Search for a travel eSIM and every site shouts “UNLIMITED DATA.” Then day two of your trip arrives and suddenly your maps won’t load. Why? Two words: Fair Usage Policy (FUP).
What is a Fair Usage Policy?
An FUP is a clause that lets providers slow you down after a daily quota — typically 2–5GB of high-speed data per day, after which speeds drop to 512kbps–2Mbps. At 512kbps, even loading a map is painful.
In other words, most “unlimited” plans are really capped plans with a fast first few gigabytes.
What our survey of 40+ providers found (July 2026, from their own official pages)
- Provider H (major unlimited brand): its official FAQ confirms FUP speed reductions after heavy use — and hotspot/tethering is capped at 1GB per day.
- Provider M (global flat-rate brand): markets “TRULY UNLIMITED,” yet its own help center states: “speed may be throttled to 10 Mbps if daily usage exceeds 3 GB, and to 1 Mbps if very high usage continues.”
- Most other major brands: converge on “2–5GB/day full speed, then 512kbps–2Mbps.”
Bottom line: every major brand that loudly sells “unlimited” turned out, at the terms level, to be FUP-type (daily high-speed cap, then throttled).
A few claim “no throttling” — but there’s always a catch
A handful of providers do promise “no daily cap” in their terms. But each came with a trade-off:
- Much higher price — a leading true-unlimited brand charges roughly 3–4× our price for the same 7 days.
- Single-country only — Korea-only, Japan-only… no broad global coverage.
- Capped tethering — unlimited on the phone, but hotspot limited to X GB/day.
How Xiao Long eSIM’s Unlimited is different
Our Data Unlimited plan removes all of those catches at once:
- Unlimited volume — no daily high-speed quota. 5GB, 10GB, 20GB a day: no slowdown.
- Constant 10–20Mbps (excluding carrier-official plans) — same comfortable speed from day one to day last.
- Tethering unlimited too — no separate 1GB/day hotspot cap.
- 190+ countries and regions, with plenty of multi-country plans.
- And still among the cheapest for most destinations.
Stable speed × unlimited tethering × 190+ regions × this price — across 40+ providers we checked, only ours delivers all four at once.
And we’re still cheaper
7-day unlimited plans compared (July 2026, our research):
| Destination | Xiao Long eSIM | Provider M (global flat) | Provider H (flat) |
|---|---|---|---|
| South Korea | $9.49 ($1.36/day) | $19.99 | $27.50 |
| Japan | $12.38 ($1.77/day) | $19.99 | $27.50 |
| Europe (33 countries) | $13.65 | $19.99 | $27.50 |
| China mainland | $14.34 | $19.99 | $27.50 |
The no-regrets unlimited eSIM checklist
- Is there a daily high-speed cap? (Search the terms for “FUP” / “Fair Usage”)
- What speed after the cap? (512kbps is not usable)
- Is hotspot/tethering separately limited?
- Is it written in the terms — or only in the marketing?
→ See our Japan Unlimited plan (from $1.77/day)
→ All unlimited destinations & comparison
Note: statements about other providers are based on publicly available official pages, terms and help centers as of July 2026. Please check each provider’s site for current conditions.
