How it works
Three steps, then refills land on their own.
You set up the app and your balance once. Each destination's line installs in one tap, and while that line is valid every refill lands on it with nothing new to install. Most of Europe runs on a single line, so a trip through several countries there starts with one install.
How it works
One app.
One balance for every trip.
Set up at home
Set up Orbislo on your own wifi before you fly. Your destination's line installs in one tap, with no QR code to photograph.
Land anywhere
Your line reaches a partner network as soon as the phone comes off airplane mode, so you are online before passport control.
Get on with your trip
Next country, next year, next trip. Same app, same balance, and your leftover gigabytes are still waiting.
What is actually different
One app, one balance, every trip
Per trip eSIMs sell you a ticket that dies on a date, and your phone fills up with dead profiles. With Orbislo you keep one balance in one app. The first time you use it in a destination, that destination's line installs in one tap, and after that refills arrive on the line you already have.
Gigabytes you own
You buy balance rather than tickets. Nothing expires, and data loaded on a line that you did not use goes back to your balance when the line closes.
Free rescue data
Customers get 100 MB of free data once a calendar month, loaded onto the line you are using when your balance runs out, so you can always reach the app and top up. A customer is anyone who bought from Orbislo in the last 12 months or holds a subscription.
The numbers, before you pay
The carriers you will be on, the typical speed, and the exact throttle threshold. All of it above the price rather than below it.
It switches networks for you
If the carrier you are on gets congested we move you to a better one mid trip. You find out from a notification afterwards.
Help that works offline
Our assistant runs on your phone, so it answers when you have no signal at all. For anything it cannot solve, our team replies by email, usually within a few hours.
The sequence, with the real numbers
Four things happen, and only two of them need you.
- Buy. Pick a destination or top up the wallet. Payment and provisioning take about a minute, and if provisioning fails the charge is refunded automatically inside 60 seconds.
- Install the line in one tap. From iOS 17.4 there is no QR code and no camera. On Android 13 and later, tapping Install opens the system installer.
- Turn data roaming on for the Orbislo line, while you are still at home on wifi. This is the step people most often skip.
- Land. Take the phone out of airplane mode. Your Orbislo line attaches to a local network, usually in 20 to 45 seconds, and about 90 seconds at a busy hub.
20 to 45 seconds
Typical attach after airplane mode off
60 seconds
Automatic refund when provisioning fails
When the first attach fails
It sometimes does, and the cause is almost never mysterious. Work down this table in order and stop at the first thing that changes.
If you reach the bottom and the line is still dark, ask Ori. The steps that get most lines back online are saved on the phone, so they show even with no connection.
| What you see | Almost always | The fix |
|---|---|---|
| No service on the Orbislo line | Data roaming is off | Turn Data Roaming on for the Orbislo line. |
| Connected but nothing loads | Mobile data still points at your home line | Set the Orbislo line as the mobile data line. |
| Works, then stops after an hour | Automatic data switching moved you back | Turn off Allow Cellular Data Switching on iPhone, or Auto switch data on Android. |
| Searching, and never attaches | The radio has not re registered since you landed | Airplane mode on for 20 seconds, then off. If it is still searching, restart the phone. |
| Still searching after a restart | Automatic selection picked a carrier with no agreement | Turn automatic network selection off and pick a carrier we list for that country. |
| The install itself failed | Provisioning, not your phone | Nothing to do. The charge comes back automatically inside 60 seconds. |
If none of these work, write to us. Our team replies by email, usually within a few hours.
The refund we owe you before you ask
If provisioning fails, the money goes back inside 60 seconds. No ticket, no form and no conversation. That is the rule, and it runs without a human.
The refund is tied to the order, not to a support queue. A sweep checks every order until its line is issued, and when a line cannot be set up the charge goes back to the card that paid for it. Wallet balance set aside for a line that never went live returns to your balance, where it never expires. You do not have to spot the failure for the refund to happen, and you never have to ask for it.
Tethering, and what it actually costs you
Tethering is included on every plan and there is no separate charge for it. Your laptop's traffic comes out of the same balance your phone uses, at the same speed.
Watch the size of it. A phone browsing for a day is a few hundred megabytes. A laptop syncing a photo library, running a video call and pulling operating system updates can move several gigabytes in an afternoon without you touching anything. Turn cloud backup off before you tether.
On the day pass, tethered traffic counts towards the 2 GB a day of full speed data, after which the line runs at 1 Mbps. That threshold is printed on the buy button rather than in the terms.
At the gate, and on the sofa
Almost every step here should be done at home, days early, on a wifi connection. Installing early costs nothing, because a profile is written on install and only starts spending data when it attaches in the destination country.
- On the sofa, a week before: install the profile, turn data roaming on for the Orbislo line, turn data roaming off on your home line, and switch on wifi calling. Wifi calling is the one thing most carriers will not let you enable once you are abroad.
- On the sofa, the night before: check your balance, and check which networks we hold where you are going. The typical speed sits next to each carrier rather than a green tick.
- At the gate: nothing, ideally. If you are reading this at the gate, install now on the airport wifi rather than after landing, because arrivals hall wifi tends to want an SMS code you cannot receive.
- On landing: take the phone out of airplane mode and wait. If it is still searching after a minute, airplane mode on for 20 seconds, then off again.