Using an Ubigi eSIM in Japan

Interesting:

have you tried / used Airalo in Japan?
any good?

I've heard good things about Airalo, just not for Japan specifically. Apparently they use the AU network while Ubigi uses NTT DoCoMo.

When you were in Japan, via UBIGI eSIM, was your IP address in Japan, or were you routed through a 3rd party roaming partner in another country, thus increasing the latency? Often, these eSIM providers are routing you through some far away countries, thus increasing latencies... eg: Airalo SIMs are typically based in Europe, but provide service in USA over the Atlantic.

Good question, but I don't have a good answer for you. I do recall that ping times were higher than usual, so it's certainly possible. The service was still very usable, though!

Is anyone aware of a good esim app similar to Airalo or Ubigi or Dent, but which would give you a US based SIM, without roaming and therefore with good ping times? All of the ones I've tried give you a European or Asian SIM card, which roams in USA and performance is lower than a local eSim from a local provider.

Nothing performs better nor is cheaper than a local SIM for data.

For T&T use a Ultra Mobile PAYGO $3/mo via WiFi calling over that local data or wifi

Not quite true - there is one area where a regional or roaming eSIM performs better than a local eSIM ... and that is in the fact that typically a roaming SIM can connect to mulitple local networks and will find the strongest network to connect to, while a local SIM will be stuck on just one network. If you're in an area where that one network is not working well, you're stuck, while with a roaming SIM, you can just switch to another network. This is great to have the best possible coverage, as a tourist and never be stranded with no signal.

Such issues are more likely a phone mismatch on RF bands unless buying local devices.

Most international roaming agreements are with only one operator per country.

And local SIMs are usually so much cheaper, carrying several and swapping is a better solution for high GB use cases.

I disagree... most of the eSIM deals whether from AIRALO, UBIGI, NOMAD, KEEPGO, DENT, etc do have more than 1 network in most countries, eg in USA, many give you access to ATT+TMO and in Canada, often, you get all 3 - Rogers,Bell,Telus. In the UK, you can get EE+3 or O2+3 or a combination of quite a few, in many European countries. This is actually the beauty of those eSIM sites like AIRALO or KEEPGO, where you can get a roaming eSIM that works across many European countries and gives you multiple networks in each country.

In fact, most of these eSIM companies are based in Europe (eg: Estonia, Poland, etc) and so the roaming is pretty local to Europe and if you're in Europe, you get decent latency. So I would actually say that if you're travelling to Europe, a local SIM is not always the best option, but something like AIRALO or KEEPGO may be a better option, to give you an easy eSIM you can install before you arrive, and you have access to multiple networks and never have issues with reception and since they're EU based already, latency is decent.

Of course, for pure speed, you'd go with a local SIM Card, but you have the inconvenience of having to find, purchase and activate it, sometimes needing to provide the passport/ID and paying with local currency, and you are only going to be stuck on one network and who knows if it's the best network in the area you're in... with eSIM, you have more flexibility.