The Rise and (Eventual) Fall of the SIM Card
hackaday.com
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Sticking to physical for another couple off years until the bugs are worked out.
Some providers are better than others at generating and replacing esims. The worst one I came across was Vodafone which removed passwords from their accounts and instead texted a code to log in - of course this is impossible without access to a sim, so good luck I suppose.
Sure, but often when a phone fails you can just buy a new phone (or borrow a temporary one) and be able to restore your connection without a carrier's intervention.
I travel a fair bit, all this makes me think how hard this would be if I was in, say, Europe and my phone was stolen - to get a new physical SIM I’d need to visit a physical store in Australia! Perhaps I could have a family member visit and send it to me in the mail, but in just a slightly different situation the physical SIM is potentially a lot more problematic!
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?
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.
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.
Mint will slow down when T-Mobile is at higher capacities.
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".
Well except for this part, but maybe somebody made such an app.
Genius! Just as game changing as Booking and Uber were for me when then first came online.
It's not fun to have a card or socket fail on a device that is somewhere on the opposite side of the planet.
Can also see this going the way of credit card rewards programs and linking service discounts to sim subscription for gaming and media streaming and maybe more.
Dual SIM is quite common now: my last few phones have carried two to save me carrying two devices. It would be nice if true multi-SIM became an option⁰ which by removing the need for physical card eSIMs would enable. If nothing else, this would make testing networks when considering a switch much easier.
I go out on trail running and treking events, and carry two SIMs for extra safety², being able to do so in one phone is more convenient than needing to carry an extra device. My main network has better reception/throughput/etc. in a few places that matter to me, and a suitable service/cost balance for my use patterns, the second one is a PAYG arrangement on Vodafone which (mainly because they use a different signal band) gets at least some reception in many places in the middle of nowhere where other carriers do not. I'm not sure is a third option would help here though, IIRC all providers use the same main frequency range with one or two having a bit of bandwidth in one other.
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[0] Unless existing dual-SIM support in Android¹ is actually generic and already supports 3+.
[1] I don't know if this is standard or if each phone maker is providing their own additions to support it, or if there is standard support and some are providing their own anyway for [reason(s)].
[2] More chance of having reception if I need to get messages out in an emergency – I've never needed to, but I know people who have.
I just changed carriers (including porting my number) and it was a pleasant experience. Through an app, the new carrier added a new eSIM (and temporary number) and started the port process. When the port was done, it automatically updated my new eSIM with my original number.
This also enables easier installation and setup for basically any carrier. Just download the app, configure eSIM and you're good. Maybe the easier switching is why adoption is kind-of slow on the carrier side? Easier to keep you locked-in with more obstacles in place.
Seen some comments mention potential issues with it vs physical SIM, but I hope these get resolved with time or standard solutions are developed. Personally I had no issues with it, using it for over 2 years now.
And if your phone breaks or something and you need to use your old phone, or borrow a friend's old phone, or whatever, you just move the SIM over.
As a consumer, what benefit does eSIM have?
As a consumer, eSIMs are fantastic for international travel. I can have a prepaid international data plan up and running before I even get off the plane.
The only exception is when they've moved to a physically smaller SIM card format.
This is literally never the case unless you buy from your operator in some backwards country like the US.
(This was USA on Verizon)
But I will admit that it's a potential advantage of eSIM. If you do switch somewhat frequently, I can see it being convenient (assuming all the technical stuff works out).
Better waterproofing?
I'm a US/UK resident, and I use an eSIM for my US provider and a physical SIM for my UK provider. Since I use both numbers for various localized services like 2FA, food delivery, etc., the ability to have multiple SIMs has been a huge improvement compared to just a few years ago, when I had to have two phones to be able to log into my bank.
I'm sure a phone with less external openings like that would still on average fair better against water.
No, it only provides a better experience if you change SIM card more often than you change your phone, which isn't the case for most people.
eSIM card transfer can be a hassle, expensive or outright impossible because it's up to the telco to decide it. I had to visit a store in Thailand to transfer my SIM card. I had to pay $ to re-download my eSIM for another operator. I was simply told "can't do" with a still-active eSIM I bought from Airalo.
Definitely nice to "download SIM cards" instead of buying them, but everything that follows is a pain.
Hmm, that seems a bit worrisome for someone like me that doesn't have Play Services and only uses software from F-Droid. I haven't really investigated this.. does it always require an app?
Oh man - My partner pre-ordered an iPhone 14 Pro on launch day, first iPhone with an eSIM. Set up was a nightmare and took over a month to get resolved. She thought she was going to lose her phone number at one point. Still don't know if the fault was with Apple or AT&T but leaning AT&T based on some of the conversations we had between the two teams.
