Overseas Travel and eSIM Access Issues

Mon, Jun, 2026

Travelling Overseas? Your eSIM Could Affect Account Access

If you’re travelling internationally and planning to use an eSIM, there is an important issue to be aware of.

We’ve recently seen several cases where people using eSIMs overseas appear to be signing in from a completely different country than the one they’re actually visiting. This can occur with some lower-cost, app-based eSIM providers that route internet traffic through another region.

While the eSIM works perfectly for internet access, security systems such as Microsoft Conditional Access and our Managed Detection and Response (MDR) platform may detect your location incorrectly.

 

Why This Matters

If your sign-in appears to originate from the wrong country, it can result in:

  • Impossible travel alerts being triggered

  • Microsoft 365 or other business systems blocking access

  • Conditional Access policies not recognising your legitimate travel location

  • Unexpected interruptions while you’re overseas

In short, you may be physically in one country while your internet connection appears to come from somewhere else entirely.

 

Why Does This Happen?

Some eSIM providers don’t route your internet traffic through the country you’re visiting. Instead, your connection may exit through another country’s network.

For example, if you’re travelling in Singapore, your sign-ins could appear to originate from Europe, the United States, or another part of Asia, depending on how your eSIM provider routes its traffic.

This creates challenges for security controls that rely on your apparent sign-in location.

 

How Anvil Can Help

Whenever possible, we configure security policies to allow access from the countries our clients are travelling to.

However, if an eSIM provider routes traffic through an unexpected country, we often can’t identify this in advance unless we know:

  • Where you’re travelling

  • When you’ll be away

  • Which eSIM provider you plan to use

Without this information, the issue may only become apparent once you’re overseas and trying to access your business systems.

If that happens, we’ll do everything we can to resolve it as quickly as possible, but it can still cause disruption at an inconvenient time.

 

Before You Travel

Before leaving New Zealand, please let us know:

  • Your travel destination(s)

  • Your travel dates

  • The eSIM provider you intend to use

With this information, we can research the provider’s routing behaviour, review any potential Conditional Access implications, and reduce the risk of access issues while you’re away.

 

A Simple Rule of Thumb

If you’re travelling overseas and plan to use an eSIM, let us know before you leave.

A quick heads-up gives us the best opportunity to identify any potential location-related security issues before you travel, rather than troubleshooting them while you’re overseas.