eSIM is altering how consumers interact with operators
opensignal.com
opensignal.com
The reality not so much. I tried it a few months ago and found:
* Scanning the QR code to install the esim requires internet - it can't activate the sim card to get internet unless it already has internet. Seems like a bit of an oversight!
* Once provisioned, the mobile network doesn't actually activate your account for a few hours. Kinda takes away the benefit of 'one click and go'.
* The phone is hardcoded to only support 4G via esim, although the phone itself supports 5G if you use a physical sim on the same mobile network. Nobody on the forums has managed to make it work.
* If you damage the phone, there is no way to transfer the esim to a new phone. I assumed it would transfer over automatically as part of backup/restore, either via cable or cloud backup, but no.
* The mobile network has no ability to transfer the sim over either. Apparently their software doesn't allow it. The only way is to transfer to a physical sim, wait for it to arrive, then mark the physical sim as lost, and then reorder an esim. Great - that takes 4 days, during which you have no service.
Most of these flaws are problems with the mobile network's policies and processes. But some are with the esim spec (not allowing backup/restore, not having enough info in the QR code to connect to a network without internet).
Overall, esims have so far caused me hours of frustration and little benefit.
Regarding backing up, yes it would be nice if you could backup your eSIM alongside the rest of your phone contents, however the real solution is just making it easy to provision a new eSIM.
In my experience, if I need a new eSIM I just open the carrier app and reinstall it to the phone.
There's very little a carrier can get wrong with a SIM.
My carrier literally has a webpage explaining how to do it on an iPhone, and the page is blatantly wrong. Good job testing.
Want to switch your phone? $10 and you have to go to the carrier physically.
The iPhone feature where you can transfer an eSIM appears to work with carrier support, and the carriers here I've tried all don't support it so the process fails.
I think for 3 kids, I pay about 10% of what I would pay for them to have monthly plans from a Canadian carrier.
I called up my operator before I decided to switch to another operator. Got a whole slew of excuses for it. "Transfers are blocked for security purposes." Didn't figure out a security benefit for the surcharge. "You'd have to pay for a new physical SIM card too", except I wouldn't because physical SIM cards are REUSABLE. Tried to use this line of reasoning against the operator by asking to not order a new eSIM but reuse the eSIM I already had, but no dice.
Thankfully I managed to find a phone plan that was cheaper than the one I had, so I fixed my eSIM issue and got slight savings on top. Of course after I signed the new contract, my existing operator decided to ring me up and butter me up again. At least this time they admitted that it was just pure rent-seeking and they surely could've given me a free eSIM. Too bad my mind had been made at this point.
There’s your problem. Not much to do with esims.
Why not just show me the QR code on my computer right after I pay your fee? It's quite ridiculous.
Luckily European universities didn’t give much of a fuck about GRE or even TOEFL and just wanted a scan or photo copy if I had it - or a print or screenshot of the page which I could access by logging in. In one university after I was on call with a professor I was told - “no need for TOEFL score, I just talked to you in English and it’s good enough” or something on the lines of it.
The entire process kind of gave me some kind of closer peek into how education is treated differently in Europe, and in USA, and of course in my home country India.
I’ve recently had experience doing this.
As far as the other problems go it’s the same with physical SIMs again.
Nearly all physical SIMs today are provisioned OTA so it quite often can take 24-48 hours for your physical SIM to activate especially if you migrate your number between carriers.
The only way to get an “instant” SIM provisioning is to go to a large physical store even the smaller ones are pretty much the same as getting the SIM delivered to your house i.e. they take you through the same phone/internet based activation and provisioning process.
You’re also wrong about the internet requirement the provisioning system for eSIM does not require internet on the device for access the QR code is essentially an authentication code that combined with the IEMI allows you to register with a carrier.
You usually do need an internet connection on another device to get the QR code in the first place but if you can also use a checkout terminal or just get a paper print out of the QR.