Flash forward a few months and my upgrade and provider change went through without much of a fuss.
To me, the physical SIM card just seems like an old technical limitation. The concerns surrounding its elimination don’t seem to have strong backing in my mind.
Some will have a list of "supported devices", and if you try to use anything not on the list it'll be blocked.
This isn't legal in some countries though. The UK telecoms regulator (Ofcom) prohibits any form of restriction on putting SIMs into devices, for example. Previously carriers would do things like saying that a SIM on a plan for phones couldn't be used in a tablet.
A physical SIM or eSIM doesn't make a lot of difference with this, although a carrier obviously can't do anything to stop you moving a physical SIM between device.
Changing an eSIM often requires contact with the carrier, so that's an opportunity for them to say no/make it difficult/charge a fee.
> To me, the physical SIM card just seems like an old technical limitation
The SIM/eSIM is just your ID card to connect to the network, I don't see it as a limitation. The only difference now is that you can verify your identity and download it, rather than visit a store.
At the time I was told it was necessary to get the fastest speeds.
eSIM sounds like passkeys, in that it's tied to the device and whoever controls the code that runs on that device.
When i was working with the emerging (at the time) nfc technology it was evident it was all about control: the sim card usually holds the secure element, and it’s really a war between carriers, os providers and phone manufacturers.
Who controls the secure element controls another big share of the user’s life.
Of course I can just swap the sim into a dedicated tethering hotspot and it works. But esim will soon fix that as esims are tied to the phone.
> At the time I was told it was necessary to get the fastest speeds.
I wouldn't believe what telco operators tell me, it's more like there's incompetence at some level of the company.
I'm not in telecoms, but I suppose they want to disintermediate device manufacturers who are trying to insinuate themselves between networks and their subscribers. Maybe with a hint of reducing points of failure
The idea was to make things easier and give the consumer more control. It has completely failed on both counts.
A physical sim I can just grab and stick in whatever phone I want, however much I please without the network whining about it or charging me. I don't want eSIM.
Luckily here in Europe most networks don't even offer them for prepay and I don't do phone contacts. As many other people. So for now the manufacturers have no choice, they will have to keep making them.
Had they mandated the instant validation of eSIMs with a simple QR, regardless of other active eSIMs, this would not have been a problem.
With traditional SIMs they have no way to do it.
I'm waiting for the legislative hammer comes down on this. Any government body that has any sort of teeth (i.e EU) needs to clamp down on this and prevent this from becoming a reality. eSIMs are great, but they are no SIM card replacement in their current form. It's as useful (and provides as much benefit) as soldered RAM chips or batteries.
AFAIK, e-sims can be arbitrarily created and assigned to a phone, there isn't some hardware limitation like soldered ram. I can got to a new country and get an e-sim without having to hunt down a kiosk.
On my last extended trip to the US, I just signed up for a prep-pay monthly account with Visible and was able to get going pretty easily without having to fiddle with any actual hardware. The current generation of iPhone supports 8 e-sims. It all seems pretty good to me
What happens if your phone is damaged at 1am? Do you have to wait until the next business day to be able to have a new eSIM issued?
I'm not saying eSIM doesn't have value, I can immediately see the value it provides. What I'm saying is that it doesn't replace SIM cards. We're taking something that is device agnostic and forcefully tying it to a device. Both options should continue to exist in parallel, just like we continue to have both internal and cloud storage on our devices. At least until eSIM tech can improve enough to overcome these issues.
What happens if my phone is stolen with the sim card, or the sim card breaks while I am away from my home country? Literally all of the problems you cited are not solved with regular sim cards.
Getting set up with an e-sim can be as easy as: download app/scan qr code, and provide payment info.
But it's not. For something whose main purpose is ease of use, they didn't make it easy before trying to roll it out.
A carrier can impose whatever limitations they want on an e-sim. It’s not a limitation of the e-sim technology
There's a good chance your physical SIM won't work with a phone bought in the US anyways.
And that's the hard way. Providers could just support a QR code that I scan with my iPhone.
The first question here is: can your carrier activate an eSIM while you do not have an active cellular connection to the carrier (i.e while overseas)?
If I were to install the Mint app and sign in while in the UK, will they activate the SIM card while I am outside of the US? In the experience of my brother-in-law that accidentally deleted their eSIM profile, the answer was no -- they had to wait until they were back in the US weeks later (and didn't have access to their iMessage, various SMS-based MFA or anything else as a consequence).
If the answer here is no, then you are completely out of luck in OP's example while overseas.
You can do it without cellular, via WiFi.
I suppose they geo block it.