Indonesia & Philippines eSIM for long stays: 15 days is the wall

If you are going to Bali for a month, or Manila, or island-hopping for five weeks, the way you buy data is not the way a holiday buys data. You are not counting days and picking a tier. You are answering one question: on day sixteen, do I still have a connection?

On our Indonesia and Philippines plans, that question has a slightly awkward answer, and it is better to deal with it before you fly than after. Daily plans for both countries stop at fifteen days. Our Japan and South Korea plans run to thirty. Indonesia and the Philippines do not, and there is no way to extend one — you buy another plan.

Everything below is the arithmetic of getting past that wall, with today's prices.

What is actually on the shelf

Indonesia and the Philippines are separate products with identical pricing, which makes them easy to compare side by side:

	Indonesia	Philippines
Local network	Telkomsel / Excelcom (XL)	Globe
Network type	4G / 5G · data only	4G / 5G · data only
APN	CMHK/CMLink	CMHK/CMLink
ID registration	Not required	Not required
Daily plan lengths	1, 3, 5, 7, 10, 15 days	1, 3, 5, 7, 10, 15 days
Total plan lengths	7 and 30 days	7 and 30 days
Delivery	Email, 5–10 minutes	Email, 5–10 minutes
Activate within	30 days of purchase	30 days of purchase

Two differences worth noticing, one in each direction.

Indonesia connects to two networks, Telkomsel and Excelcom, so there is a second network in the background. The Philippines connects to Globe only, with no fallback to Smart or DITO. Globe is one of the two dominant national networks and covers the places long-stay visitors actually base themselves — Manila, Cebu, Bohol, Palawan's main towns — but if you already know that a particular province or a particular island is a Smart area, we cannot switch you over. That is a real limitation and there is no way around it on our product.

Neither plan requires identity registration, which matters more for a month-long stay than for a week. Both countries require it for local SIMs, and in the Philippines it carries a hard expiry that catches long-stay visitors out — more on that below.

Fifteen days is where the daily plans stop

Here is the whole problem in one table. Longest available length on each of our plans, checked today:

Destination	Longest daily plan	Longest total-data plan
Indonesia	15 days	30 days
Philippines	15 days	30 days
Singapore · Malaysia · Thailand · Vietnam	15 days	no total plan
Japan	30 days	30 days
South Korea	30 days	30 days
China · Hong Kong · Macao	7 days	30 days

Japan and South Korea will sell you one daily plan that runs a full month. Indonesia and the Philippines will not, and neither will South-East Asia's four-country plan. If you want thirty days of daily-allowance data in Indonesia, you have to buy two plans. There is no bundle, no renewal button, and no thirty-day daily tier coming.

The two ways to cover a month

Which leaves exactly two shapes for a thirty-day stay. Here is every option, priced:

Option	What you buy	Price	High-speed data	Per GB	When it runs out
One total plan	30 days · 5 GB	HK$49	5 GB	HK$9.80	Cut off
One total plan	30 days · 10 GB	HK$95	10 GB	HK$9.50	Cut off
One total plan	30 days · 15 GB	HK$131	15 GB	HK$8.73	Cut off
One total plan	30 days · 20 GB	HK$168	20 GB	HK$8.40	Cut off
One total plan	30 days · 30 GB	HK$231	30 GB	HK$7.70	Cut off
One total plan	30 days · 50 GB	HK$368	50 GB	HK$7.36	Cut off
Two daily plans	15 + 15 days · 1 GB/day	HK$268	30 GB	HK$8.93	256 kbps, stays on
Two daily plans	15 + 15 days · 2 GB/day	HK$366	60 GB	HK$6.10	256 kbps, stays on
Two daily plans	15 + 15 days · 5 GB/day	HK$498	150 GB	HK$3.32	256 kbps, stays on
Two daily plans	15 + 15 days · Unlimited	HK$596	Unlimited	—	Stays on

The middle of that table is the useful part. Thirty gigabytes for a month costs HK$231 as a total plan, or HK$268 as two stacked daily plans. The total plan is HK$37 cheaper for the same data — so at one gigabyte a day, buy the total plan.