In my world, I land in an airport, purchase a SIM card and it works before I leave the airport (or the operator’s desk). It’s often that way with eSIMs purchased via Airalo.
The delay could appear when your transferring your number, but even then you can still use a temporary number until the old one overrides it.
Many organisations suffer this problem and there is really no good solutions to that.
And Acrobits Softphone is a reliable SIP dialer for Android which is very light on battery life.
And they will.
I signed up for my number in 2015, with a landline, because I had just purchased an Android tablet, with no SIM slot or mobile plan, so I decided that teh Goog was the best bet for VoIP for me.
You've got to guard your conversations on Voice, and don't mention forbidden keywords. Voice will instantly disconnect the call if it detects wrongthink.
I don't see how Google makes money on Google Voice, which makes wary of them shutting it down some day.
This solves the “voip number” problem.
No battery swelling?
I copied the idea and did the same, it's essentially free of cost to do so where I live, thanks to having operators that offer a pay-what-you-use tier with no fixed monthly cost. The line is just to act as a 2FA mule, so it means it costs nothing (save causing any kind of expense once every 6 months, but sending a single SMS does it, so I guess it actually costs something like 20cts per year)
Apart from the SMS Forwarder app [2] you suggested, an HN commenter [3] provided links to some FOSS alternative which I didn't get to try but should work fine and is ad-free.
[1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28251107
[2]: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.frzinapps....
The only minor hiccup I have had is that at some point the devices decide that enough time has passed that there must be a software update available ... and I ignore the prompts to do so ... which is fine ...
... but then there was a power outage and when they powered back on they were in some update status where they weren't online until I clicked something ? I forget ... might have been an updated google legal agreement with the update ?
They are google pixel devices with stock OS load and no apps added (other than that SMSForwarder) but even still, had some logic for software update that produced a minor annoyance.
Working well, albeit the Google login tends to give more problems than it should, in smaller and independent apps like these.
But I definitely observed that the one time that I left the phone plugged in for the most part of 3 months, the battery never was the same. It lost like a third of its capacity.
Have you used it? Do you know if it's only the GUI for ACC (i.e. that ACC must be installed independently), or if it already embeds ACC?
"Expired: Monday, July 17, 2023 at 13:21:09 Eastern Daylight Saving Time" per Safari.
* https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/analyze.html?d=kozubik.com
I had a nice acme.sh toolchain and process and then this silliness:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36252310
... all for a simple site that never needed SSL in the first place.
(luckily I only ran acme.sh in a stripped down jail)
I suppose it's an operator problem. 5G with eSIM most certainly works on T-Mobile US. I've also had 5G working on AT&T Mexico eSIM when I was in 5G coverage area (very spotty). Can't tell about travel eSIMs (such as Airalo) as I haven't used those in areas with 5G coverage.
> Once provisioned, the mobile network doesn't actually activate your account for a few hours.
Worked nearly instantly for me every time I've tried. Definitely must be a sloppy operator or some error during provisioning.
> Scanning the QR code to install the esim requires internet - it can't activate the sim card to get internet unless it already has internet. Seems like a bit of an oversight!
Not an oversight at all. The key exchange has to happen online, as key material is generated on-device, not delivered in the QR code.
> Once provisioned, the mobile network doesn't actually activate your account for a few hours. Kinda takes away the benefit of 'one click and go'.
That is absolutely your operator's issue; I've been up and running in 60 seconds.
> The phone is hardcoded to only support 4G via esim, although the phone itself supports 5G if you use a physical sim on the same mobile network. Nobody on the forums has managed to make it work.
Which phone is this? I get 5G via eSIM on my Pixel 5, and it works fine on all 5G-capable iPhones too.
> If you damage the phone, there is no way to transfer the esim to a new phone. I assumed it would transfer over automatically as part of backup/restore, either via cable or cloud backup, but no.
Nope; the secret key never leaves the phone. Contact your operator and they send you a new QR, which for me took five minutes and I had the QR in my email inbox.
