Old days: SIM cards and high data roaming costs

This post is for the young ones that don't know what travel used to be like before low-cost eSIMs.

In the old days, after landing at destination airport, one typically went to a counter and bought a SIM card. The SIM card in its last nano iteration is so small it is very easy to lose, so most people have a case/pouch to keep them in. Losing your domestic SIM while swapping out for the local SIM would be a nightmare.

For me, I used a plastic case from an SD card to keep both my SIM ejector and nano SIM, and I never swapped out the SIM unless there was a good sturdy surface. Swapping out SIMs on your lap is not recommended. I've heard tales of people dropping it into a crack somewhere ...

Local SIMs at $4-8/day were much cheaper than data roaming in the early 2010's. I used to pay US$24/day for data roaming in almost every single country in the world with unlimited data usage. It was a decent deal given some hotels used to charge for wi-fi each day, and that could easily have been $20/day.

Doing the math, for a 3-day trip, it's $12-24/day for a local SIM vs $72 for roaming. $48 to $60 is a strong incentive to line up at a counter to buy a SIM even if it takes a long time, say 20 mins.