UK eSIM Setup on Samsung Galaxy (One UI)
Add a UK eSIM to a Galaxy: check the EID first, install through SIM manager on Wi-Fi, and flip the right roaming switch when you land in Britain.
Updated August 24, 2026
For years a trip to Britain cost most Europeans nothing in roaming, and that is the habit to unlearn: Brexit took the UK out of the EU’s roam-like-at-home scheme, and most European carriers have since reintroduced UK roaming charges or metered daily passes. Travellers from further away never had the free years — the UK has always sat in their international band. Either way, a fortnight of navigation, group chats and uploaded photos at roaming rates costs more than the trip’s pub lunches, and the fix on arrival is an errand: a shop to find, a queue, a top-up in pounds.
A data eSIM installed ahead of the flight cuts through all of that. Buy the plan in the UK eSIM app, let the line download onto the Galaxy over your own Wi-Fi, and leave yourself just one switch to flip once you land. Since the meter only starts at the first connection to a UK network, not at checkout, there is every reason to get it done the evening you pack. Plans are on pricing, and if the idea is new to you, what an eSIM is covers it in two minutes.
The tricky part with a Galaxy is not the tap sequence — that part is quick and consistent. It is whether your particular unit actually has eSIM hardware. Samsung ships the same model name into dozens of markets through dozens of carriers, and some regional or operator variants leave the hardware out even when the model line generally has it, so a model list would be guesswork dressed up as fact. Dial *#06# on the phone you own: an EID under the IMEI settles it in five seconds. Other handsets are covered on the iPhone and general Android pages.
Two boundaries are worth knowing up front rather than discovering on the road. Being data-only, the plan comes without a UK phone number — a minor issue here, since most services accept a foreign mobile, though the odd delivery app or booking form wants a domestic one for its verification text, and a data-only line simply has none to hand over. Your existing number keeps working normally on its own SIM the whole time. The second boundary is geographic: coverage runs strong through urban Britain and along the motorways, with real dead patches surviving in the Highlands, on the islands, in rural Wales and through parts of the Lake District, plus Underground tunnels still being wired for signal. No SIM, on any network, moves a mast. Hotspot is included, so the phone can put a laptop or the rest of the car online wherever there is signal, with offline maps loaded beforehand covering the places there is not.
Installation steps
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Step 1
Check the phone before you buy anything
Open the dialler and enter *#06#. An EID listed under the IMEI means your Galaxy has eSIM hardware. No EID means it does not, and no setting will add one. Model names are a poor guide here, so trust your own handset over any list.
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Step 2
Buy the plan in the UK eSIM app
Pick the plan that suits the trip and pay. The QR code and manual activation details land under your order immediately and stay there, which matters if the first attempt goes wrong.
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Step 3
Install on Wi-Fi before you leave
Downloading a profile needs a working connection, and airport Wi-Fi at Heathrow or Manchester is a poor thing to depend on with luggage in one hand. Being early costs nothing: the plan counts from its first connection to a UK network, not from when you paid.
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Step 4
Open Settings and go to Connections
Connections sits near the top of the Settings list. If your build looks different, type SIM into the search box at the top of Settings — Samsung has moved this menu between One UI generations.
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Step 5
Open SIM manager and tap Add eSIM
SIM manager lists your physical SIM and any digital lines. The button is usually Add eSIM; on older One UI versions the same thing reads Add mobile plan.
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Step 6
Scan the QR code, or enter the code by hand
Choose the option to scan a QR code from a service provider and point the phone at the code on another screen. With no second screen, pick Enter activation code and copy the SM-DP+ address and activation code out of the app. Both install an identical line.
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Step 7
Name the line and leave it switched off
Call it UK so the preferred-SIM screens are readable later, keep your home SIM set for calls and texts, and turn the new line off until you land. Nothing is consumed while it sits there.
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Step 8
On arrival: enable it, select it for data, turn roaming on
Back in SIM manager, switch the UK line on and set Mobile data to it under Preferred SIMs. Then enable Data roaming for that line — on One UI the switch lives under Connections, Mobile networks — which is what lets it register on a visited network. Leave it off for your home SIM, where your own carrier is watching.
Troubleshooting
Does this give me a UK phone number?
It does not. The plan carries data only. There is no UK number on it, none can be added, and your own number stays where it is. In practice that rules out very little: most British services accept a foreign mobile number, though the occasional delivery app or booking system wants a UK one for a verification text. Where one insists, fall back on an email login.
Will the phone have signal for the whole trip?
In the cities, along the motorways and in most towns it will, and coverage there is excellent. In the Scottish Highlands, on the islands, in rural Wales and through parts of the Lake District it is genuinely patchy. That is mast placement, not the SIM in your phone; a local prepaid SIM would leave you in the same spot. Download offline maps for any hill or coast section of the trip while you still have bars.
There is no Add eSIM option in SIM manager.
Either the handset has no eSIM hardware or it is carrier-locked. The dialler code *#06# settles the first question: an EID means the hardware is there. If the EID is present and the option is not, the phone is almost certainly locked to the operator who sold it, and only they can unlock it. Ask before you travel, not from a hotel lobby in another time zone.
The download failed partway with an error.
Usually the Wi-Fi dropped mid-transfer; occasionally the phone is locked. Get onto a stable connection, restart the Galaxy and try again. Your QR code stays valid until a profile installs successfully once, so a failed attempt has not burned it.
I am in the UK and mobile data will not work.
In order: in SIM manager, confirm the line is on and selected as the Mobile data SIM; under Mobile networks, confirm Data roaming is enabled for it; then toggle Airplane mode to force a fresh search. If it is still dead, switch off automatic network selection, choose a network manually, let it register, and set selection back to automatic.
Does enabling Data roaming cost extra?
No. On a travel line that switch is not a billing decision — it is the permission Android needs to attach the line to a network other than its own, which is the only kind it will ever see. The switch that does cost money is the one on your home SIM, so leave that off.