Data for Dubai and Abu Dhabi, ready before you land. Worth having for a four-hour layover as much as for a week — install at home, switch it on when the plane doors open.
The UAE plan covers UAE only.
The same 10 GB in a package that keeps working past UAE.
10 other countries share the package with UAE. A few of them:
What's included, when it starts, and how to get connected.
Dubai is one of the easiest arrivals anywhere: the metro runs from inside the airport and a day of travel costs less than a coffee airside.
Many nationalities receive a visa on arrival; others apply for a transit visa, issued for 48 or 96 hours against a confirmed onward booking. Airlines handle the transit applications for their own passengers. Check your own passport on the airline’s official visa page before you plan to leave the airport.
Settings → Mobile Data: switch the onesim line on, enable data roaming for that line, and select it for mobile data. Note that some voice-over-internet apps are restricted on UAE networks; messaging and video calling behaviour varies by app.
From the machine at the metro station inside Terminal 1 or Terminal 3. A silver card is AED 25, of which AED 19 is travel credit. Fares are AED 3 to 7.50 depending on how many zones you cross.
The Red Line runs from both terminals to Deira, Downtown, Business Bay and the Marina. It is air-conditioned and driverless, with a women-and-children carriage at one end. Taxis are metered, plentiful and inexpensive by European standards.
Daytime temperatures routinely pass 45°C and the sea feels like a bath. Everything in those months happens indoors, early or after dark. November to March is warm, dry and the reason people schedule layovers here in winter.
Public drunkenness is an offence, alcohol is served in licensed venues only, and public displays of affection, swearing and rude gestures are treated more seriously than most visitors expect. Modest dress is expected in malls, souks and government buildings.
Friday afternoons are quieter for prayers; Saturday and Sunday are the weekend. During Ramadan, eating and drinking in public during daylight is restricted and most restaurants outside hotels open only after sunset — when the city is at its best.
Coverage across Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah and the motorways between them is comprehensive. The desert interior and the Hajar mountains thin out, so download the map before a dune trip or a drive to Hatta.
Answers about data, coverage and setup for UAE.
Coverage follows the local networks wherever they reach — cities, transport corridors and most rural areas. Remote mountain and island areas can have weaker signal on any carrier.
No. onesim is installed before you travel, with nothing to register when you land. Turn on the onesim line for mobile data and you are connected.
Installing the eSIM does not start the clock. Your package starts the first time the eSIM connects to a network in a country it covers, even while mobile data is off. Install at home over Wi-Fi and keep the onesim line switched off until you arrive; if your home country is covered too, the package would start the moment the line connects there.
Yes. Your account has one onesim eSIM, and you refill it with any regional package from anywhere in the world — from the website or the app. The new package is added to the eSIM already on your phone; there is nothing to install again.
