Taiwan is my favorite East Asian destination – perhaps even my favorite Asian country.
During the pandemic, I was in the country for a year (because the government extended everyone's stay/visa every month for 2.5 years).
And it was one of the few countries where life was close to normal.
So yeah, I have a soft spot for Taiwan 😳.
From mountains to tropical forests, staying connected while exploring the country is crucial.
So, while trying to find the best way to stay connected in Taiwan, I tried out eight travel eSIMs from various eSIM providers, including Airalo's Asialink (Asia) eSIM, and five Taiwanese SIM cards.
I spent over 100 USD for my Taiwan SIM card and travel eSIM review series – I went all out 😎.
I spent way more in 2020 because I was “stuck” in the country for about a year. It was probably the best country to be stuck in during the pandemic!
In most countries, getting a local SIM card is the cheapest way to stay connected (and you will have a local phone number, something you often do not get with a travel eSIM).
But installing an eSIM is quick, easy & convenient, as you do not have to queue up upon landing (after a long flight) or deal with SIM card registration requirements (such as getting your passport details captured in Taiwan – mandated by law).
And travel eSIMs, like Airalo's Asialink, are affordable (especially when you plan to visit multiple Asian countries).
But what matters is how the eSIM performed in Taiwan (and neighboring countries) – especially compared to the local mobile operators (and the network Asialink uses in the country).
Let's find out.
Original publication: 18th of January 2024. Last updated: 29th of February 2024.
Table of Contents
Airalo's List of Compatible eSIM-Supported Phones
Before I even focus on Airalo's Asialink (Asia) eSIM, does your phone support Airalo eSIMs?
If you have an eSIM-compatible smartphone, it is almost guaranteed that you can use an Airalo eSIM.
While Airalo had to certify phones in the past, almost all are supported nowadays.
As of December 2023, the phones shown in the infographic below are compatible with Airalo eSIMs:
Now we can actually focus on the Asia eSIM (in Taiwan).
Airalo Asialink (Asia) eSIM Prices
You can get the Airalo Asialink (Asia) eSIM for between 5 USD (1 GB for 7 days) and 185 USD (100 GB for 180 days).
Below is an overview of how much each Airalo Asialink eSIM costs:
- Asia/Asialink 1 GB eSIM for 7 days, costing 5 USD
- Asia/Asialink 3 GB eSIM for 30 days, costing 13 USD – very popular with Phone Travel Wiz readers
- Asia/Asialink 5 GB eSIM for 30 days, costing 20 USD – most popular with Phone Travel Wiz readers
- Asia/Asialink 10 GB eSIM for 30 days, costing 37 USD – very popular with Phone Travel Wiz readers
- Asia/Asialink 50 GB eSIM for 90 days, costing 100 USD
- Asia/Asialink 100 GB eSIM for 180 days, costing 185 USD
>>> Get your Airalo Asialink eSIM now! <<<
Note: Phone Travel Wiz reader popularity ranking was updated in December based on data up to the 30th of December (2023 data only).
In general, purchasing an Airalo Asia eSIM does not make sense if you plan to visit only one country (only Taiwan, for example).
Unexplainably, the 1 GB, 3 GB & 5 GB options of the Asialink eSIM are cheaper than the equivalent of the Taiwan eSIM (Xie Xie – review), which is unusual 🤔.
Especially when the Xie Xie and Asialink eSIMs are practically the same eSIMs (powered by the same provider), except for the Xie Xie one being for Taiwan only.
Regardless of the currency used in your country, Airalo will always charge you in USD (US Dollar).
If your credit/debit card charges you foreign exchange fees, get yourself a Wise Borderless Account and Debit Card.
Their fees are MUCH lower than banks and credit card companies charge you (and Wise is transparent about their fees, unlike banks).
I have saved literal THOUSANDS of Australian Dollars and Euros, my main currencies, when using Wise abroad when traveling compared to my debit and credit cards.
What if you buy the 100 GB Asialink eSIM, as I did, and realize you need another 20 GB of data close to exhausting your data allowance?
Would you need to purchase a new eSIM? Not at all.
You can top up your Airalo Asialink eSIM for the same amount of data and prices as listed earlier.
The 10 GB top-up would still cost 37 USD as if you bought the 10 GB eSIM from the start.
And you can purchase as many top-ups as you wish/need.
That way, you will never run out of data.
A handful of Airalo eSIMs do not allow for top-ups. But that does not apply to the Asialink eSIM – so worry not.
You can top-up on the Airalo website or its apps.
And if you buy a top-up before you have fully exhausted your data allowance, Airalo will not use your top-up yet.
As a result, the validity of the top-up will not start until you start using the top-up data (which is not the case with all travel eSIMs).
>>> Get your Airalo Asialink eSIM now! <<<
Airalo Asialink (Asia) eSIM Country List
The Airalo Asialink (Asia) eSIM can be used in 14 countries in East- and Southeast Asia, including Taiwan.