> The mobile network has no ability to transfer the sim over either. Apparently their software doesn't allow it.
See above.
> The only way is to transfer to a physical sim, wait for it to arrive, then mark the physical sim as lost, and then reorder an esim. Great - that takes 4 days, during which you have no service.
Sounds like you should pick an operator that doesn't suck quite as much.
Which phones and model(s)? iPhone (X/11/12/13/14)? Google Pixel Pro 6/7? Samsung Galaxy (S20 or upwards)? Huawei? Oppo? Sony? Xiaomi? Other?
I bought a bunch of refurbished/renewed iPads for my business and 7 of them were EUICC locked to AT&T. You could put any physical SIM in the iPad and it would work but it would not let you use a non-AT&T eSIM. AT&T refused to talk to me unless I had an account with them, I did, and then told me those iPads were not in their system, there was nothing they could do, and I should see about returning them and getting new/replacement ones.
I spent multiple hours on the phone and on their support forums and got nowhere (over the span of 2-3+ weeks). Finally I filed an FCC complaint and the issue was fully resolved in 3 days.
FCC/CFPB complaints are great tools to use and I recommend reaching for them sooner rather than later. I have examples of being jerked around by companies for a period of weeks or longer and then the issue being fully resolved in a matter of days after filing a complaint. It's my new "complain on twitter to get better/faster service".
I have an iPhone with a similar problem -- physical SIMs work with any carrier. However, T-mobile ESIM is the only one I've been able to get work. T-mobile insists the phone has no lock and tells me to go to Apple. Apple tells me to go to T-mobile. End result is I can't activate any ESIMs outside of T-mobile's.
1. Go here https://consumercomplaints.fcc.gov/hc/en-us/requests/new?tic...
2. Phone Issues: Availability
3. Phone Availability Sub Issue: No Service Available
4. Your Phone Method: Wireless (cell phone/other mobile device)
The rest of the fields should be self-explanatory. I mentioned EUICC lock in my description and a few days later I got a call from AT&T and then a few days after that it was fixed.
My phone doesn't support the bands necessary for VZ service, but it was worth trying.
This costs taxpayer money, to have an enforcement agency to deal with BS like this and have them waste time on these matters.
There should be a huge fine that the company in question (AT&T here) must pay every time something like this happens and it turns out it was their fault. When companies like this cost everyone else time and money, they should be heavily penalized, so they'll fix their broken internal processes.
The state public service / utility commission is similar with utilities. Verizon let some of their phone infrastructure rot, it fell and was dangling over my yard between a couple of poles. I called them and got all sorts of runaround for days. I filed a complaint and a guy was there in 2 hours assessing the situation and it was fixed by bedtime.
Their newfound responsiveness was because they have a limited number of hours to respond, at which point fines accrue hourly.
Big companies only understand pain, but they don’t systematically feel pain unless you’re able to inflict it. Every fine reduces someone’s bonus, so you want the incentive to encourage resolution under pressure - otherwise, if you get fined no matter what, there’s no incentive to act.
Works the same way with services contracts. If you force the provider to price penalties into the P&L as a matter of course, you’ve lost the ability to compel behavior. Companies internally incentivize loss avoidance.
1. You can't swap the SIM yourself because the HSM is designed not to reveal the secrets.
2. You can't provision offline because the carrier needs to encrypt the payload to the target HSM. In theory I guess if the target phone was known it could be provisioned once and uploaded repeated (for fast eSIM swapping between different SIMs in the same device). But there may also be some form of replay protection.
What I would like to see is that the eSIM is just a config file with connection info and credentials. Then the device itself is in charge of connecting, sharing and whatever else. The user is in control and can transfer or swap as they see fit.
