The short answer
O2 Travel runs your UK plan across the United Arab Emirates at £7 a day (about $9), charged on days of use only. For a whole stay I would pay Ringo Light's price, 2 weeks at $39.99 or 30 days at $71.99, unlimited data at full speed. O2 offers your own number, calls and texts, and a phone with no eSIM slot works.
Two weeks at $39.99 or a month at $71.99, paid once, with no speed ceiling at a conference or in the desert. In the O2 page I read £7 for each day the phone is used in the Emirates, with data held to 2Mbps.
Your UK number rings as at home, texts arrive, and the day charge joins the O2 bill you already pay. Nothing is installed before you fly, and handsets without eSIM are fine. Ringo Light is data only, which is the row I would give to O2.
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. Fourteen daily charges is the most O2 can bill across a fortnight. Sterling becomes dollars at the ECB reference rate of 30 October 2026, latest on 31 October, £1 = $1.34.
The O2 page shows no monthly bolt-on, so thirty days in the Emirates is thirty charges of £7. The rate is the ECB reference of 30 October 2026, £1 = $1.34. Ringo Light takes one payment for the whole month.
Side by side
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Head to head
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Get Ringo Light for UAE, from $17.99.
Installed once, next to your own SIM. Your eSIM arrives by email in seconds.
- 7 days $17.99
- 2 weeks $39.99
- 30 days $71.99
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.
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O2 Travel vs Ringo Light in one paragraph
In the Emirates the gap is wide: Ringo Light is $39.99 against about $131 for two weeks and $71.99 against about $281 for a month. Ringo Light costs more here than in many countries, and it is still far below the bolt-on. O2 Travel brings real comfort, since the phone keeps its number, calls and texts, and no eSIM slot is needed. For a one night layover I would stay on O2. For a fortnight of meetings or a month on a posting, I would buy Ringo Light.
Price: the same trip at each
I read the O2 travel page on 31 October 2026. It names the United Arab Emirates among 75 destinations for a fixed £7 a day. Each charge covers 24 hours from first use. A fortnight is £98 (about $131) and thirty days £210 (about $281). The page names the United Arab Emirates as a whole, not Dubai on its own, so the price is the same in Abu Dhabi or Sharjah. No monthly option is shown. For dollars I used the ECB reference rate of 30 October 2026, the latest out on 31 October, £1 = $1.34.
Ringo Light is priced in US dollars, and before paying the checkout displays the amount in the buyer's currency. Seven days is $17.99, two weeks is $39.99 and 30 days is $71.99. That saves $91.01 over a fortnight and $209.01 over a month. One £7 day of the bolt-on is a fair share of the shorter trip, so I give O2 the win on ease and not on cost.
Data and speed at each
O2 states the bolt-on has no usage limit and caps roaming speed at 2Mbps, without a fair use rule. Maps, taxi apps and WhatsApp should keep going at that rate. A video call from the hotel, a presentation pulled from the cloud at a conference or a laptop on a tether in the desert camp will strain, and that is what I look at when I pick. Ringo Light is unlimited data at full speed with no per day figure. Fair use policy, see Terms.
Calls, texts and your own number
The bolt-on leaves your UK number on, and the page says calls to the UK and within the Emirates are unlimited. Third country calls cost standard roaming rates, and receiving calls or texts does not start the daily charge. A one time code from your hotel booking or UK bank still arrives. I would not try to match that with Ringo Light, which has no number, so calls use data apps and your number stays on your own SIM next to it.
Setup and billing
Send TRAVEL to 23336 or add the bolt-on in My O2, and check first that it is not already on. The £7 starts at your first call, text or data session and sits outside any Spend Cap. I would do it at home, so the arrivals hall at Abu Dhabi airport stays calm. Ringo Light arrives by email after payment and installs from one QR scan over Wi-Fi. Turn data on when you land. An eSIM phone is needed.
What Ringo Light is, and what it is not
Ringo Light is Ringo's own eSIM for data, sold to fund the full Ringo, one plan that works in every country. I write for Ringo, so keep that in mind as you read. For the Emirates it sells three trips, 7 days at $17.99, 2 weeks at $39.99 and 30 days at $71.99, all unlimited data at full speed, paid once and never renewed.
It carries no phone number, so it does not replace the O2 line, and your handset must accept an eSIM. O2 is the neater option for one bill. Ringo Light is the lower price for the same time in the Emirates, and that decides it for me.
I ranked the travel eSIM brands for the United Arab Emirates at /blog/best-esim-for-uae. 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 Emirates trips. It costs $39.99 or $71.99 once at full speed, against £7 for each day of use at O2. It is the plan I would buy.
- ✓O2 Travel, for a single layover day. One £7 charge and no purchase, which I would take for a short stop.
- ✓O2 Travel, if the phone has no eSIM slot. It runs on the plan already in the handset, so I would not push an eSIM on you here.
- ✓Both, for a long work contract. Ringo Light for data and your own SIM for calls, my setup for a long stay.
Pick by trip
I would buy Ringo Light at $39.99, unlimited at full speed. Fourteen O2 days cost £98, about $131.
Ringo Light at $71.99, with the laptop on a tether. Thirty O2 days would total £210, about $281, held at 2Mbps.
Ringo Light, since I expect the 2Mbps ceiling to make big files slow.
O2 Travel. I would take a single £7 day and keep your own number.
I would stay with O2 Travel, or add Ringo Light for data beside your own SIM.
Frequently asked questions
How we compared, and our sources
O2, Ringo Light, European Central Bank, Ringo Light
We priced O2 and Ringo Light for UAE 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 sell data for the Emirates too, and /blog/best-esim-for-uae ranks them. Here I set O2 against Ringo Light only. Left out: O2 roaming beyond the bolt-on. O2 sets different terms for Europe and charges standard rates away from its list, and I did not price that. The Emirates are on the Travel bolt-on list, so I used that number. The O2 roaming overview was 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/uae, 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.
