With that being said, I think it would be better if carriers were just global tbh. But that's a dream.
And do you think you will always get the best prices/services compared to SIM cards sold to locals?
I don't think the incentives go that way. It's more like step 1) limit the visibility of the alternatives in the name of convenience/simplicity step 2) "these are not the alternatives you are looking for"
For the phone company, their best bet is that they'll nickel and dime you through roaming, if for some reason you need this exact phone number to receive calls.
If you just need to use your skype/google voice number , they know you don't need roaming, as a local company will be less expansive, but they can still try to push you towards their "friendly favored partner" (which bad prices due to generous revenue sharing agreement)
If your phone is unlocked and is not ESIM only, there's nothing they can do to let local competition deliver you the cheapest service
However my verizon "Travel Pass" has never ever worked in any country I've tried it in. Even when I ended up getting billed for.the $10/day to use it I still never had service.
On the other hand a 70gb Vodafone SIM card was 10 euro and all I had to do was stick it in and wait 30 seconds.
It's good to have options, esp tried and true ones
With a physical SIM you can insert it into your device, even if there's no connectivity available to you.
That's not to mention how likely carriers are to make it difficult to swap eSIMs around.
T-Mobile is pretty close. Most monthly plans get unlimited data and text in 200+(?) countries. Pay $10 extra for better data speeds. Haven't had to buy an airport SIM since I was already covered for the things I use - rideshare apps, google maps, hotel/airline apps, messaging apps and regular sms. Would be nice to get even higher data speeds in places that have it, but it's still very much usable and useful.
Also, a lot of 2 factor verification systems have trouble messaging international numbers. A lot of the airport Wi-Fi’s I try to log into, for example, almost never succeed in sending me a pin on my international number.
Adding a roaming data plan to my existing number only solves a small number of the problems international travelers face. And even those problems are almost always resolved at a higher cost than getting a local SIM.
Does having a SIM tray stop you from replying to that prompt?
> and you could just opt-in to something straight from your phone and be connected before you even get off the plane without needing to buy a disposable SIM card.
Does having a SIM tray remove your ability to choose?
Meanwhile, people use multiple SIMs even without leaving their home town as some mobile internet providers offer better services than bundled voice+internet services, having to use multiple cellphone numbers is a reality, and actually subscribing to separate services in multiple countries is a thing as well.
For instance, right now I have two SIM cards from two separate operators from two separate countries in one of my phones, and I would have a third if that was an option. Why is this suddenly a bad thing?
Let’s say there’s a product that has 2 similar features A & B.
For its next version of the product Apple removes feature B.
Then folks complain about how there are things they cannot do because feature B is missing.
The Apple fans respond by extolling the benefits of feature A.
The problem is that I already had all those benefits of feature A when Apple shipped the product with both A and B. The Apple fans convert the actual argument, which is (A AND B) vs (Only A) into a strawman argument, which is (Only B) vs (Only A).
Then again, just using a carrier that has global coverage would be even better.
I mean are you really going to be upset that one multi-billion dollar corporation is getting a share of the revenue of other multi-billion dollar corporations? Should we be upset that Amazon sells Apple products on Amazon.com?
Or do you think Apple and others should just not create features like this or make it easier for you to switch carriers in different countries when the carriers themselves are making billions ripping you off with overpriced throw-away SIM cards?
Ultimately if they're developing features like this, I don't care if they do or don't get a cut. My life gets a lot better. If (to use the US as an example) Verizon makes a little less money because they're paying Apple. Whatever. Could not care less.
Apple will probably eventually launch their own service anyway unless anti-trust breaks them up. iPhone is so huge that they can truly own the full stack if they so desire.
The best we will ever get is if some MVNO gets a good enough deal on their global transit that they can provide some kind of global roaming service like that by way of agreements with physical carriers in many countries.