The downside would be that this data is easier to steal if it isn't in a TPM but no one said that you couldn't put it into a TPM. It is just user choice now. For example the keys could be uploaded to the TPM much like today. Or it could be encrypted with a TPM key and stored on the device (this would allow easily changing eSIMs or transferring between devices). You could even do things like escrow a copy to a trusted backup location so that you can restore the eSIM to a new phone if you lose or break the old phone. (Although you may need to revoke the old creds if they are at-risk of being stolen from the old device.)
The carrier should be a dumb pipe. I don't like how much control they have over my hardware.
EDIT: HN is throttling me for responding too quickly so I'm responding to the comment below this. eSIM uses UICC hardware, not unlike a cryptographic smartcard (think PIV or OpenPGP smartcards). It's built upon the same kind of cards as physical UICC (SIM) cards are. You have a CPU, some memory, and the ability to store applets usually written in java. Where eSIM/eUICC is different is it is an implementation of downloadable SIM profiles. The standard does allow for, and there are physical removable eSIM's made. The phone controls profiles on them using apdu commands at the low-leve: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smart_card_application_protoco... . Check my prior comments on the matter.
What kind of physical hardware is an eSIM composed of?
You can get from that page to their technical standards which go into much more detail about hardware for eSIMs.
STMicro makes Arm based ones: https://www.st.com/en/secure-mcus/st4sim-201m.html
Ask HN: Installed DOOM on my employer's FIPS-certified HSM; why won't it run?
eSIMs are not HSMs and the GP shouldn't be muddying the waters. SIM cards aren't HSMs. They run apps! Smart Cards aren't HSMs. They have cryptographic functions, but they aren't HSMs!
An HSM is a very specific, physical hardware-based cryptographic device. You'll know it when you see it, and they're designed, labeled, and sold as HSMs with a price to match. No mobile provider is going to let you download no HSM for no $40. Crazy talk.
Every single company that we've found that claims to do small-scale eSIM personalization/SM-DP/etc services just... won't answer our sales forms. Monogoto, Teal, Globalgig, Smartjac... nobody.
EDIT: To note, of course, if we were willing to spend tens of thousands directly with a manufacturer or company that actually does this stuff for a living (selling the whole core/radios/etc) I'm sure they'd bend over backwards, but we know how to deploy open5gs and buy eNodeBs that work in our system and deploy them as-is (up to and including abusing former Pollen Mobile gear) -- we already have a dozen or so devices on via physical SIM in our office.
Case in point - I stay in Country A (home country) for 3 months, Country B for 2 months, and then C for 3 months, back to A. Until now I used an Android with Dual-SIM (physical) and all I had to do was: put in physical-SIM whenever I am in and call it a day. With iPhone and more and more phone manufacturers praising about eSIMs, not anymore.
Country B/C/D etc may have extremely complex or underwhelming infrastructure/process to support e-SIMs. Lots of issues with “network reception not working” to troubleshooting the signup process. Heck, there are additional charges in some countries for eSIM vs. physical sim.
With eSIM, you should be able to just have all three eSIMs stored on the phone, marking the one you want to use as active, and switching whenever you want, with no need to carry around physical bits of plastic any more.
This has been my experience with my iPhone 13 when traveling.
No? Normally SIM card activated by carrier before sending to you, like a cable/satellite card would be. It just works when you put it in devices, can be swapped around between devices without a secondary internet connection. Same if you buy prepaid sim at a store, many countries you can just buy and activate at checkout, then put in phone, no carrier helper apps needed.
> With eSIM, you should be bale to just have all three eSims stored on the phone, marking the one you want to use as active, and switching whenever you want, with no need to carry around physical bits of plastic any more.
If wanting to change devices you need an internet connection and hope activation app/site isn't down, call on the phone to manually transfer (which requires a working phone service), or go into a store. Many carriers will not activate eSIM devices they don't recognize the IMEI of. The situation is only fairly seamless currently with iPhone in the US, most international carriers don't support the automatic iPhone transfer stuff. It's kind of a mess everywhere else on Android.
