zones; on beaches more than 3 km from a village, signal thins.
- The north (Pai, Mae Hong Son, hill-tribe trekking) — spotty 4G. The serpentine road from Chiang Mai to Pai loses signal for 20–30 minutes at a stretch. GPS plus offline maps (Maps.me, Organic Maps) handle that; the eSIM picks up again as you drop into the valley.
- Smaller islands (Koh Lipe, Koh Kradan, the far side of Koh Tao) — 4G with gaps. If you're diving, expect signal only at the pier.
How do I install my Roamzy eSIM?
| Plug type | Voltage | Frequency | iOS | Android |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Type A, B, C, F | 230 V | 50 Hz | iPhone XS+ | Pixel 3+, Galaxy S20+ |
- Sign in to Roamzy via Telegram or Google
- Your first eSIM is free and comes with real data on us. After that, top up from $20 in stablecoins (USDT or USDC): no cards, no banks, no FX surcharges
- The QR code appears in your dashboard as soon as the eSIM is issued
- On the iPhone itself (iOS 17.4 or newer), tap Tap to install in the QR card; otherwise Settings → Cellular → Add eSIM → scan QR (do this before you fly)
- The counter starts the moment you land at Suvarnabhumi or Don Mueang
Supported stablecoins, networks, and common iPhone/Android setup errors are in the FAQ.
What are Roamzy's honest limitations?
Long-trip travelers historically lose money to three things: pack expiry, auto-renewing subscriptions, and the throttle clause. Roamzy doesn't close those traps — they don't exist in the product.
- No expiry on the balance. Loaded $50, used $12 on the first trip — the rest waits for the next one. Next year, the year after, still there.
- No auto-renewal. When the balance runs out, the eSIM stops. No background charge to a card you forgot about six months later.
- No throttling. One rate. The first GB and the hundredth cost the same $0.0014/MB.
That's the engineering consequence of selling bytes instead of packages. You can't price below this without re-introducing the small print, so we don't.
What if the trail continues across borders?
A long Southeast Asia route is the norm, not the exception. Roamzy uses one rate per country, no manual switching at borders — the eSIM finds the network in the new country and bills at that country's rate:
- Vietnam — the classic continuation through Cambodia, separate country rate
- Cambodia — the Poipet–Aranyaprathet crossing settles in minutes
- Laos and Malaysia — quieter or further south
- If you want context on why home-number roaming hits so hard — how roaming pricing actually works