Introduction is being written.
Original publication: 18th of June 2023. Last updated: 15th of January 2024.
Table of Contents
How Much Does the Alosim South Korea eSIM Cost?
You can get the Alosim eSIM to be used in South Korea for as little as 6.50 USD for 1 GB (7 days) and up to 45 USD for 20 GB (30 days).
Below is an overview of how much each Alosim South Korea eSIM costs:
- South Korea 1 GB for 7 days, costing 5 USD
- South Korea 3 GB for 30 days, costing 10 USD
- South Korea 5 GB for 30 days, costing 15 USD
- South Korea 10 GB for 30 days, costing 27 USD
Alosim's South Korea eSIMs have free 5G NR access on the SK Telecom and KT South Korea networks. There are no surcharges for that!
>>> Get your Alosim South Korea eSIM now! <<<
Regardless of the currency used in your country, Alosim 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.
Moreover, regardless of which Alosim South Korea eSIM you choose, you can always top it up for the same amount of data and prices as listed above.
For example, suppose you buy the 5 GB Alosim South Korea eSIM (30 days costing 15 USD) but realize you need more data.
You can top it up with the 3 GB top-up (30 days costing 10 USD) or the 10 GB top-up (30 days costing 27 USD).
Many eSIM providers out there do not allow you to top up or extend the validity of your eSIM, so it is cool that Alosim allows you to do so.
>>> Get your Alosim South Korea eSIM now! <<<
My Alosim eSIM in South Korea Experience (in Seoul)
I used my Alosim South Korea eSIM in Seoul.
I did not test the eSIM in Busan because I wanted to try another eSIM instead (I can only test so many SIM cards and eSIMs simultaneously without getting crazy 🤪. Plus, the Alosim eSIM did so well in Seoul that I knew it would do amazingly in Busan.
Before we continue, I do want to let you know how travel eSIM providers like Alosim work.
It is impossible for Alosim, or any other mobile operator, to operate in every country (and do not trust any company saying otherwise), so they set up roaming agreements.
And do not get worried by the word roaming yet – roaming can be expensive, but roaming with Alosim or many other travel eSIM providers, will not result in a 5000 USD roaming bill.
What Alosim does, and basically all (actual) mobile operators do, is partner up with a local mobile operator so that their customers can still stay connected when abroad.
In the case of South Korea, the Alosim South Korea eSIM uses the SK Telecom and KT South Korea networks with the help of StarHub from Singapore (so your phone, some apps, or sites you visit may claim you are using a StarHub eSIM instead of an Alosim one – that is correct).
Note: Alosim does not always use multiple networks.
I am unsure whether I could use the KT South Korea network back then because I was on the SK Telecom network (most of) all the time 🤔.
But the more networks, the better!
While you can manually select a network, it is unnecessary.
And as you will find out later, the performance of SK Telecom is significantly better than its competitors' (in terms of speed).
Although network (reception) performance among the three is similar.
Anyway, just like how I tested the Alosim eSIM on my South Korea trip, I also tried SK Telecom (Korea Red eSIM) and various other eSIMs (Airalo (LG U+, Asialink (in South Korea and various other Asian countries) & Discover Global (in South Korea and various other Asian countries)), eSIM World, Holafly, Nomad, Nomad APAC (in South Korea and various other Asian countries) & Yoho Mobile + the TrueMove H Asia Travel SIM Card (also used in Japan)
Yeah, I went all out 😏.
When looking at 4G/LTE availability in South Korea, the three mobile operators cover practically all of the country, with an availability of more than 99.7%.
4G/LTE reception is so good in South Korea that I thought 3G did not exist anymore (until the Airalo Discover Global eSIM was stuck at 3G a few times 😩).
KT South Korea currently has the best 5G NR availability, with an availability percentage of 38.2%, followed by SK Telecom (34.6%) and LG U+ (33.1%).
Alosim was the only travel eSIM with 5G NR access (among the SIM cards and eSIMs I tested in South Korea – not even SK Telecom gives direct access).
