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Comment by addaon | Hacker News Reader

Here’s the feature I want out of (an evolution of) eSIMs replacing physical SIMs.

I am a Verizon customer (US). Various other providers have apparently better deals (eg T-Mobile), but I have no way to assess how coverage would be impacted for my specific scenarios.

Why can’t T-Mobile issue me a free “advertising” eSIM that doesn’t actually provide service (or provides a ridiculously small amount), but allows me to look at what reception my existing phone (with all its limitations on bands) would have if I were a t-mobile customer? Why can’t an app that I choose to give location permissions to gather that info, and the Verizon connection info, over time and space and show me a map of where things would be better or worse?

Why can’t the same system provide just enough connectivity that I can slip them a $20 for a week’s service or whatever if I find myself in a spot where their coverage is better than Verizon’s?

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> Why can’t T-Mobile issue me a free “advertising” eSIM that doesn’t actually provide service (or provides a ridiculously small amount)

Not sure if you’ve checked, but they actually do. On the iOS, I downloaded the TMobile app and was given the ability for a trial eSIM.

We must applaud these efforts. This was introduced by someone who did not look at eSIM as a mere virtual replacement for SIM cards, but a new tool with new capabilities.

> Why can’t T-Mobile issue me a free “advertising” eSIM that doesn’t actually provide service (or provides a ridiculously small amount), but allows me to look at what reception my existing phone (with all its limitations on bands) would have if I were a t-mobile customer? Why can’t an app that I choose to give location permissions to gather that info, and the Verizon connection info, over time and space and show me a map of where things would be better or worse?

This does exist, as other people have mentioned, but it's worth noting that congestion is a big part of what people experience as "reception", and it's not going to be able to show you that. You might have full bars, but still be unable to actually use your phone, because congestion has slowed your 5G speeds down to the kb/s range.

This is particularly relevant for MVNOs (such as Mint). Any carrier that's not Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile (in the US) is simply renting excess bandwidth from one of those three, and so the actual usable reception is not necessarily going to be well-estimated by the signal that your phone reports.

oh lol I got good news for you: https://www.t-mobile.com/support/coverage/network-pass

You can do this with Visible. X days no commitment. The missus used it to test data speeds and reception around here. And surprisingly it was worse than Mint, even though the Visible Trial was their top plan (which isn't subject to QoS when the network gets clogged).

Mint will slow down when T-Mobile is at higher capacities.

Already possible:

https://www.t-mobile.com/support/coverage/network-pass

Many of these providers have deals like 100 MB for $5 which would be an inexpensive way to evaluate their network.

That said, as noted by others T-Mobile actually offers exactly what you seek :)

They can. Expect this to become a marketing strategy in the foreseeable future. "try our network for free, for a certain time, and all it takes is 3 clicks and no commitment or contract".

Google Fi just let me do exactly this, and it was great.

> Why can’t an app that I choose to give location permissions to gather that info, and the Verizon connection info, over time and space and show me a map of where things would be better or worse?

Well except for this part, but maybe somebody made such an app.

$20! I recently paid 10 GBP to 10 GB for 30 days.

Sure, but the value of me having a second provider is usually zero… and in the cases where I realize it’s suddenly non-zero, it’s substantially non-zero. (E.g. backpacking trip extended a day or two, trying to get weather update to assess flash flood risk.) This distortion is why I feel like providers should be interested.

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