Below is a complete overview of countries where the Airalo Asialink eSIM works:
- Cambodia
- China
- Hong Kong
- Indonesia
- Japan
- Laos
- Macau
- Malaysia
- Philippines
- Singapore
- South Korea
- Taiwan
- Thailand
- Vietnam
With the Airalo Asialink eSIM, you can save a lot of money by skipping the initial SIM card costs per country you visit.
So if you plan on visiting two or more countries in East- and Southeast Asia, getting the Airalo Asialink eSIM will be convenient AND will save you a lot of money.
>>> Get your Airalo Asialink eSIM now! <<<
My Airalo Asialink (Asia) eSIM in Taiwan Experience
During this trip, I used my Airalo Asialink (Asia) eSIM mostly in Taipei but also in Kaohsiung, Taiwan & Taoyuan.
The East did not get any love on this trip – I visited Hualien, Taitung & Luodong/Yilan in 2020… boring cities 🗿.
Anyway, travel eSIMs, including the Taiwan eSIM, roam on the networks of local mobile operators.
Airalo is not a mobile (network) operator (MNO), so it partners with various MNOs, which roam on local MNOs' networks.
Okay, that may sound a bit confusing – all you need to know is that you will be treated as a guest on one of the Taiwanese mobile networks while using another network to make this system work.
Airalo's Asia eSIM uses the Chunghwa Telecom (review) and Taiwan Mobile networks (review) while being powered by Singtel from Singapore (so your phone, some apps, or sites you visit may claim you are on Singtel instead of Airalo – that is correct).
So, are Chunghwa Telecom and Taiwan Mobile any good? And which one is better?
Regarding 4G/LTE availability in Taiwan, the aforementioned mobile operators cover almost all populated areas of the country, with a 4G/LTE availability of more than 99.1% for Chunghwa Telecom and 99.2% for Taiwan Mobile, according to Opensignal.
Chunghwa Telecom won the Speedtest Best Mobile Coverage Q2-Q3 2023 award.
If we focus on 5G NR availability, the difference between Chunghwa Telecom (19.2%) and Taiwan Mobile (20.3%) is minimal.
They are behind Far EasTone (25.5% – review) and GT Mobile Taiwan (28.5% – review) but ahead of T Star Taiwan (15.1% – review).
If we look at speeds, Chunghwa Telecom is the fastest in all categories (4G/5G download/upload speed), while Taiwan Mobile is the third-fastest.
We have got to love this consistency 🤪.
I did speed tests with the Speedtest app throughout Taiwan.
For reference, I consider an average download speed of 25 Mbps and an average upload speed of 10 Mbps fast enough.
Why is that? A more than 25 Mbps download speed is enough to video stream content @ 4k resolution.
Social media sites that do live streaming, like Facebook Live, recommend an upload speed of at least 10 Mbps.
I have way higher standards, but not everyone demands a download speed of 500 Mbps 🤪.
In the section below, you will find various colors and formatting.
Results in dark green mean that the result was the fastest download or upload among all SIM cards and travel eSIMs I tested at that location.
Whereas results in light green were the fastest download or upload within the category (among all SIM cards OR all travel eSIMs) but not the fastest when considering the other category.
The same applies to dark red and light orange results – the slowest download or upload among all (dark red) or the slowest within a category (light orange).
All underlined results are on 5G NR, while results in italics are on 3G – results without additional formatting are on 4G/LTE.
That should clear up the colorful speed test results in the next section.
For now, let's see how the Airalo Asialink eSIM performed in Taiwan.
>>> Get your Airalo Asialink eSIM now! <<<
Airalo Asialink (Asia) eSIM in Taipei Speed Test Results
I used my Airalo Asialink (Asia) eSIM mostly in Taipei and a little bit in Kaohsiung, Taipei & Taoyuan.
All travel eSIMs I tested could be on either Chunghwa Telecom (review), Taiwan Mobile (review), or both networks (including the Asialink eSIM).
I had issues accessing the Chunghwa Telecom network with my Airalo Xie Xie (Taiwan) eSIM (review), which was not the case with my Asialink eSIM.
This could have been a temporary issue because the Nomad APAC eSIM (review) also has access to both networks, but I could not choose Chunghwa Telecom with it either.
As both eSIMs are powered by the same provider, Singtel from Singapore, I manually selected the Chunghwa Telecom network with my Asia eSIM to have an apple-to-apple comparison.
This way, I could easily see which Taiwanese network you should choose with the Xie Xie and Asialink eSIM for the best speed performance in Taiwan.
So, in the next section, I will compare the Asialink results with Chunghwa Telecom and the other travel eSIMs that defaulted on the same network.
This includes Airalo Discover (global – can also use Taiwan Mobile), Alosim (can also use Taiwan Mobile), Holafly Taiwan, Holafly Asia, Nomad & Nomad APAC (claimed it could also use Chunghwa Telecom, but I could never connect to it).
Below are the results:
Being added.