Philippines eSIM

Data for Philippines on Globe and Smart, from $6.89. It never expires, tethering is included, and refills land on the line you already have, with nothing new to install.

Networks: Globe and Smart
Typical speed: 34 Mbps typical, 8 Mbps at busy times
5G: partial, on the main islands and in the cities
Throttle: None on metered plans
Tethering: Allowed on every plan

An Orbislo eSIM for Philippines starts at $0.30 for 100 MB and runs on Globe and Smart. Typical download speed is 34 Mbps, fine for maps and messaging, tight for video. Install the line for Philippines in one tap before you fly, turn on data roaming when you land, and the data never expires.

Plans for Philippines

Data plans for Philippines
Data	Validity	Price per GB	Price
1 GB	Never expires	$6.89	$6.89
3 GB	Never expires	$3.30	$9.89
5 GBMost travellers	Never expires	$2.78	$13.89
10 GB	Never expires	$2.09	$20.89
20 GB	Never expires	$1.84	$36.89

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 34 Mbps actually means in Philippines

Typical download speed on Orbislo in Philippines: 34 Mbps. That is below the Asia median of 43.9 Mbps, so plan around it rather than being surprised by it.

The tenth percentile is 8 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.

Maps, messaging, ride hailing and payment apps all work without complaint. Video calls connect but will drop resolution, and streaming is better set to standard definition than left on automatic. Tethering a laptop works for email and documents rather than for calls.

Which networks you will be on

Orbislo carries traffic in Philippines on Globe and Smart. 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 Philippines: partial, on the main islands and in the cities. A well provisioned 4G cell comfortably outruns a congested 5G one, which is why the figure above is throughput rather than a network generation.

A single carrier provider cannot make this move.

What data costs in Philippines

A 100 MB plan for Philippines starts at $0.30, 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 Philippines it means the effective cost is nearer $0.00 a gigabyte than $0.00.

Because nothing expires, the cheapest way to buy for Philippines 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 Philippines

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 Philippines and it attaches to Globe.

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 Philippines

The figures above cover Philippines as a whole, and a national figure hides real variation. We publish separate figures for Manila, Cebu, Palawan and Boracay, 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.

Getting a local SIM in Philippines

A SIM bought in the Philippines is not activated until it is registered. A tourist registers with a passport, proof of an address in the Philippines and a return or onward ticket showing the date and time of departure, and a buyer who cannot meet those requirements is left with a dead SIM.

What is restricted in Philippines

Passing on a SIM: Selling or handing a registered Philippine SIM to someone else without the new user going through registration is a crime, punishable by six months to six years in prison, a fine of 100,000 to 300,000 pesos, or both. A SIM should not be given away on leaving.
False registration details: Registering a Philippine SIM with false or fictitious information, a fictitious identity or a fraudulent identity document is punishable by six months to two years in prison, a fine of 100,000 to 300,000 pesos, or both.
App blocking: In September 2026 the government blocked Discord for several hours. The ban was carried out through the National Telecommunications Commission, with telecom companies and internet providers excluding the platform's web address from about 5 pm on a Wednesday until it was lifted the next day.
Signal shutdowns, Manila: For the Black Nazarene procession in January 2020 the regulator ordered Smart and Globe to cut all network services along the route in Quiapo, Manila, from 11 pm on 8 January to noon on 10 January. Smart also switched off some cell sites in nearby cities.
Signal shutdowns, Cebu: For the January 2023 Sinulog festival a regulator memorandum directed telecom companies to cut all network services during three events, including six hours across Cebu, Mandaue and Lapu-Lapu for the dawn fluvial procession and 5 am to 7 pm downtown for the grand parade.

Worth knowing about Philippines

A Philippine SIM registered by a tourist is valid for thirty days only and is deactivated automatically when that period runs out, so a longer stay means going back to the counter.
Registration of a Philippine SIM has to be free to the end user by law, and the accepted submission of the form is itself the certificate of registration.
The Philippines uses 911 as its single nationwide emergency number. It replaced the old Patrol 117 line in 2018, and the executive order that created it requires every call to 911 to be free of charge.
Prepaid load in the Philippines expires one year after the latest top-up, whatever the amount, and operators may offer longer. Promos and bundles sold with their own stated period of use are excluded from that rule and run out on their own schedule.
Foreign nationals on visas other than a tourist visa register with a passport, proof of a Philippine address and a document such as an Alien Employment Permit, an ACR I-Card or school registration. The thirty day limit in the law applies only to SIMs registered by tourists.
When a registered SIM is lost, the operator must deactivate it within 24 hours of being told. Registration details stay confidential and are released to investigators only under a subpoena linked to a sworn complaint that the number was used in a crime.

How Philippines compares across Asia

Regional typical speed: 42.95 Mbps
Upstream networks: 2, Globe, Smart
5G: Partial, main islands and cities
Next fastest nearby: Mongolia, 35 Mbps
Next slowest nearby: Kyrgyzstan, 33 Mbps
Cities with their own page: 4: Manila, Cebu, Palawan, Boracay

Cities in Philippines

Questions about Philippines

Will my phone work in Philippines?

If it supports eSIM and is not carrier locked, yes. We check your exact model before you pay and tell you plainly if it will not work, rather than taking the money and leaving you to find out on arrival.

Which network will I be on in Philippines?

Globe or Smart. Orbislo moves you to whichever is performing better where you are standing, without asking you and without you noticing.

How fast is the data really?

Typical download speed is 34 Mbps, and 8 Mbps when the network is busy. The busy figure is the one to plan around: it is what you can expect when the cell is crowded.

Does the data expire?

No. There is no validity window on wallet gigabytes, and anything left over from a country pack returns to your wallet when the pack ends. This is the single largest difference between what you pay here and what you pay elsewhere.

Can I keep my normal phone number in Philippines?

Yes. The Orbislo profile is a second line, so your home number stays active for calls and texts on its own line. Turn data roaming off for the home line and on for Orbislo, and set up wifi calling before you fly so bank codes still reach you.

Can I tether a laptop?

Yes, on every plan, at the same allowance as your phone data and at no extra cost. At 34 Mbps expect a tethered laptop in Philippines to be fine for email and documents and strained by video calls.

What if I run out of data in Philippines?

Customers, meaning anyone who bought from Orbislo in the last 12 months or holds a subscription, get at least 100 MB of free rescue data once a calendar month, loaded onto the line they are using in Philippines when the balance runs out. It exists so you are never in the position of needing data in order to buy data. Topping up takes about ten seconds and installs nothing.

Is Orbislo cheaper than the alternatives in Philippines?

At $0.00 a gigabyte, the number that matters is what the data you actually use costs you. Expiry destroys 20 to 35 percent of a pack elsewhere. Ours never expires, so on cost per gigabyte used we are ahead almost everywhere.

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