Then look one row further. Sixty gigabytes costs HK$366 stacked, against HK$368 for the largest total plan — which only gives you fifty. Two dollars less buys ten more gigabytes. Above roughly one gigabyte a day, stacking wins and the gap widens fast.

One gigabyte a day is the line

That crossover is the whole decision, so here it is in one sentence:

If you expect to average under 1 GB a day, buy one 30-day total plan. If you expect to average more than 1 GB a day, buy two 15-day daily plans.

Working from home makes this easy to estimate. A day of video calls runs 1.5–3 GB. A day of messaging, maps, email and the odd upload runs well under 1 GB. If you are working, you are above the line. If you are mostly on wifi at a villa or a coworking space and only need data between places, you are below it.

Stacking has one mechanical step you need to know about. The second plan does not start when you buy it — it starts when it first connects to a network. So buy both before you go, install both, and switch the data line on day sixteen. Your phone will hold both profiles; you are just changing which one carries data. Do not install the second one and leave it switched on, because it will start running from the moment it connects.

The floor matters more when you live there

There is a second reason to prefer stacked daily plans for a long stay, and it is not about price.

A total plan, in the plan's own words, cuts the connection off when the allowance is used up. Not slowed — stopped. A daily plan drops you to 256 kbps and keeps you connected. At 256 kbps, maps, messages, email and ride-hailing still work.

For a fortnight's holiday that difference is an inconvenience. For a month in a place where you are working, or where you do not speak the language well enough to sort out a replacement on a street corner, it is the difference between a bad afternoon and a real problem. If being unreachable would cost you something, pay for the daily plan and keep the floor. The two plan types are set out properly here, and it is worth two minutes before you commit to a month.

Buy a bigger daily allowance, not more days

If you do stack daily plans, the way to spend the money is probably not the way you would guess. Here is what a gigabyte costs at each combination:

Length	1 GB/day	2 GB/day	5 GB/day
1 day	HK$12.00	HK$7.50	HK$3.80
3 days	HK$9.67	HK$6.50	HK$3.47
5 days	HK$9.40	HK$6.30	HK$3.40
7 days	HK$9.14	HK$6.21	HK$3.37
10 days	HK$9.00	HK$6.15	HK$3.34
15 days	HK$8.93	HK$6.10	HK$3.32

Read down the columns and almost nothing happens: going from one day to fifteen improves the rate by about 25%. Read across the rows and it collapses: 5 GB/day costs HK$3.32 per gigabyte against HK$8.93 at 1 GB/day — a 2.7× difference.

So the expensive mistake is not buying too few days. It is buying a small daily allowance for a long time. If you are genuinely going to use 2 GB a day for a month, 1 GB/day plans are the wrong purchase at any length, and no amount of length fixes it.

Why this data costs more than Japan's

Worth stating plainly, because it is not what people expect from South-East Asia. Same thirty-day total plans, same shelf, priced today:

30 days	Indonesia / Philippines	Japan	South Korea	China · HK · Macao
5 GB	HK$49	HK$43	HK$36	HK$40
10 GB	HK$95	HK$82	HK$69	HK$75
15 GB	HK$131	HK$113	HK$95	HK$104
20 GB	HK$168	HK$144	HK$121	HK$133
30 GB	HK$231	HK$199	HK$166	HK$183
50 GB	HK$368	HK$316	HK$264	HK$290
Per GB at 50 GB	HK$7.36	HK$6.32	HK$5.28	HK$5.80

Indonesia and the Philippines are the most expensive gigabytes on our shelf — about 39% above South Korea and 17% above Japan at the largest tier. That is a fact of our price list, not a mistake, and it is the same direction the wider market moves: wholesale roaming into the two archipelagos costs more than into North Asia, and every travel eSIM sold for them reflects it.

