Hacker News Reader

Do you have details on what kind of complaint you filed?

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.

Yes, it was a little tricky since there wasn't a clear path. Here is what I did:

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.

Thank you - getting this solved would be a massive help as juggling 3-4 physical sims has been quite annoying. Being able to flip them on/off in the phone as described possible would make things so much easier.

Why do you suspect this is T-Mobile's fault? It's equally probable they are the only carrier with an eSIM provisioning system that actually works.

First-hand experience tells me that Verizon has eSIM working, at least for their free trials. "You can participate in Verizon Free Trial with an eSIM-compatible smartphone." (https://www.verizon.com/support/verizon-free-trial-faqs/)

My phone doesn't support the bands necessary for VZ service, but it was worth trying.

I was attempting to get Airalo/Ubigi working and have seen many many people talk about how easy it was to get working on their iPhones.

>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.

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.

There is. That’s why you get the love.

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.

That's better than nothing, but I want to see heavy fines just for them having to get a complaint through the public service commission in the first place (plus fines accruing hourly on top of the initial big fine). These companies shouldn't get any kind of grace period; they already have one, in the form of customers being able to contact them and ask them to resolve it before getting the government involved.

That argument is used by utilities to defang the utility commissions!

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.

This type of perma-locking was only an issue for iPads with Apple SIM as I recall. Not the GSMA eSIM technology that is used in devices now.

I'm not saying you are wrong but these were 9th Gen iPads which say they support eSIM.