People are complaining so much that I guess maybe I've had just good luck with carriers?
Fair point on changing devices. I've never tried that and I imagine you might have to get the carrier to issue a new eSIM, which is might be an annoying ordeal. It's _meant_ to be possible to do it easily (see e.g. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT212780 - but that does say it works only for "some carriers").
Which you need an internet connection for. A SIM you do not.
> People are complaining so much that I guess maybe I've had just good luck with carriers?
Apple really put a lot of thought into making the process as seamless as possible if the carrier builds into their system. Credit where credit is due, but everywhere else is a fragmented mess (not unlike how bad the voLTE situation has been with inconsistent phone/carrier support).
Apple's physical to esim transfer process is great (as well as phone to phone transfer) if the carrier supports it, but now how do you go about moving esim to an android phone if you like swapping around? Good luck navigating carrier apps/site/phone/store/etc...
You step into the shop/kiosk at the airport (or in the city, however you prefer). They ask you to choose any SIM with desired numbers, plans are clearly well-written, take xerox of your passport (or click a snap of it), and plug the SIM in, pay money, reboot phone, and that's it. It did not take me more than 10 minutes in any scenario.
In all cases, it is cheaper (than using Airalo - and why are we promoting one app anyway!)and less hassle-free than buying eSIM.
I bought the esim about a week ahead and installed it and the validity period auto activiated when I turned on the profile in reach of a valid network.
This shit never happened with physical SIMs.
Most carriers will only provision a eSIM if you are on a contract through them. So lets say you are traveling for US to Mexico with an iPhone 14 (no physical sim) you are SOL. Extremely frustrating.
Only good news is once those contracts are up the used market I hope will force a change in this behavior.
Around here, as long as the phone isn't locked to a carrier [1], you just swap the physical sim and have new service.
With the esim you suddenly need the phone manufacturer's approval. Perhaps masked as a software incompatibility.
Swaps take hours to days.
What is the advantage to the customer here?
[1] And carriers are required to unlock your phone for a nominal fee when the contract period ends.
It's not that any of this was impossible without eSIMs but it's created a new market of online-only SIM sellers. Before eSIMs I'd have to be without data when I first arrived somewhere new while I buy a local PAYG SIM. Don't have to worry about that any more.
> What is the advantage to the customer here?
Outside of dual SIM applications I don't think it's a whole lot more complicated than online retail being considerably more convenient than in-person. When switching providers you often have to time it correctly: make sure the plan is expiring on your old SIM when you put in the new one. Having a SIM arrive instantly makes that a lot easier. Plus it's just a lot easier to make a spontaneous purchase.
I did not have to visit a physical store and it cost me about $5.
I landed. Opened the app. Got the esim and was on my way. I then could alternate between sims easily.
I imagine if I had to travel between other continents same steps would apply. Cell service is quite expensive in the US.
I have to point out that my question still stands. The only ones speaking in favour of esims seem to be USers traveling abroad.
Verizon Pixels have issues with BOOTLOADER unlocks. Not carrier unlocks. In fact, Verizon is legally obligated to unlock their devices even regardless of installment plan financing due to rules the FCC has in place on their wireless spectrum.
It is only free and instant if you are in the military.
I wouldn't call it misleading at all. The terms are laid out that you have to subscribe. Carriers won't sell you a phone outright in their stores without it being activated on a new account. Believe me I've asked.
I have not experienced this and I've now used a few different eSims on my iPhone.
[edit: at home in the USA and when traveling internationally]
[edit 2: people are downvoting this, but it's a genuine question!]
Are all esims supported by your phone? Even if it's theoretically a standard.
Granted, I think a large factor in the hassle the previous time was due to German regulations involved in getting a phone number, but since I didn’t want or need a German phone number it was just unnecessary hoops to jump through. Now I can buy an eSIM from any number of countries that is valid throughout the EU with way less hassle, and I can get service from whatever provider I like rather than having to depend on whichever SIM card I happen to find at the local shop.
