Carrier How to use a number for iMessage while the line is unused?

[Vexir]

Hey all,

I’m traveling in NZ for a month and have two SIMs. One physical NZ and one US eSIM. The idea is to prevent my US SIM from ever being used except in emergencies, thereby avoiding the $10 international fee that AT&T charges. This is why I bought a local NZ sim.

The problem is, if I turn off the US line, it also disappears as a send/receive option in iMessage. This is inconvenient - I won’t receive iMessages from friends and they’ll receive messages from my email or a number they don’t recognize.

How can I accomplish both? Avoid the ATT charges while also using my US number for iMessage?

 

[Slartibart]

associate your Apple ID with the NZ number. Remove the association with the US number (till return).
Remind all friends to save your AppleID to your contact on their phone, not just the mobile number.
Be aware that you decided not to communicate with your Android friends by doing this - at least not till you propagate your NZ mobil number. Same goes for every iPhone user which doesn’t have your Apple ID in their contacts.


Or: 10 bucks it is. 🤓