I can't understand why anyone would want this. Being able to physically swap sims so I don't ever have to deal with carrier customer service is a /good/ thing, especially when it's in the carrier's interest to make this as difficult as possible.
After a week of this nonsense, it occurred to me that maybe I could start over with a physical SIM card. I chatted with frontline support again, and he said he was positive that would work. (So why didn't anyone suggest that?!) I couldn't use the old card, because it was clearly beyond their capabilities to reactivate a perfectly good SIM card, but I was able to buy a new one at Best Buy and complete the process in about five minutes.
I would have swapped the card in the first place and been blissfully ignorant of the eSIM fiasco, but I somehow had it in my head that the iPhone used a smaller card than the five-year old phone it was replacing. It may not be eSIM's fault, per se, but if the design is dependent on carrier competence, it's fatally flawed, as far as I'm concerned.
- city centers, rendered noisy, rotted out of businesses, and replaced with parking lots - rural areas rendered completely car-dependent since roads are no longer walking-friendly - small towns who lost their entire downtown strip because people would rather drive their car to wal-mart - millions of pedestrian deaths worldwide per year because cars make it very easy to "accidentally" kill people
So... I guess the lesson is that it is exactly that kind of debate, and that there are pros and cons on both sides?
As far as I can tell the physical sim slot is just a complete waste of space, I can’t use it anyway without toggling one of my esims off.
The long term SIM cards (Virgin UAE, Three HK, Lifecell Ukraine) with phone numbers I can easily transfer by going on the carrier apps or websites.
But we’re rapidly headed towards a data-only world where the SIMs are essentially disposable, there’s nothing you’d care about transferring except perhaps some prepaid data you have left.