And that is why I'm against eSIMs.
I shouldn't need the carrier's, google's or apple's permission to use different phones.
I shouldn't need the carrier's, google's or apple's permission to use different phones.
The only exception is when the destination phone is carrier locked by a contract, but they have to unlock it for a nominal fee at the end (I think it was a few eur, or maybe last time they didn't charge me anything.).
Are you referring to the fact that no one buys contract free phones in the US?
All depends on if someone set this flag when creating your SIM and if you took their discount when buying their service.
Before esims you would have to go and get a physical SIM from somewhere. I've done it before. It's possible, but it was much more of a pain than esims.
The only issue with them I've found is that they're delivered by QR code via email, and the only way to install them on Android (that works) is scanning a QR code with your camera. I had do ask someone to take a photo of my phone so I could scan that photo. facepalm
... you mean, with Google/Apple's permission :)
It lists the cheapest e-SIMs for travelling to each country.
This also has the benefit that the user cannot take it out or lose the SIM while traveling, or do SIM-swap with another device because their manager doesn't follow procedure of contacting IT when reusing spare phones between employees, creating all sorts of mismatches in the inventory between S/N and phone number, etc.
Wait. Why would you need, or want, an app for that? I'd automatically assume that any such app is a scam. These kinds of things are not what apps do, it's out of scope on restricted mobile OS.
He does say they're delivered via QR in the email, so the "application" is just a store frontend, it doesn't change his esim itself.
Apps like Airalo, etc, are legit.
IDK, I've always considered carrier apps to be the prototype example of garbage / scams, next to "value-add" software shipped by printer vendors. None of the services I pay my carriers for are, or were, ever enabled or improved by an app.
I'm locked down to my current phone because of eSIM. I have two eSIMs from different countries, both necessary for long-term use (e.g. I have bank accounts in both countries, and banks want local numbers). Replacing or upgrading phone would be a tricky endeavor, with temporary outage on one of my lines, as I will be able to move only one eSIM, but not the other until I physically travel to a different country.
Sure, it's a rare edge case, but still - super inconvenient.