I’ve also never had an eSIM swap take hours to days—they’ve always been effectively instant for me. When my phone was damaged and I couldn’t get the eSIM transferred to a temporary phone while I got it repaired, I was surprised by how easy it was to generate a new eSIM online. If I had lost my phone, and I had a spare phone to use, getting service transferred with an eSIM would be a matter of minutes, rather than hours or days to get a replacement physical SIM.
eSIMs, EU roaming regulations, and carriers like Google Fi have all improved the situation markedly. Though dealing with Vodafone has not.
If I'm traveling, I don't really want to have to manage my physical SIM while it's outside the phone. With eSIM and a service like Airalo, I can use the airport wifi to get data on my phone (or do it ahead of time), not have to pull my current SIM out of my phone, and the price is really low too. I use it every time I travel to Europe.
It's true the time delay is a little bit annoying but it seems to me the tradeoff is "preserve physical SIM" vs "wait 10min-2h". Pretty fair trade, no?
I currently have 5 eSIMs installed on my phone and I can switch at anytime without having to find/carry the SIM cards.
Also in theory if I lose my phone I can just download them again. In practice this might not be as smooth though.
If you change phone more often than you change SIM, you’re right that eSIMs provide zero advantage to you.
With eSIM there's a tighter coupling between the phone and carrier. Not sure if I like that.
> Apple’s move to make eSIM the only option for iPhone 14 range in the U.S. is propelling the worldwide shift towards eSIM technology.
Speaking of which, I know for a fact that the iPhone 14 sold in India has a SIM card slot (eSIM also supported).
Also, travelers from Western countries might not really be ecstatic about paying for paying $$ for something that comes with zero upside to physical SIM.
It's subjective, I'm sure there's still people buying DVDs, but you can't say that there's "zero upside"
Last time I was in the UK ended up walking into a Vodafone shop and got a physical SIM and 30 day 20GB pay as you go plan for £10. That would cost $74 on Airalo.
I'm looking forward to eSIM being more widely supported as its definitely more convenient. In the last year most US carriers have started offering it on their PAYG plans.
On the other hand, if you are a regular visitor to a country, or you are meeting a local who can hook you up, or you are staying for a while, then it may be worth getting a local SIM. Some countries make it easy, others make it difficult. In UK for example it’s very easy to get a SIM and the local prices are about half of Airalo (which doesn’t seem to offer an unlimited data plan).
Just checked Airalo and they have 3gb for $10.50 usd! That’s like 9.50€ or something and Airalo always seems to have a 15% off coupon (maybe first order only?). They also have larger plans. I am going to switch over as soon as I run out of data on my Andorra Telecom plan.
In both cases it was easier than dealing with physical SIMs. Also there was no concern about how many slots the phone had, it can even store extra non-active eSIMs on top of having your two active ones.
I'm not sure what you mean? Carriers already have the ability to lock a phone to their network, regardless of eSIM or not.
Might be different for different carriers.
I wonder how the "same QR code" might work, I mean, let's say you have your e-sim on your phone, and someone steals the original QR code, if all is needed is to scan it, then the thief could "install" your e-sim to another phone, there must be something else in the procedure to guarantee the de-activation on your phone and allow the transfer, the point is if it is doable with the old phone not functioning.
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT212780
>3. Check for instructions on your previous iPhone to confirm the transfer. To confirm, tap Transfer or, if asked for a verification code, enter the code that's displayed on your new iPhone.
So this doesn't apply in the case where you contact the carrier to transfer the eSIM. Which you'd have to do if your SIM card were damaged or lost anyway…
The hypothetical case is the following:
1) Your smartphone fell and the screen broke (or some other problem).
2) You have another smartphone (an old one or a spare).
In this case the phone is broken but the SIM is just fine.
