eSIM basics
Using your phone as a hotspot abroad: laptop, tablet and the kids
Your phone can share its mobile data with other devices. It becomes a small Wi-Fi router, and your laptop, tablet or your children's phones connect to it. Abroad, that means one travel eSIM can get the whole family online.
With Blue eSIM, hotspot is allowed on every plan, with no daily limit. Whatever data your plan has, you can share all of it.
How to turn on the hotspot
On iPhone, go to Settings > Personal Hotspot, turn on Allow Others to Join, and note the Wi-Fi password shown there.
On Android, go to Settings > Network & internet > Hotspot & tethering (or Connections > Mobile Hotspot and Tethering on Samsung) and turn on the Wi-Fi hotspot. You can change its name and password there.
Then connect the laptop or tablet to your phone's Wi-Fi network as you would to any other.
Make sure the phone uses the travel eSIM for mobile data first, and that data roaming is on for the eSIM. Otherwise the hotspot shares nothing, or worse, uses your home SIM.
Laptops use much more data than phones
This is the part that surprises people. A laptop thinks it is on normal Wi-Fi, so it downloads updates, syncs cloud folders and loads full websites. An hour on a laptop can use as much as a day on a phone.
Before you connect a laptop, switch off the background downloads.
On Windows, mark the hotspot as a metered connection in Settings > Network & internet > Wi-Fi, under the network's properties. Windows then holds back most updates.
On a Mac, recent versions of macOS treat an iPhone hotspot as a limited connection by themselves. Pause iCloud Drive and Photos syncing anyway while you're on it.
On both, pause Dropbox, OneDrive and Google Drive, and close browser tabs that play video on their own.
How much data will I need?
| What you do on the laptop | About how much data |
|---|---|
| Email and web browsing | 100 to 200 MB an hour |
| Video meetings (Zoom, Teams) | 0.5 to 1.5 GB an hour |
| Streaming a film in HD | 3 GB or more |
| A big software update | 1 to 5 GB |
If you plan to work from a laptop for a week, take 20 GB or more. Our data calculator helps with the phone side.
Sharing with the family
For a family day out, one parent's hotspot can keep the kids' tablets online in the car or at the beach. Keep the devices close, since a phone's hotspot reaches only a few metres. It also drains the battery fast, so bring a power bank or a car charger.
If the family splits up during the day, one eSIM each works better. Our family travel guide compares the two.
Frequently asked questions
Is hotspot allowed on Blue eSIM plans?
Yes, on every plan and with no daily limit. The devices you connect use your plan's data.
Why is my hotspot slow?
The hotspot is only as fast as the phone's own connection. Check the signal, and keep the phone near a window. Too many connected devices also slow it down.
Does the hotspot use more battery?
Yes, a lot. Plug the phone in if you share for more than an hour.