The short answer
Your O2 plan can follow you to Egypt at £7 a day (about $9), charged only on days of use. Ringo Light covers the trip once, 2 weeks at $18.99 or 30 days at $40.99, with unlimited data at full speed. O2 brings what only a home line can, your own number, calls and texts and no eSIM slot, and I would not wave that away.
Two weeks costs $18.99 and thirty days $40.99, paid once, with no speed ceiling on a Nile cruise deck or at a Cairo cafe. O2 Travel bills £7 each day the phone is used in Egypt and holds data to 2Mbps.
Calls and texts carry on to your UK number, the charge lands on the O2 bill you already pay, and nothing is installed before you leave. A phone with no eSIM slot works. Ringo Light carries data and nothing else.
Prices read on 31 October 2026: O2, Ringo Light, European Central Bank on their own sites or listings, Ringo Light from its catalogue. All in US dollars unless stated. Treat every number as a snapshot.
See the full price index for every country.
The prices, charted
US dollars, 31 October 2026. O2 only bills days of use, so fourteen charges is the top for an Egyptian fortnight. ECB reference rate used: 30 October 2026, the latest by 31 October, so £1 = $1.34.
O2's page lists no monthly bolt-on, so a month in Egypt is thirty charges of £7. The ECB reference rate of 30 October 2026 gives £1 = $1.34 here. Ringo Light is one payment for thirty days.
Side by side
Swipe to compare →
Head to head
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- AT&T vs Ringo Light for Egypt
- Three vs Ringo Light for Egypt
- Airalo vs Holafly for Egypt
- Airalo vs Nomad for Egypt
- Airalo vs Ringo Light for Egypt
- Airalo vs Saily for Egypt
- Holafly vs Nomad for Egypt
- Holafly vs Saily for Egypt
Get Ringo Light for Egypt, from $12.99.
Installed once, next to your own SIM. Your eSIM arrives by email in seconds.
- 7 days $12.99
- 2 weeks $18.99
- 30 days $40.99
We sell data eSIMs for now to fund the full Ringo service. Ringo is self funded. Every plan bought here pays for the build of one plan that works everywhere.
Want to keep your own number abroad?
That is the full Ringo service: one plan that works everywhere, with your own number included.
It is a separate product from Ringo Light and it is still being built, so it is not on sale yet. Join the waitlist to hear when it opens.
O2 Travel vs Ringo Light in one paragraph
Egypt shows the same pattern as the rest of the list, as I read it. Ringo Light is $18.99 against about $131 for a fortnight and $40.99 against about $281 for a month. O2 Travel keeps genuine advantages, including the same number, calls and texts that work as at home, and no eSIM slot or install. For a night at the pyramids I would buy O2 without a second thought. For two weeks between Cairo and Luxor, or a month living in the city, I would buy Ringo Light, which costs a fraction and has no speed ceiling.
Price: the same trip at each
I read O2's travel page, which includes Egypt among 75 destinations for a fixed £7 a day, on 31 October 2026, each charge running 24 hours from first use. Fourteen days is £98 (about $131) and thirty is £210 (about $281). No monthly version appears. Pounds are shown in dollars using the ECB reference rate of 30 October 2026, the latest on 31 October, £1 = $1.34.
Ringo Light is priced in US dollars, with the amount shown in the buyer's own currency at checkout before they pay. Two weeks is $18.99 and 30 days is $40.99, each a single payment. Against the bolt-on that saves $112.01 on a fortnight and $240.01 on a month. A single £7 O2 day is large beside the whole trip price, so O2 wins on convenience, not cost.
Data and speed at each
O2 says the bolt-on has no usage limit and caps roaming speed at 2Mbps, with no fair use policy mentioned. Maps in the Cairo traffic, a taxi app and WhatsApp should work at that rate, in my reading. Photo backups from a Nile cruise, a video call home from Luxor or a laptop tethered in a Hurghada hotel will crawl. Ringo Light is unlimited data at full speed with no daily quota quoted. I would read the fair use policy in the Terms before buying.