With the old physical SIM you take it out of the old phone and you put it in the spare phone (no need whatsoever to contact anyone, not the phone manufacturer, nor your ISP, nor any website), both the old phone and the spare one can be any phone model (as long as they both use the same format of physical SIM).
With the new eSIM there is a procedure that needs that BOTH the old phone and new phone are working AND/OR you need to contact the ISP, the phone manufacturer or anyway you need to have an internet connection, additionally it seems that for some easier procedure both phones need to be running iOS 16 or above or however be connectable to iCloud.
This is more complex, and in some cases (connection to internet not available because you are alone in the woods or whatever and don't have a third device) impossible.
BTW this is not "my" information, is what I could find on the official support page of the manufacturer, maybe it is inaccurate or I am failing to understand what it says.
When I was visiting South Korea last year, the (cheap enough) eSIM I got from one of those "buy sims for your travel!" services was actually from a carrier from Hong Kong.
Similarly, when I visited Japan this year, the eSIM I got was from a South Korean carrier.
Can't do that if you need a physical SIM!
WiFi calling uses an 802.11 connection nearby, instead of a cell tower, and sends UDP packets over the WiFi network. (I don't know how far they transit the Internet; I assumed that they went to your mobile provider and entered the PSTN there.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generic_Access_Network
In this scenario, your "home country SIM" is providing you a phone number and provider's authorization to activate and use WiFi calling, but your voice calls aren't actually using the SIM or a cell tower.
Neither is your "holiday SIM" using data for this call: you're free to use that data allowance for browsing, streaming, general Internet use; it won't be taken up by phone calls.
This is because your home carrier basically VPN's to your home carrier's network over whatever data connection it has, so it's just using the cheap international data off the second card to make a VOIP call.
A company will partner with a carrier in country X that has roaming agreements with carriers all over the world.
The other kind of lock-in AT&T and Verizon do, but T-Mobile does not. This is relating specifically to ESIM (euicc) and it being paired to 'approved' IMEI numbers. AT&T runs IMEI whitelists that only allow devices they sell to be used on the network and these lists also contain what technologies it's allowed to access. Verizon has an approved device list, but I believe their physical SIM cards will work in any phone with band support and voLTE profiles available, much better situation since they've gone CDMAless. What they will not allow for eSIM is activation using just the EID number of the ESIM itself. They maintain a database of devices with eSIM and what the matching IMEI is supposed to be. If you have a device not in that list, it won't activate. The standard explicitly mentions that collecting the IMEI is optional for activation: https://www.gsma.com/esim/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/SGP.22-... (page 115)
I have a device called an esim.me. They are kind of expensive but it will give you support for up to eSIM profiles on a removable card (like an 'normal' SIM card, but it's a smartcard that supports flipping through these profiles). In the US it's only currently possible to activate these using T-Mobile, and unless you use an eSIM iphone or a specific model of Samsung phone, you have to call support and give them the EID number to activate it. I can then physically swap this 'esim' between my devices, anything that supports USIM (basically 3G and later devices, even old featurephone from 2007 it works in).
The idea of a phone number is antiquated and I suspect we'll see accelerated movement with a digital identity that you can attach to a stored value to get data for competitive rates.
No customer would be happy with the change. Some might be ambivalent, others annoyed. But they still did it just so Apple could build a billion dollar ear pods market.
Physical SIMs provide way too much power to the customer. They can change phones and numbers without involving the carrier or phone manufacturer. It's only logical that this last vestige of control be taken away too.
I have an iPhone 13, which allows up to two eSIMs or one physical SIM and one eSIM to be active simultaneously.
The first time I did this, my primary account was a T-Mobile Connect SIM that didn't allow out of USA roaming. By the second time, I'd transferred to a Boost Mobile eSIM, which, again, doesn't allow out of USA roaming.
