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Comment by arthur_sav | Hacker News Reader

Realistically when was the last time you switched your SIM card? I only change it when i change phones.

Last time I was in SE Asia it wasn't uncommon to see people carrying multiple SIM cards. They were sold cheap and providers were constantly undercutting each other on mobile data. This was almost a decade ago now, but given how Asian variants of phones still have dual SIM slots I'm guessing it's still common.

Asian eSIMs are common now. For example the Thai travel sim you would get at the BKK airport can be purchased online as an eSIM - so you can skip that local queuing and currency exchange experience.

Discloser: I sell eSIMs.

I have 4 SIM cards from 4 different countries that I need to keep. Mostly because I have bank accounts in those countries and banks either dislike foreign mobile phone numbers or accept them but then are unable to send any 2fa tokens quickly enough to those foreign phone numbers for the 2fa tokens to still be valid.

So, I actually wish I had a quadruple sim phone, as it is I have two dual sim phones to handle this (with one that mostly stays at home).

The viewpoint of never needing to change sim cards is very US centric (or better said, affluent people in a lot of other countries tend to need multiple SIM cards).

I think people like to complain for the sake of complaining. If you bothered to look, eSIM would suit you perfectly. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT209044

Out of the 4 sim cards I have, only one provider supports eSIM. And yes, I'm aware that some iphones can use dual sim with an eSIM but the HK model which is better is dual SIM (with no eSIM).

You can't do quadruple esim, but arguably the experience with 4 esims on a single device is much better than carrying 4 sims.

"You can store more than one eSIM in your iPhone, but you can use only one at a time. To switch eSIMs, tap Settings, tap either Cellular or Mobile Data, and then tap the plan you want to use. Then tap Turn On This Line." [1]

On the iPhone 13, you can actually use two esims at the same time.

[1] https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT209044

Presumably this will be an inflection point for eSIM availability and you'll be able to add all 4 plans to your phone and switch to any 2 of them on the fly.

Travel. It’s dramatically cheaper to get a local SIM. Some even come with extra benefits, like a pass for use on local mass transit.

I've changed SIM cards twice in the past week. I travel all the time.

airalo is literally made for you.

That's really helpful. I hadn't heard of Airalo. Thanks for the recommendation!

I just heard about it a month ago. Ping me if you want a referral so both me and you get $3 or so.

I live in SE Asia and I do this all the time. Pretty much several times a year when I move around. So does everyone else I know here.

Need to send my phone to repair soon, if they say it will take more than a day then I will rent a phone from them. I can put my current sim in their replacement phone in a few seconds. Can't imagine how long it would take with the eSim.

"You don't do it so often" is not an argument for eSims

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