Mobile Roaming use in Morocco

We are heading to Morocco on holidays. We are with 3 mobile and looking at their rate for roaming there they seem very high. Our phones don't seem to take virtual sims, so am wondering, whatsapp aside, does anyone have any advice how to use a phone there to keep the cost down ?

if roaming charges are high try stick to wifi basically. pity you cant take e sims, revolut do a decent one for roaming.

I wanted to be able to check voicemails or receive calls with work.

Tobyboy said:

I wanted to be able to check voicemails or receive calls with work.

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Just turn off mobile data and you’ll still receive inbound calls and texts.

No idea of the cost.

Dr Strangelove said:

No idea of the cost.

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V Expensive..

Tobyboy said:

We are heading to Morocco on holidays.

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Tobyboy said:

I wanted to be able to check voicemails or receive calls with work.

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Not much of a holiday, so.

If the phone is dual SIM then a dedicated roaming or local physical SIM might be an economical option for mobile data (and calls/texts? albeit on a different number to your normal one) usage? But, as Dr Strangelove suggests above, you should probably explicitly disable roaming/mobile data on your regular 3 SIM to avoid racking up excessive charges.

Tobyboy said:

I wanted to be able to check voicemails or receive calls with work.

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if you are receiving work calls are they not paying the bill?

Tobyboy said:

I wanted to be able to check voicemails or receive calls with work.

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Employers are surely not obliging you to do this on holiday.

And you need to be very careful using your phone in such places or you will get a shocking bill.

Roaming in Morocco is very expensive. So turn off your roaming and buy a local sim card. I bought one in the airport in Marrakesh no problem.

Blackrock1 said:

if you are receiving work calls are they not paying the bill?

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Self employed - Hence always available.

Tobyboy said:

I wanted to be able to check voicemails or receive calls with work.

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This is where you are going to get hit in the pocket. There are all sorts of work arounds for data, and data based calls (like WhatsApp). I've used a dedicated mobile-data router with a Wifi antenna on it that you can use with a local sim to provide hotspots wherever you are.

But if you need to receive old-school phone calls (not WhatsApp) on your existing number, and also use that number to check your 3 Voicemail, I don't know how you can avoid paying €2.02 a minute to listen to your clients, and probably €2.80 per minute to call and listen to your voicemail.

You could try and setup call forwarding for voice mails to a local SIM based number, but I can't predict the cost of this: it will basically be 3's rate for calling Morocco, which I'm guessing is not cheap either.

Short answer: can you convince your clients to call you on WhatsApp only? If so, a data roaming box (cheap enough) and a local SIM will work. A wifi/4g routing box will cost between €20 and €50 depending on the sophistication you like from it, and can be re-used on other holidays. The local SIM will be cheap and cheerful - just make sure it has coverage in your area. You can buy ahead of the holiday from a dedicated international roaming operator, but these costs are pretty high compared to local deals (think €50 per month of service, vs whatever Morocco's got going on). I suspect local deals from shops in the city centre will be better than deals in the airport arrivals lounge, if past experience is any guide. You will need your ID to get a SIM, and they usually want proof of local address.

Thanks Kickstart for taking the time to put all that down.

Very Helpful. Thanks

Install an eSim on your phone. Looking at GoMo World: 500MB of data is €4, 2GB is €11 and 5GB is €20. Should be plenty for your holiday if your accommodation has wi-fi also.

Edit: sorry, only re-reading your original post and your phone doesn't take eSim. Are you sure, pretty much most modern phones has this capability unless it's some crappy Android from ten years ago.

tallpaul said:

Are you sure, pretty much most modern phones has this capability unless it's some crappy Android from ten years ago.

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The two mobiles in use in our house are 6 and 4 years old and neither supports eSIM. eSIM support is very far from universal these days.

ClubMan said:

eSIM support is very far from universal these days

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Yeah would agree, my phone, Sony's top of the range Xperia1 which I bought in 2020 wont accept an eSIM
But when traveling recently in the far east I noticed lots of eSIM packages that also included a physical sim card

eSim compatible iPhones (starting with the iPhone XS) go back to 2018. My comment on crappy Android still stands.

tallpaul said:

My comment on crappy Android still stands.

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And it's simply wrong. Lots of phones launched within the last few years do not have eSIM support. Take off the crappy Apple/iPhone blinkers maybe...

Last 3 years: 1,977 devices

Last 3 years with eSIM support: 384 devices

tallpaul said:

it's some crappy Android from ten years ago.

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tallpaul said:

eSim compatible iPhones (starting with the iPhone XS) go back to 2018. My comment on crappy Android still stands.

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Last time I checked 2018 is not ten years ago
Personally I don't like apple products and never really saw the attraction, had an iPhone in 2011 but got rid of it as quick as possible as I didn't like having to buy into the whole Apple eco system but would never say that it's "crappy" compared to android just different

I said it here before, I just don't understand how in 2025 why we can't travel the world with our existing phone like we do in Europe
I wouldn't object to having to pay a premium for the service on top of my monthly charge from my provider rather then having to go through some other third party

Cervelo said:

I said it here before, I just don't understand how in 2025 why we can't travel the world with our existing phone like we do in Europe
I wouldn't object to having to pay a premium for the service on top of my monthly charge from my provider rather then having to go through some other third party

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You can do this with most of the major providers; it's called international roaming. The problem is that the premium you pay for the service is colossal. Most people prefer to get a local sim in the countries they visit because, for all the inconvenience, it's much, much cheaper.