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nottorp

I don't understand the enthusiasm about esims. Is the US cell phone market more predatory than i thought?

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.

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For travel, it’s great. When I went to Germany four years ago, getting data on my phone without paying an exorbitant roaming fee involved waiting until I got to Germany, buying a SIM card at a train station, then finding WiFi access so I could complete the registration process, which involved a video call with a Deutsche Post agent to verify my passport for some reason. The last time I went a few months ago, I bought an eSIM before I left, and it activated automatically as soon as I landed in Europe.

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.

Last time I went to Germany (2015), T-Mobile had run out of physical SIM cards. We queued up at Vodafone for half an hour. By this point, the store was closing. The employee gave us a SIM but didn't activate the plan correctly. So our €10 was all used up with hours instead of being good for a month. And we had to go back in the next day to sort out it.

eSIMs, EU roaming regulations, and carriers like Google Fi have all improved the situation markedly. Though dealing with Vodafone has not.

I recently traveled to Poland. Instead of paying T-Mobile like $50 for limited data and minutes, I bought Orange prepaid plan.

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.

... you could have picked a sim at the airport couldn't you?

I have to point out that my question still stands. The only ones speaking in favour of esims seem to be USers traveling abroad.

But it is a bit silly if I can just download an app. No need to search for a store in airport one might be unfamiliar with.

How did you get an esim without a network connection?

You download it before you leave.

> What is the advantage to the customer here?

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.

> you just swap the physical sim and have new service.

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?

What do you mean by "you suddenly need the phone manufacturer's approval"?

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!]

> What do you mean by "you suddenly need the phone manufacturer's approval"?

Are all esims supported by your phone? Even if it's theoretically a standard.

No carrier in the US charges for an unlock. So long as a device is paid off in full, all 3 carriers will unlock devices for free.

Then why are Verizon Pixels unusable with other carriers?

Where'd you hear that?

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.

This is misleading. Carriers can impose restrictions on paid off phones like being subscribed to them for x months. My phone unlocked after 6 months.

It is only free and instant if you are in the military.

Well yeah. The carrier's job is not to sell devices. It's to sell the services that they provide. If you don't want that, you have to buy unlocked from the manufacturer and finance another way.

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.

Aren't there more than 3 carriers?

To me the advantage of eSIM is coupled with dual SIMs, something that wasn't very common in the US until the arrival of eSIM. Now when traveling I can purchase an eSIM instead of pay my operator a ton of roaming fees. But I can still keep my main SIM active, just with data disabled.

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.

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