In terms of speed, SK Telecom has the fastest download speed, with a median download speed of 194.41 Mbps, ahead of LG U+ (99.15 Mbps) and KT South Korea (93.93 Mbps).
The same can be said about upload speeds, where SK Telecom is leading the pack slightly (19.70 Mbps), followed by KT South Korea (19.13 Mbps) and LG U+ (13.19 Mbps).
I did speed tests with the Speedtest app throughout South Korea.
For reference, I consider an average download speed of 25 Mbps and an average of 10 Mbps upload speed fast enough.
Preferably, download speeds should be 100 Mbps+ on 4G/LTE… but we are not there yet 🗿.
But why these averages?
A download speed of more than 25 Mbps is enough to video stream content @ 4k resolution.
Social media sites that allow for live streaming, like Facebook Live, recommend an upload speed of at least 10 Mbps.
So, that is why – but that does not mean that a download speed of less than 100 Mbps excited me 😏.
But Australia spoiled… everything slower than 300 Mbps is slow now 🤣.
Anyway, you will also see that some of the results are in two shades of red, green, underlined, or in italics.
Underlined results are on 5G NR, while results in italics are on 3G.
The green shows that the result was the fastest on the network at said location.
For example, the Alosim South Korea eSIM being the fastest among its competition at a mall.
While red shows that the result was the slowest on the network among its peers at the location.
Okay, that is enough background information – let's compare the Alosim South Korea eSIM other travel eSIMs in South Korea.
Alosim South Korea eSIM Speed Test Results in Seoul
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Blazing-fast speeds with the Alosim South Korea eSIM in Seoul!
Because the Airalo Discover Global, Nomad South Korea, Nomad APAC & Yoho Mobile South Korea eSIMs also (primarily) used the SK Telecom network, I showed their results in the screenshot above as well.
The thing is, the comparisons will be unfair because the Alosim South Korea has 5G NR access while the others do not.
And yes, even SK Telecom (including the Korea Gold SIM or the Korea Red eSIM) does not allow for 5G NR access.
In fact, it throttles your speed @ 10 Mbps at all times.
So it is kind of embarrassing that if you want fast speeds on the SK Telecom network, you need to get a travel eSIM that roams on its network 🗿.
Anyway, I had an average download speed of 164.66 Mbps and a median download speed of 191.91 Mbps with the Alosim South Korea eSIM: it passed the 4K video streaming test in Seoul (minimum of 25 Mbps).
The same can also be said for the HD live streaming test in Seoul – the Alosim South Korea eSIM had an average upload speed of 43.64 and a median upload speed of 38.75 Mbps, making it pass the HD live streaming test (minimum of 10 Mbps).
This performance was in stark contrast to the Alosim Singapore eSIM, which was stuck on 3G many times and had no 5G NR access at all, even though it was promised.
But after my complaints and sharing my data, Alosim switched roaming partners three months after my findings, which should have fixed the issue. At least they worked on a solution!
Speaking of being stuck on 3G – this happened only once in Seoul at Dongjak Station (Seoul National Cemetery – 8.54 Mbps).
But almost the other results were on 5G NR, such as the top result at the KFC in Gangnam-gu (349.92 Mbps).
The result at Hangang Park Mulbit Water Gardens in Yeongdeungpo-gu was also impressive (320.86 Mbps).
Seoul-Gimpo Airport also gets you fast speeds (233.56 Mbps at Gate 1 of the Domestic Terminal).
You certainly will not experience slow speeds at Jung-gu either (285.72 Mbps at the neighborhood's McDonald's and 153.67 Mbps at the Starbucks near Hwanghakgyo Bridge).
The Alosim South Korea eSIM performed amazingly at Seongdong-gu too (228.68 Mbps at 응봉테니스장 Outdoor Gym and 259.27 Mbps at 청계천 하동매실거리 Park).
And the same can be said about Yeongdeungpo-gu (320.86 Mbps at Hangang Park Mulbit Water Gardens and 150.42 Mbps at Seonyudo Park).
Myeongdong was the only neighborhood where I got 4G/LTE results (191.20 Mbps at Myeongdong Cathedral and 263.55 Mbps at Coffeebean in the main shopping street of Myeongdong).
