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2018 iPhones Said to Feature Both Embedded Apple SIM and Traditional SIM Card Tray

Cayden said:
I’m not very familiar with dual sims as nobody I know has a phone with this capability or even uses two different SIM cards for that matter. What’s the appeal of this, at least in the states? Is it mainly for travel or do people actually have two separate phone plans that are used on a daily basis?
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This mostly applies to heavy international travelers and hugely popular in most Asian countries. US carriers don't need this because of the internetwork capabilities they have. Most Asian countries' network carriers don't play well with other networks because, well, why the hell would you wanna help your competitor? They would rather keep the revenue all to themselves rather than share a portion of it when users jump from tower to tower. There are no regulation rules that requires them to share their network with anyone.
 
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dontwalkhand said:
Meanwhile US carriers are now all touting “free international”

I’m loving it. I can travel the world and literally use my phone like normal. No need to switch SIM cards or anything
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That might be a reason they are so expensive, in many parts of the world data is dirt cheap, like 5 GB for just $2-3 but they (American providers) charge a ton for it.
 
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Whenever I get a new phone on AT&T, I just take my SIM card out of my old phone and pop it into my new one. How would an embedded Apple SIM change what I do?
 
Meh, never really required it. Had a solution years ago, another situation where the industry is trying to come up with solutions for problems a solution already exists. These companies don’t want to face reality, unfortunately. Reminds me of the Cable and Telephone companies who were reluctant to admit they were only internet service providers, and by trying everything in they monopoly warchest to stay relevant.
 
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neverendingscot said:
Whenever I get a new phone on AT&T, I just take my SIM card out of my old phone and pop it into my new one. How would an embedded Apple SIM change what I do?
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Use multiple providers instead of 1 or 2, there's no real limit to the amount of providers, example, a guy/girl travelling in south east Asia, has multiple providers, just go to the next country and your set (If you already registered the eSim before), it automatically changes providers.
 
justperry said:
Use multiple providers instead of 1 or 2, there's no real limit to the amount of providers, example, a guy/girl travelling in south east Asia, has multiple providers, just go to the next country and your set (If you already registered the eSim before), it automatically changes providers.
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What? I don't need multiple providers. I am on AT&T. I am asking how my SIM info gets transferred from old phone with a physical SIM to a new phone with only eSIM since I can't just transfer my physical sim into a new phone like I do now.
 
Don’t forget the needless plastic used, the fraction amount of gold, the carbon used to produce it, ship it and carry it in stores and the waste of money to purchase one if your selected carrier does not include it for free.

Either go eSIM or electronic/digital SIM.

Understand this would be Apples wet dream to remove another port :eek::p:D
 
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neverendingscot said:
What? I don't need multiple providers. I am on AT&T. I am asking how my SIM info gets transferred from old phone with a physical SIM to a new phone with only eSIM since I can't just transfer my physical sim into a new phone like I do now.
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Ok, right, in your case you don't need it, I just think a physical SIM is outdated and not needed, an electronic one is easier and better.
 
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I like the idea of a dual SIM phone for the markets that would do well with them. I am not too sure about E-SIMs, but couldn't carriers leverage this into something not so consumer friendly?
 
I live in the US and have AT&T. I spend a lot of time visiting family in Greece and have Vodafone there. Swapping SIM cards isn't a hassle but it drives me nuts that iMessage & FaceTime take hours to activate whenever I do. I wish I could insert the Vodafone SIM card for local calls and data usage while I am in Greece but still keep my AT&T number for iMessage & FaceTime purposes. I am not familiar with the Apple SIM. If it is included on the next iPhone, would I be able to do this?

Luckily WhatsApp allows me to keep my US number when I am in Greece. Unfortunately not a lot of people I know from the US have WhatsApp. They prefer to stick with iMessage so I give everyone both phone numbers which isn't a big deal. However, it is annoying that my friends have multiple threads for me. Don't even get me started on how annoying switching numbers is when you are part of multiple group chats. I wish iOS would allow one iMessage thread per contact. That way, if I text them from my US number or my Greek number, all of my messages will appear in the same thread on their phones like it does on mine.

I'll eventually be switching to T-Mobile once they improve their rural coverage and have better signal strength in the areas I need. Then I won't have to deal with swapping SIM cards anymore. I am so jealous of the cheaper plans and free international data.
 
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Wait, I hope this is not the “dual SIM” solution for the next iPhone. Simply because there are still a lot of carriers worldwide not supported officially by Apple, so this will just be another single SIM iPhone for many.

Since Apple cannot even control AT&T locking their eSIM in the US (which defeats the whole purpose of eSIM), I vote for actual dual SIM slots. Plus in emerging markets, people change their SIM frequently to a new number (due to the frequent promotions on starter SIMs by carriers).

If Apple do a dual SIM iPhone, they also better come up with a solution for an app like WhatsApp that only works with one number. Many Android OEMs allow dual apps so users can have two apps (eg WhatsApp) each with different accounts.
 
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macduke said:
Don't some carriers not play well with this because they lock the devices to the carrier after activation, even for people who bought the device outright? Wondering how they'll get around that.
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That sounds like something that would be illegal in a country with basic customer rights laws
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dontwalkhand said:
Meanwhile US carriers are now all touting “free international”

I’m loving it. I can travel the world and literally use my phone like normal. No need to switch SIM cards or anything
Click to expand...

Europe has had that for a while. Being in another European country is no different than being in your "home" country. But that means "local" calls in a different country are now as if they were international calls from your home country.

So with dual SIM phones (which is now standard to mostly everyone but Apple) you might as well get a second local SIM pay as you go card for ~€10.

It's so cheap I do this just to have a local number in case someone wants to call me. For calling other people I mainly use Skype/Viber which is data and so doesn't care about what countries people are in anyway.
 
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justperry said:
Physical SIMS should be illegal.

If one travels a lot sims are a pain in the behind.
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Good luck registering a new eSim at a foreign airport after a 12 hour flight where no one speaks your language and the website isn't in a language you understand

Digital sims should be banned unless they come with a sim slot
 
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gWGQKuvM6S261CLP.huge

The sim tray is literally a quarter of the current logic board. Of course Apple wants to kill it. This is an iPhone 8
 
Schranke said:
I am wondering why they do not show the same courage as they did with the headphone jack:rolleyes:
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I guess one reason is that eSIM hasn’t been cleared for use in all countries where Apple sells iPhones. For example here in Finland we don’t get the LTE Apple Watch as carriers aren’t allowed to sell eSIM plans. Some bureaucratic BS somewhere is holding it back.
 
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Apple could solve this problem by setting up their MVNO with one contract that works worldwide.
 
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I am really looking forward to a dual-sim if true, so I can use my iPhone as both personal and work use. My job supplied me with an Alcatel Pixi 2 for for my work phone. Mannnn it’s terribley bad! It’s unbearable :confused:
 
If Apple really released a dual SIM iPhone, I would rely less and less on Android. Dual SIM is almost a must in many markets where coverage and cost of each carrier can vary greatly
 
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