Life in TransitA Digital Nomad in Asia

Unlimited mobile data in 55 countries!

Unlimited data can be obtained at a flat fee of US$7.99 per day.

Could this be the digital nomad’s dream come true? A little sticker that sits on top of your SIM card promises 3G data in 55 countries for a low price of 7.99 USD a day.

The Toronto based company, called KnowRoaming, created this device as a response to the exorbitant roaming fees that telcos charge you.

This is how it allegedly works. You stick this thin device on top of your existing SIM card and leave it in your phone. It lies dormant until you connect to one of the partnered roaming telcos.

It’s fitting that this company is from Canada, where mobile data ranks among the highest in the world. The 7.99 USD fee is low for what Canadian telcos will charge you for roaming.

While this sticker might help you to reduce the number of SIM cards you carry and ease the pain of entering the appropriate network settings for each SIM card, I feel it is most economical only if you pop into a country for a day or two.

In two of the most developed South East Asian countries they listed, Singapore and Thailand, you can get data at the following rates.

Singapore

  • 7 SGD for 1 GB for 7 days
  • 25 SGD for 14 GB for 7 days

Thailand

  • 399 THB for 1.5 GB for 30 days
  • 999 THB for 4 GB for 30 days

This makes the cost of using a local SIM card much less than the KnowRoaming’s solution.

Although you can pay for unlimited data, you are not going to use that much data if you’re travelling. Especially if your hostel or hotel has Internet.

But if you tend to hop from country to country, spending no more than a couple of days in each, this device could add a lot of convenience.