So you've got your trip booked, you've bought a travel eSIM, and you've installed it on your phone. When the plane lands, you switch it on and you've got internet. Google Maps works, email works, and so do Facebook, WhatsApp and Messenger. As far as you're concerned, you're connected and ready to go.
Then you arrive at your hotel and they tell you to give them a call later. You pull out your phone, look at the hotel's number and realize something you probably hadn't thought about before: Can I actually make a regular telephone call with this eSIM?
The answer is maybe. But depending on the eSIM you bought, quite possibly not.
Many Travel eSIMs Are Data-Only
Travel eSIMs have made international travel considerably easier. Instead of landing in another country, hunting around the airport for a SIM card booth and swapping tiny pieces of plastic in and out of your phone, you can buy an eSIM online before you leave and have internet access waiting for you when you arrive.
There's one important catch, though. Many travel eSIMs are designed primarily or entirely for data. They give your phone an internet connection, but they don't necessarily give you traditional mobile voice service or a telephone number that you can use to make ordinary phone calls.
That distinction doesn't matter much when you're checking Facebook or finding your hotel on Google Maps. It matters quite a bit when you suddenly need to call an actual telephone number.
But I Can Make Calls on WhatsApp, Right?
Absolutely. If the person you're trying to reach uses WhatsApp, Messenger, Viber, FaceTime or another internet calling service, you're probably all set. Those apps use your eSIM's data connection, so they're an excellent and usually free way to keep in touch with friends and family.
The problem is that not everybody you need to call while traveling is sitting around waiting for your WhatsApp call. You might need to ring your hotel in Tokyo, call an airline in Thailand, contact your bank back in Australia, or call the number on the back of your American credit card because it suddenly stopped working in Europe.
Those are real telephone numbers, and that's where travelers with a data-only eSIM can suddenly discover a hole in their carefully planned travel communications setup.
That's Where CPI Call Shop Comes In
This is exactly the problem CPI Call Shop can solve. The CPI Call Shop app uses your internet connection to make regular telephone calls to real mobile and landline numbers. That internet connection can come from your travel eSIM, hotel Wi-Fi, airport Wi-Fi, your regular mobile data or pretty much any decent internet connection.
The person or business you're calling doesn't need the CPI app. They don't need WhatsApp or Messenger, and they don't have to download anything. You're calling their regular telephone number, their phone rings, they answer and you talk.
For more than 20 years, CPI Call Shop has been helping people make inexpensive international calls from our shop in Angeles City. The technology has changed quite a bit since we opened our doors in 2003, but the basic idea hasn't: give people a cheap and simple way to make a telephone call.
Your eSIM Gives You Internet. CPI Gives You a Telephone.
That's probably the easiest way to understand how the two work together. Your travel eSIM provides the internet connection you need overseas, while CPI gives you a way to use that connection to call ordinary mobile and landline telephone numbers.
Use your eSIM for Google Maps, email, social media, browsing, Grab or Uber and all the other things you need online. Use WhatsApp, Messenger or Viber when the person you're calling has the same app. And when you need to call an actual telephone number, open the CPI Call Shop app and make the call.
Your eSIM gives you the internet. CPI gives you a telephone.
One CPI Account Travels With You
One of the nice things about this setup is that you don't need a new calling service every time you visit another country. Set up your CPI Call Shop account before you leave the Philippines, download the app and put some prepaid calling load into your account. After that, your CPI account travels with you.
If you're going to Japan this month and Thailand three months from now, you can use the same account. If you're an Australian, British or American expat living in the Philippines and you're heading home to visit family, the same CPI app goes with you. As long as you've got a decent internet connection, you have a way to call regular telephone numbers.
Your CPI prepaid load also doesn't expire, which is particularly useful if you only travel occasionally. If you put money into your account for a trip and don't use all of it, just leave it there. It'll still be waiting the next time you travel or need to make an international call.
Why Not Just Use International Roaming?
You certainly can, and depending on your mobile provider and roaming package it may sometimes make sense. The important thing is to check the rates before you start making voice calls overseas, because international roaming calls can still be surprisingly expensive.
That's one of the reasons travel eSIMs became so popular in the first place. Travelers realized they could buy inexpensive data for the country they were visiting rather than paying high international data-roaming charges. CPI takes a similar approach to telephone calls: use the internet connection you already have and make the call through CPI instead of automatically relying on conventional international voice roaming.
What Can You Call With CPI?
CPI Call Shop is designed for calling real mobile and landline telephone numbers around the world, which makes it useful for exactly the sort of calls that tend to come up while you're traveling.
You can call hotels, airlines, restaurants, banks, credit-card companies, taxi companies, government offices, tour operators, businesses and, of course, friends and family. These are the situations where WhatsApp and Messenger aren't always enough. Sometimes there's simply a telephone number in front of you and you need to call it.
A Simple Setup for Traveling Overseas
For many travelers, the easiest setup is actually a combination of services rather than trying to make one SIM or app do everything. Use a travel eSIM for internet and mobile data, use WhatsApp, Messenger or Viber for free app-to-app calls and messages, and use CPI Call Shop when you need to call an ordinary mobile or landline telephone number.
Between those options, you've covered most of the communication problems you're likely to encounter overseas, without constantly swapping SIM cards or automatically paying expensive international roaming rates.
So, Can You Make Phone Calls With an eSIM?
Yes, sometimes. Some eSIM plans include voice service and a telephone number, while many travel eSIMs are data-only. The important thing is not to assume that buying an eSIM automatically means you'll be able to make conventional telephone calls. Check exactly what your particular eSIM includes before you travel.
And if you've bought a data-only eSIM, that's really not a problem. In fact, paired with CPI Call Shop it can be a very practical travel setup: let your eSIM handle the internet and let CPI handle the telephone calls.
Traveling Soon?
Set up CPI Call Shop before you leave the Philippines. Choose and purchase one of our World Call international calling plans, starting at just ₱200. Then download the CPI Call Shop calling app, scan the QR code sent to your email, and you're good to go.
Your prepaid load doesn't expire, so there's no pressure to use it during your trip. Keep the app on your phone and use CPI over your travel eSIM, Wi-Fi or another internet connection whenever you need to call a real mobile or landline number.
And if you do run low while you're traveling, reloading couldn't be much easier. Just log into your CPI online customer portal with your email, click Top Up, choose the amount you want and pay with GCash, credit or debit card, or another available payment method. Your CPI account is credited automatically, so you can continue calling right away — wherever you happen to be.