You land, switch off flight mode, and something is wrong. ChatGPT says it isn’t available in your region. Netflix has lost half your list. Your bank wants a security code that never arrives. Nothing is broken — not your phone, not your eSIM. Almost all of it comes down to one setting that nobody mentions when they sell you a data plan: the country your connection appears to come from.
The address that travels with you
Every time your phone talks to the internet, it does so from an address — an IP address — and every app you open reads that address to work out which country you are in. At home, that is simply your home country. Abroad, it depends entirely on how your data is routed.
Most travel eSIMs don’t hand you a local connection. They roam: your data travels through the local network to a hub somewhere else, and only there does it step out onto the internet. A plan used in Thailand might step out in Singapore. A plan used in Japan might step out in Hong Kong. A plan used in China almost always steps out outside the mainland.
That place is your IP location — and to every app on your phone, that is where you are. Not the beach. Not the hotel. The hub.
AI tools: the country lists decide
OpenAI and Anthropic each publish the list of countries where ChatGPT and Claude are offered. Hong Kong, Macao and mainland China are not on either list (we checked both on 24 October 2026). So if your plan steps out in Hong Kong, ChatGPT and Claude usually refuse to open — even if you are standing in Tokyo or Bangkok.
Google’s Gemini does list Hong Kong and Macao, and Microsoft’s Copilot excludes only mainland China, so both usually keep working through a Hong Kong IP.
Step out in Singapore, the United States, the United Kingdom, most of Europe or Japan, and all four are usually available. If an AI assistant is part of your working day, this is the single most useful thing to check before you buy a plan. The lists do change, so for a long trip, glance at the service’s own page first.
Streaming: the catalogue follows your IP, not your passport
Netflix says it in its own help centre: the films and series available in one country might be different from another. The same subscription shows a different library depending on where you appear to be. Travel on a plan that steps out in Singapore and you will usually see something close to Singapore’s catalogue — which may include shows you can’t get at home, and miss some you can.
YouTube Premium and Spotify work in most countries, Hong Kong included, but not in mainland China. YouTube also warns that it may act on a membership that seems to stay abroad for long periods. None of this is a fault to fix; it is simply how streaming rights are sold, country by country. Knowing it in advance spares you the first-evening surprise.
Banks: the extra check, and the text that never comes
Banks watch for sign-ins from unfamiliar places, and a login from abroad might trigger an extra check. Very often that check is a code sent by SMS — and this is where travellers get stuck.
A travel eSIM carries data only. It has no phone number, so it cannot receive that text. Your own SIM can — if you leave it switched on for calls and messages while the eSIM carries your data. Almost every phone that takes an eSIM can run both lines at once.
So before you fly: switch your bank to app-based approval or an authenticator app where it offers one; tell your bank you are travelling if it asks you to; and keep your home SIM on for texts, with mobile data set to the eSIM so your home operator never charges you for roaming data. Check what your operator charges for receiving texts abroad — usually nothing, but it varies.
Local apps: your number and your app store matter more than your IP
Grab in Bangkok, KakaoTalk in Seoul, WeChat in Shanghai, Zalo in Hanoi: these apps care far more about your phone number, your payment card and the country of your app store than about your IP location. If an app is missing from your store, that is about your account’s country — not your eSIM.
The fix is timing. Install the apps you need at home, on wifi, and sign in while your own number can still receive its codes. Every one of our destination pages lists the local apps travellers actually use there.
How we handle it
Here is what we do about it. Every plan we sell names its IP location before you pay — it is printed right beside the price. Where a destination is sold with more than one, “Choose your IP” lets you pick: Singapore instead of Hong Kong for your AI tools, a US exit for the services you use at home.
What each app then does with that address is its own decision, and the rules change. That is why this guide says “usually” rather than “always”. We give you the facts; the choice is yours.
Before you go: a two-minute checklist
Check which IP location your plan uses, and whether your must-have apps support it. Install local apps at home and sign in. Move your bank to app-based codes. Keep your own SIM on for texts, with data on the eSIM. Download a film or two for the first night, just in case.