The practical consequence: on a long stay here, treat the eSIM as your connection between places, not in them. Bali and Manila both have good wifi in villas, cafés and coworking spaces, and leaning on it is how you make a 30 GB plan last a month.

The clock is on Hong Kong time — and here that costs you almost nothing

Both plans state that a calendar day runs on UTC+08:00, which is Hong Kong time. This is the rule behind every plan we sell, and it is worth knowing where it lands you:

Where you are	Local time your plan's day rolls over
Manila, Cebu, Bohol (UTC+8)	00:00 — matches your watch exactly
Bali, Lombok, Makassar (UTC+8)	00:00 — matches your watch exactly
Jakarta, Yogyakarta, Surabaya (UTC+7)	23:00 — you lose an hour a day
Papua, Maluku (UTC+9)	01:00 — you gain an hour a day

In the Gulf this rule can cost you five hours of your first day, because the day turns over at 7pm. That is why we tell people to wait for wifi before landing in Riyadh. Here it is almost free: most of Indonesia and all of the Philippines share Hong Kong's UTC+8 offset, so the day simply ends at midnight. Jakarta is the only meaningful exception, and it costs you one hour.

One thing that does matter on a long stay: because a day is a calendar day and not twenty-four hours from activation, an evening of heavy use straddles two days. Fine on a 5 GB/day plan, worth remembering on 1 GB/day.

Where a local SIM is the better answer

This is the part most eSIM sellers will not print, but it is the honest answer for a month.

Local data in both countries is cheap. In the Philippines, Globe's ordinary prepaid eSIM is around ₱99 for 5 GB, and Globe also lists a tourist eSIM with 80 GB and thirty days' validity for roughly ₱1,750 — about HK$220 at current rates. That is more data than our largest thirty-day tier for around 60% of the price.

What you pay for that is a queue and a document check. Under the Philippines' SIM Registration Act, every SIM and every locally issued eSIM must be registered before it activates: passport, proof of your address in the country, a return or onward ticket, and a selfie, usually through the operator's app. Indonesia requires a passport at the point of sale as well.

And there is one catch that lands squarely on long-stay visitors: a Philippine SIM registered by a tourist is valid for thirty days and is then automatically deactivated, unless you can show an approved visa extension. Our eSIM has no such limit — you buy another thirty days and carry on.

So the honest rule for a month-long stay:

• Base yourself in one place, and staying under about 30 days: our eSIM gets you online the minute you land with no registration, and probably outlasts a tourist SIM. Good value for the first month.
• Staying longer than 30 days on a tourist visa: buy our eSIM for arrival, then get a local SIM once you have settled — and expect to deal with the thirty-day expiry if your stay runs past it.
• Moving between islands every few days: our eSIM, because coverage follows you and there is nothing to re-register.
• Working and needing a local number: you need a local SIM regardless. GCash and Maya in the Philippines, and Gojek and Grab in Indonesia, are all built around a local mobile number.

What you do not get

No phone number, no calls, no SMS. Both plans are data only. On a month-long stay this bites harder than on a holiday, because the apps you end up relying on — the local e-wallet, the delivery app, the ride-hailing app — generally want a local number to verify you.

No top-ups on a total plan. Once the allowance is gone the connection stops, and there is nothing to add. If you are buying a 30-day total plan, buy the tier above what you think you need, because the failure mode is absolute.

Your IP will most likely show Hong Kong. Both plans run on the same APN (CMHK/CMLink) as the rest of our shelf, so your connection geolocates to Hong Kong rather than to where you are standing. Usually harmless; occasionally a local streaming catalogue or a banking app behaves oddly because of it. If your work depends on appearing to be in Indonesia, that is a problem we cannot solve.

Philippines: Globe only, no fallback. If you are heading somewhere you know is a Smart area, we are not the right product for that leg.