iPhone 15 Plus: eSIM, tethering and the local number problem

The status

The iPhone 15 Plus has eSIM. Sold in the United States it has no SIM tray; sold elsewhere it has a tray as well. This is the same arrangement Apple introduced with the iPhone 14 in 2022 and carried into the 15.

For data, an eSIM does everything a SIM card did. Where the tray-less models create a genuine gap is when you need a local phone number, and that gap is worth understanding before you land somewhere it matters.

Data-only plans usually have no number

A lot of travel eSIMs sell data and nothing else. No local number, no ability to receive an SMS. For maps, messaging apps, email and browsing that is completely fine — most travellers never notice.

It stops being fine when a country's everyday services assume a local mobile number: a delivery app that verifies by SMS, a bike hire scheme, a restaurant booking system, a ticket collection code. Your home number can receive those if the line is still active, but some services reject non-local numbers outright.

On a phone with a tray, the fix was easy — buy a local prepaid SIM. On a US iPhone 15 Plus that route does not exist. What you can do instead:

• Use a local carrier's own eSIM, if that carrier sells one to visitors. Some do. Whether it comes with a number, and what ID is required to buy it, varies by country and is what the country guides cover.
• Check before buying whether your travel eSIM includes a number. Providers that offer one usually say so; silence generally means data-only.
• Keep your home line active for SMS from services that accept international numbers, which is most banks and airlines.

There is no universal workaround, and we would rather say that than pretend there is.

Sharing the connection

The other thing large iPhones get used for is tethering. Personal hotspot pulls from whichever line is set as your mobile data line, so with a travel eSIM as the data line, anything you tether is spending the eSIM's allowance rather than your home carrier's roaming.

Worth confirming before you rely on it:

• That the plan allows hotspot at all. It is a plan term, not a phone feature, and not every travel eSIM includes it.
• What else is on the hotspot. A laptop that thinks it is on home wi-fi will happily run system updates and cloud sync through it. Mark the connection as metered, or turn the hotspot off between uses.

Tethering is also the answer for travelling companions whose phones have no eSIM at all — an older handset or a budget Android may not support it, which the eSIM phone checker will tell you before you leave rather than after.

Which iPhone 15 Plus do you have?

Look along the edge for a SIM slot and pinhole. That is the reliable test. Where the phone was bought is not — imported and resold units are common, so a 15 Plus bought second-hand outside the US can still be tray-less.

If yours does have a tray, you keep both routes: local prepaid SIM for a local number and cheap domestic data, travel eSIM for everything else, and the option to switch mid-trip.

Doing it in the right order

Check the lock status with your carrier. Decide whether you need a local number or only data. Buy the plan and install the profile at home over wi-fi, leaving the line switched off until you land.

If other people will be tethering off you, test the hotspot before you go: switch the travel eSIM on at home, turn on personal hotspot, and connect a laptop. A plan that quietly forbids tethering is much better discovered in your own kitchen than in an airport. Prices are compared on the cheapest eSIM page.