Calls, texts and your own number
Staying on the O2 number means calls and texts behave as at home, and the page says calls to the UK and within Egypt are unlimited. Calls elsewhere are billed at standard roaming rates, and receiving a call or text does not start the daily charge. Your bank's code to the UK number still arrives, which I count as a real point for O2. Ringo Light has no number; calls go over data apps and your number stays on your own SIM next to it.
Setup and billing
Text TRAVEL to 23336 or add the bolt-on in My O2, where you can see if it is already active. The £7 begins at the first call, text or data use and does not count toward a Spend Cap. I would sort it before the flight, which spares you the arrivals hall at Cairo airport. Ringo Light comes by email after payment and installs from one QR scan on home Wi-Fi; switch data on when you land. It needs an eSIM phone.
What Ringo Light is, and what it is not
I write for Ringo, so weigh this part accordingly. Ringo Light is Ringo's own eSIM for data only, sold to fund the full Ringo, one plan that works the world over. For Egypt it sells three trips, 7 days at $12.99, 2 weeks at $18.99 and 30 days at $40.99, all unlimited data at full speed, paid once with no renewal.
It has no phone number, so it does not stand in for your O2 line, and the handset needs an eSIM slot. O2 is the tidier way to keep one bill, and I say so plainly; Ringo Light is the lower price for the same days in Egypt.
The comparison of the travel eSIM brands for Egypt is at /blog/best-esim-for-egypt. The card to buy Ringo Light is further up this page, just after the side-by-side table.
Which to pick
- ✓Ringo Light, for most Egyptian trips. It is $18.99 or $40.99 once at full speed, against £7 on each day of use at O2.
- ✓O2 Travel, for a short stay. One £7 day and nothing to install first.
- ✓O2 Travel, with a phone that has no eSIM. It uses the plan already inside the handset.
- ✓Both, on a long assignment. Ringo Light carries data, your own SIM takes the calls.
Pick by trip
Ringo Light, $18.99, unlimited at full speed. Two weeks of O2 days adds up to £98, about $131.
Ringo Light, $40.99, with the laptop on a tether. A month of O2 days would be £210, about $281, at 2Mbps.
Ringo Light, since uploads would crawl at the 2Mbps ceiling.
O2 Travel: two £7 days and your own number.
Use O2 Travel, because Ringo Light needs eSIM support.
Frequently asked questions
How we compared, and our sources
O2, Ringo Light, European Central Bank, Ringo Light
We priced O2 and Ringo Light for Egypt on 31 October 2026, all on the same day, in US dollars. Each rival's price comes from its own website where it showed dollars, otherwise from an esimdb.com listing, and every source and its date is listed below. Ringo Light's prices come from the catalogue our checkout charges.
We compare the trips people actually book: a week, two weeks and a month of unlimited data, and a 10 GB bucket. We read each brand's fair use and speed rules and quote them as the brands state them. We did not run speed tests, so this page makes no speed claims for any brand.
Ringo Light is our own product. We put it in the table on the same terms as everyone else, and where a rival is the better buy the page says so.
Left out: Other eSIM brands. Airalo, Holafly, Saily, Nomad and Ubigi also serve Egypt and are compared at /blog/best-esim-for-egypt. The one question here is O2 or Ringo Light. Left out: Further O2 roaming terms. O2 has its own Europe terms and standard rates for anywhere off the list, and I have not priced those on this page. Egypt is on the Travel bolt-on list, which is why that figure is used. The O2 roaming overview page returned not found on the day.
- O2: www.o2.co.uk/international/o2-travel, O2 Travel bolt-on page, read 31 October 2026: £7 a day, charged for the 24 hours from first use, unlimited data capped at 2Mbps while roaming, unlimited calls to the UK and within the destination; the destination is on the page's list of 75 countries. The roaming page at o2.co.uk/international/roaming returned not found on the same day
- Ringo Light: ringoesim.com/egypt, the catalogue the checkout charges, read the same day
- European Central Bank: www.ecb.europa.eu/stats/eurofxref/eurofxref-daily.xml, euro reference rates of 30 October 2026, the latest published on 31 October 2026, used for the dollar figures (£1 = $1.34)
- Ringo Light: our own catalogue, the prices the checkout charges on 31 October 2026.
Written and priced by the Ringo team. Prices change often; if you spot one that has moved, tell us through the contact page and we will update the table.
