on 31-01-2026 18:42
I have just returned from a 2-week trip to Kenya and have received a bill of £127 from O2 due to roaming charges. I purchased an e-sim for the trip, and was not expecting to pay O2 travel charges (£7 per day, which massively exceeds standard costs of an e-sim). When I arrived in Kenya, I received a text message from O2 saying "Welcome to KENYA. If you want to use data while you are here, you will need to by an O2 Zone 3 bolt on. See our pricing here...". I did not of course purchase the bolt on as I already had an e-sim. This text message led me to believe that O2 data would not be made available to me. I have never signed up to O2 travel, and I feel its unfair that this automatically gets activated, and ridiculous charges applied, when the customer never wanted or requested this service.
on 31-01-2026 19:16
Cant see how an eSIM makes any difference. It is just an electronic version of a normal SIM and you may be Glad you had travel or that bill would be a lot larger
https://www.o2.co.uk/international/using-your-phone-abroad
Seems you confused a standard network eSIM with one of the Travel eSIMs offered by various companies
An expensive mistake and a learning experience