Orbislo lines
One balance for every trip. A line for every place you go.
A line is the eSIM that carries your data in one country, or across a whole region. Your balance is the part that lasts. This page explains how the two fit together, what the one tap does, what happens when you cross a border, and why nothing you pay for runs out on a calendar.
Your balance, and the lines it feeds
An eSIM profile is a set of credentials written to the small reprogrammable chip inside your phone. Those credentials tell a network who you are and who pays for you. At Orbislo each profile is a line, and each line is issued for a place: a country, or a region such as most of Europe. Your data does not live on the line. It lives in your balance, which belongs to your account and has no end date.
That split is what lets the balance stay permanent. The gigabytes you buy are credited to your account, not welded to a profile with an expiry printed on it. When you need data somewhere, the app loads a portion of your balance onto that place's line, and data leaves your balance only as you use it. The wallet is one balance for every trip, and the lines are how it reaches the network in front of you.
Your balance works in 197 destinations, each with its own draw rate. In 53 of them a wallet gigabyte is a full local gigabyte. Networks that cost more to reach draw at their own published multiple, so you always know what a gigabyte of your balance buys where you are standing.
The first time you use your balance somewhere
You open the app, pick the destination, and tap. Orbislo issues the line for that place, or a regional line that also covers its neighbours, and you install it with one tap. On a current iPhone or Android phone there is no QR code to scan and no second screen to find. Do it at home on your own wifi the night before you fly, and the line is waiting when you land.
If you have added a trip, the app suggests the destination before you leave. If you have not, it can suggest one from the network your phone has found after landing. Either way the choice is yours, and the line you install is the one for the place you are actually in.
When you land, take the phone out of airplane mode and the line attaches to a local network. If you installed before the flight, that is the whole arrival. If you forgot, the airport wifi is enough to open the app and install, and your balance is already there waiting for a line to carry it.
Refills land on the line you already have
Once a destination's line is on your phone, every refill for that place goes onto it automatically while the line is valid. Run low halfway through a week in Japan and the next portion of your balance arrives on the same line, with nothing new to install and no setting to change. You keep using the phone and the line keeps working.
Each line is valid for a set period, so a later trip may get a fresh line. Come back to the same country next spring and the app may issue a new one, which installs with the same single tap. Your balance does not care which line it lands on. It is the same balance, drawn at the same rate for that destination, whichever line carries it.
The app lists every line you hold: the place each one covers, whether it is open, and how much of the current portion you have used. One app and one balance, however many trips you take.
Side by side
| Orbislo | Typical single trip eSIM | |
|---|---|---|
| Where your data lives | One balance in the app, for every destination | Inside one eSIM, for one trip |
| Data you do not use | Returns to your balance when the line closes | Deleted when the validity window ends |
| When your data expires | Never | At the end of the window |
| Topping up on the same trip | Lands on the line you already have | Often a new purchase |
| Your next destination | Its line installs in one tap | A new purchase and a new install |
| Several countries in Europe | Most of them on one regional line | Depends on the product you bought |
| Installing | One tap in the app | Often a QR code sent by email |
197
Destinations where your balance works
53
Where a wallet gigabyte is a full local gigabyte
1
Tap to install a destination's line
100 MB
Rescue data at least once a month for customers
Regional lines: most of Europe on one
Some lines cover a region rather than a single country. Most of Europe runs on one line, so a trip through several European countries can start with one install. Cross a border inside the region and the same line keeps working, and refills for any country it covers land on it.
Where a regional line covers a destination, the app can issue that instead of a single country line, so one install carries the whole trip. Where a destination has no regional line, it gets its own. Either way your balance draws at the rate of the country you are in, and the data you do not use comes back to your balance when the line closes.
One tap to install
Each line installs from the app with one tap. You do not wait for an email or hunt for a second screen to show a QR code, and you can do it the night before you fly.
Your balance stays with your account
Lines are issued for places. Your balance, your Miles and your history belong to your account, so they are the same in every destination and on every line.
When your balance runs low
A balance that never expires still gets used, and the worst moment to find that out is on arrival with no wifi in sight. Orbislo customers, meaning anyone who has bought from us in the last twelve months or holds a subscription, get at least 100 MB of rescue data once a calendar month. It loads onto the line you are using when your balance runs out, so you can always reach the app and top up.
A top up credits your balance straight away, and the next refill lands on the line you already have. If you want to plan ahead, open the app before you go and look at the networks in that country, the draw rate, and what a trip like yours is likely to use. The same coverage figures are on the coverage pages, and you can read them without installing anything first.
What a line needs from your phone
A line runs on any eSIM capable phone, and that is the one requirement. An eSIM is hardware soldered into the handset rather than an app, so check yours on the device list before you buy, which takes a few seconds. A small number of countries, and some carrier locked handsets, do not accept third party eSIM profiles at all, and where that applies the country page says so before you reach a payment screen. If a line ever fails to provision, the order refunds itself automatically, with no ticket to open.
Your phone stores a limited number of eSIM profiles: between 8 and 10 on most recent iPhones, with 2 active at a time. Because refills land on the line you already have, topping up never adds a profile. Once a line has closed and its unused data is back in your balance, you can delete it from your phone's settings and lose nothing.