Netherlands eSIM
Data for Netherlands on KPN and Vodafone, from $5.89. It never expires, tethering is included, and refills land on the line you already have, with nothing new to install.
- Networks
- KPN and Vodafone
- Typical speed
- 94 Mbps typical, 28 Mbps at busy times
- 5G
- yes, non standalone
- Throttle
- None on metered plans
- Tethering
- Allowed on every plan
Plans for Netherlands
| Data | Validity | Price per GB | Price | Buy |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 GB | Never expires | $5.89 | $5.89 | |
| 3 GB | Never expires | $2.63 | $7.89 | |
| 5 GBMost travellers | Never expires | $1.98 | $9.89 | |
| 10 GB | Never expires | $1.49 | $14.89 | |
| 20 GB | Never expires | $1.34 | $26.89 | |
| 50 GB | Never expires | $1.16 | $57.89 |
Every plan works the moment you land. Unused data returns to your wallet when the line closes, and customers get at least 100 MB of free rescue data a month even at zero balance.
What 94 Mbps actually means in Netherlands
Typical download speed on Orbislo in Netherlands: 94 Mbps. That puts Netherlands well above the Europe median of 71 Mbps.
The tenth percentile is 28 Mbps. That gap between the median and the floor is normal and it is where the frustration lives: the connection is quick most of the time and noticeably slow in the busiest few percent of moments, typically at transport hubs at peak hour.
At these speeds nothing on a phone is limited by the connection. Video calls are comfortable, a laptop can be tethered for a full working day, and large photo backups finish without planning around them.
Which networks you will be on
Orbislo carries traffic in Netherlands on KPN and Vodafone. Your phone is not tied to one of them. When the network you are attached to congests or drops, the profile moves you to the other, and it happens without a prompt and without you noticing anything except that the connection kept working.
This matters more than the headline speed. Almost every travel eSIM sold today resells a single upstream agreement per country, so when that one network has a bad hour you have a bad hour with it and your only option is to buy a second eSIM from somebody else. A profile with more than one network behind it can make a decision you never see.
5G in Netherlands: yes, non standalone. Worth knowing that 5G on a travel profile is normal rather than special, and that the tenth percentile above is the number that will decide how the trip feels, not the generation label in the status bar.
What data costs in Netherlands
A 500 MB plan for Netherlands starts at $0.32, which is $0.00 a gigabyte. That is the number to compare between providers, because a headline price attached to a different allowance tells you nothing.
The comparison most providers would rather you did not run is cost per gigabyte actually used. Independent surveys of travel data put the share of purchased data lost to expiry between 20 and 35 percent, because a plan that expires on day thirty deletes what you did not get through. Orbislo data has no expiry date, so the gigabyte you paid for is still there on the next trip. At the same headline price that is 25 to 40 percent more usable data, and in Netherlands it means the effective cost is nearer $0.00 a gigabyte than $0.00.
Because nothing expires, the cheapest way to buy for Netherlands is to buy slightly less than you think you need and top up if you run out. Topping up takes about ten seconds and does not involve installing anything. Buying too much is the expensive mistake everywhere else and merely a neutral one here.
Landing in Netherlands
Install before you fly, on your home wifi. The profile downloads while you still have a connection you trust, then sits dormant until you land in Netherlands and it attaches to KPN.
On landing there is one thing to check: data roaming has to be switched on for the Orbislo line. It is off by default on both iOS and Android, and it has nothing to do with roaming charges here, because the plan is prepaid and there is no bill to run up. Turn it on for the Orbislo line and leave it off for your home line, and your home number keeps working for calls and bank codes without costing anything.
Coverage across Netherlands
The figures above cover Netherlands as a whole, and a national figure hides real variation. We publish separate figures for Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Utrecht, because the difference between a capital and a coastal town is usually larger than the difference between two countries.
Outside the cities, coverage follows the same pattern it does everywhere: the main roads and the tourist corridors are well served, and it thins in the mountains and on the water. No travel eSIM changes that, because it is the same physical network the local population uses. What a multi network profile changes is which of the available towers you get to use.
Worth knowing about Netherlands
- An allowance from another country inside the roam like at home area is used in the Netherlands at home prices, and the regulator's list of countries where that holds runs to the 27 European Union states plus Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway.
- The Caribbean Netherlands is a separate telecoms jurisdiction. Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba run under the Wet Telecommunicatievoorzieningen BES rather than the Dutch telecoms act, with the competition authority and the radio inspectorate splitting the oversight.
- Calling 112 in the Netherlands needs neither credit nor a SIM card. If your own network is unavailable, the phone connects to any other network in range, Dutch or foreign, because emergency calls take priority under international standards.
- When a 112 call comes in through a network other than the caller's own, or from a phone without a SIM, the control room does not see the number and location and has to ask for them, so be ready to say where you are.
- Dutch mobile operators must carry 112 calls over every technology they use for ordinary calls, including calls over 4G and Wi-Fi calling, a rule in force since July 2021. It covers operators' own voice services, not calls made through apps such as WhatsApp or FaceTime.
- Anonymous prepaid numbers exist in the Netherlands. After pressure from the competition authority, mobile operators give the 112 control room information on which numbers are anonymous prepaid, since staff then have to ask the caller for identity details during the call.
- NL-Alert warnings arrive by cell broadcast from the masts of KPN, Odido and VodafoneZiggo, so a phone needs coverage from one of them. It does not need a subscription with that network or even a SIM card, but alerts never arrive over Wi-Fi alone.
- The Dutch government sends an NL-Alert test message twice a year, on the first Monday of June and of December, so a loud alarm on your phone on those days is expected.
- Since 1 July 2019, anyone riding a vehicle in the Netherlands, cyclists included, may not hold a phone, tablet or media player while moving. A phone in a handlebar holder may be used, and the ban does not apply while stopped.
- For police help that is not urgent, the Netherlands uses 0900-8844, and the fire service has its own non-emergency number, 0900-0904. Both are staffed around the clock, and calls to them may carry a charge.
- The Dutch suicide prevention line answers on 113 or 0800-0113 for anyone with suicidal thoughts or worried about someone else, and 144 is the number for animals in acute distress or injured animals.
- Deaf and hard-of-hearing people and those with a speech impairment can reach a Dutch emergency control room by text through the e-SMS service, but must register once beforehand by texting the word aanmelden to 112.
- Anyone can use the 112NL app in an emergency after first dialling 112. Its chat function translates the conversation, which helps callers who speak neither Dutch nor English.
How Netherlands compares across Europe
- Regional typical speed
- 71 Mbps
- Upstream networks
- 2, KPN, Vodafone
- 5G
- Yes, non standalone
- Next fastest nearby
- Estonia, 95 Mbps
- Next slowest nearby
- Luxembourg, 91 Mbps
- Cities with their own page
- 3: Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Utrecht