When traveling I just bought a data eSIM from a random provider ('BNE' and 'GlobaleSIM'). They have different pricing for varying combinations of data vs. time - a fixed amount per day, a fixed amount with a month time limit, a fixed amount with no time limit etc. They're very cheap compared to how things used to be (I think I paid about $15 for 3GB over two weeks in the UK, and $9 for 1GB of data with no time limit in Canada).
One thing I did not expect is that my US number kept working! With WiFi calling switched on, the non-roaming T-Mobile and Boost accounts just kept working by using VoIP over the data SIM's internet connection.
I suppose there might be some corner-cases-- super-travelers, spammers, certain types of devs and network engineers, where being able to have a thick stack of emulated SIM cards and toggling between them would be valuable, but I'm pretty sure they sold devices to do that with physical cards back in the day.
What I do see is a bunch of interesting new failure modes, and the ability for the carrier to get in between me and changing devices. They're going to want to turn "Put in the little pin and pop out the card" into something that involves paying $30 for the generation of a QR code.
You can largely handle them unattended-- buy it from a kiosk or even a vending machine, and swap it without worry about having to bootstrap connectivity to a provisioning website or whether the carrier and device are willing to do the eSIM dance.
On the other hand, I'm actually surprised we don't see more carriers using better international roaming as a teaser to get people to buy more expensive plans too. The last time I went abroad (to the UK), my US T-mobile plan just worked for slow data, sufficient to Skype home (they said voice calls would be 25 cents per minute).
* eSIM for travel vs eSIM for home use are completely different use cases.
* US, Canada and other carrier from other countries severely hamper the experience by charging for QR codes, physical delivery, IMEI requirements and carrier locking.
* Most handsets can have multiple eSIMs installed (I have 10 with one active) giving you carrier flexibility not previously possible.
* With VoLTE or WiFi Calling your home number works like a VOIP number anywhere in the world. In this case you may only need a data only eSIM, where KYC requirements are reduced and options are plentiful.
Traveling has also been super easy. I use the app to provision an eSim for the country I'm going to and activate it just after I land or via the plane WiFi if available.
The main issue with eSIM at the moment seems to be at the VMO level. A lot of VMOs don't offer eSIM because their parent carrier won't allow it. This is probably an area for the regulators to look into to make sure that the market stays competitive.
There's not really any advantage AFA networks, etc, but it may be harder to GEO-restrict a software process than where you are willing to mail a new physical SIM, and of course it will be possible to support a lot more eSIM profiles simultaneously without the physical issues of trying to add bays for traditional SIMs that should be physically distinct if provisioned by different carriers.
A great thing about this is you can have multiple phones preconfigured for specific purposes and just move the line to the phone when needed. On one carrier, moving between phones takes a minute or two.
I eventually switched to Android from iOS after setting up one of each and switching between them.
With my current carrier, switching physical SIMs does not activate the phone on the service. I have to use an app. Perhaps this is because I use an MVNO? eSIMs make this easier.
I had no problem swapping SIMs for basic phone service in the pre-smartphone era.
With a physical SIM, they can't stop you putting it into another phone, and there are no good technical reasons why you shouldn't be able to swap a SIM into a compatible phone and have it work immediately. That's how it's worked in many countries since GSM came out in the 90s.
With eSIMs, you may need to contact the carrier to transfer the SIM to a new device. This is a contact point with the carrier - and one where they can add barriers or fees.
For example, I use AT&T and before eSIM I could transfer my physical SIM between phones without calling AT&T. Now, with eSIM I can still transfer my eSIM between phones without calling AT&T so nothing has really changed.
If there were some way to pre-transfer the eSIM and only activate it if needed, it might be a different story.
It really does depend on carrier policy I would say
Still need WiFi, but that's not usually a nightmare. Glad I don't like traveling in the boonies, though.
Just download the iOS app, buy a 50 GB plan on a regional Euro eSim, and install the eSim.
That’s it. Seamless roaming across NL, DE, AT, CZ, CH.
I don't understand why cell phones just connect to the internet and then have all services.
Phone numbers as an identification? Meh.