Those results are nothing to scoff at, but three of the slowest result I have gotten were still in Myeongdong (16.38 Mbps, 30.51 Mbps & 26.30 Mbps at Double S Fitness, Hotel Creto & Lotte Department Store Main Store, respectively).
Or the results at and around Seoul-Incheon International Airport (53.18 Mbps at Ibis Styles and 251.64 Mbps at the Asiana Lounge (West) in Terminal 1).
Overall, the Alosim South Korea outdid my expectations.
And yes, I have mentioned before that 5G NR speeds below 300 Mbps are not impressive because those are supposed to be great to amazing 4G/LTE results. I still stand by that… if we are talking about local SIM cards and eSIMs. The Alosim South Korea is powered by a Singaporean mobile operator (StarHub). It is impossible for it to get the same blazing-fast 5G NR speeds as a native SK Telecom customer would get. So Alosim is doing more than fine – I am not always that strict 😜.
Okay, I spend a lot of time on download speed results – what about upload speeds?
Well, they were amazing too, especially the one at Salgoji Sports Park in Salgoji (116.54 Mbps).
Yeah… that is ridiculous – one of the fastest upload speeds I have gotten over the years (including with local SIM cards)!
89.58 Mbps at Starfield Coex Mall is also nothing to laugh at.
Remember those locations in Myeongdong where the eSIM had slow download speeds?
It had slow upload speeds there too (5.48 Mbps, 4.36 Mbps & 1.77 Mbps).
[For Arafat: you can reuse the same screenshots as you use in the download speed section – no need to reupload them. Delete this block when acknowledged)
But with an overall average upload speed of 43.64 Mbps, you do not really have to worry about slow upload speeds.
>>> Get your Alosim South Korea eSIM now! <<<
My Overall Experience with the Alosim eSIM in South Korea – Is It Any Good?
I would recommend the Alosim South Korea eSIM, and it would be one of my top recommendations for anyone wanting to buy a South Korean travel eSIM.
Getting the Alosim South Korea eSIM, and any other Alosim eSIM for that matter, is easy and straightforward (even though I did not spend any time on how to install Alosim eSIMs – you will manage… promise!).
But be sure to set the APN to alosim instead of the default one.
Alosim's South Korea eSIM is also one of the most affordable eSIMs I tested on my trip while having various options (1 GB, 3 GB, 5 GB & 10 GB).
In South Korea, it uses the SK Telecom and KT South Korea networks, which have practically excellent 4G/LTE availability (just like LG U+ – the other mobile operator part of the Big Three).
But, I was primarily on the SK Telecom network with the Alosim South Korea eSIM (mostly because I suspect KT South Korea access was added after I left South Korea).
Both networks allow for 5G NR access, but SK Telecom has faster 5G NR speeds, so you may want to stick with it.
You will have the fastest network experience with the Alosim South Korea eSIM (compared to other travel eSIMs I have used in South Korea).
Mostly because it was the only eSIM with 5G NR access – even SK Telecom does not allow its prepaid customers to use 5G NR (yet).
So if you care about speed like me, you know who to go with 🐆.
Taking all 91 speed tests into account, I had an average overall download speed of 164.66 Mbps and a median download speed of 191.91 Mbps with the Alosim South Korea eSIM.
When looking at upload speeds, I had an average upload speed of 43.64 Mbps and a median upload speed of 38.75 Mbps with the Alosim South Korea eSIM.
There is nothing to say about these results because they were amazing.
While I had 5G NR reception practically everywhere in Seoul, you should not be expecting the same in smaller South Korean cities.
And speeds may be slower there.
By using a near-perfect 4G/LTE network, offering affordable data plans (cheaper than South Korean SIM cards) & offering super-fast download speeds, you should have a smooth browsing experience with the Alosim South Korea eSIM.
- Interested in using an Alosim eSIM in another country or countries? Check out my Alosim eSIM reviews from across the world!
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Other South Korean eSIM Reviews (Airalo, Holafly, Mobimatter, Nomad, Ubigi & Yoho Mobile)
Being added.