Apple Promotes Benefits of Using iPhone 14 With eSIM While Traveling Abroad

[ghanwani]

How does your mistake in buying a US Samsung phone is Apple's fault? I mean you can simply open up the SIM slot and see if it's dual SIM or not.

Perhaps you didn’t read what I wrote. The SIM tray had 2 slots. It’s just that only one of them was usable. The sales guy didn’t warn us either even though he knew my sister had 2 SIMs.

The point of my post is that the world isn’t as ready for eSIM as people make it out to be. If I had an iPhone 14 and was visiting India, I’d be forced to use a carrier with poor coverage in my area of interest or buy another SIM-capable phone.

 

[M.Rizk]

How does your mistake in buying a US Samsung phone is Apple's fault? I mean you can simply open up the SIM slot and see if it's dual SIM or not.

Not just that. He also probably doesn’t know about how Samsung sabotage your experience if you use any of their phones out of the intended sale region.

Since the Samsung was bought in the US, Samsung locks carrier aggregation and makes the phone use a single band to connect to LTE causing it to be as slow as the oldest LTE phone in the country.

Of course he isn’t complaining about this intentional malicious behavior by Samsung because Samsung hides their scum behavior while Apple is clear about all changes it does.

Some here are seriously fighting eSIMs like their lives depended on iPhone 14 and don’t realize they can vote with their wallet. You think a physical SIM is important? Good. DO NOT get the phone then! Let Apple know and either keep your current phone, get an iPhone 13 or get an Android.

 

[M.Rizk]

Perhaps you didn’t read what I wrote. The SIM tray had 2 slots. It’s just that only one of them was usable. The sales guy didn’t warn us either even though he knew my sister had 2 SIMs.

The point of my post is that the world isn’t as ready for eSIM as people make it out to be. If I had an iPhone 14 and was visiting India, I’d be forced to use a carrier with poor coverage in my area of interest or buy another SIM-capable phone.

Exactly. The world isn’t ready for eSIMs, and will never be till Apple stomps and forces them to be.

Apple has been waiting since the XR/XS for carriers to get it together but many of them never bothered just because physical SIM still worked.

We all.. well, most of us knew that day would come. In fact, I never thought it would take this long for it to happen and it finally happened.

I travel a lot and I know that I initially will have to go through a lot of hassle to get the same level of service I am used to when traveling but I am on board the eSIM train which is why I upgraded to iPhone 14.

 

[RickDEGH]

Using Apple products ≠ blindly worshipping whatever they do. Maybe for you but not me.

Some here are seriously fighting eSIMs like their lives depended on iPhone 14 and don’t realize they can vote with their wallet. You think a physical SIM is important? Good. DO NOT get the phone then! Let Apple know and either keep your current phone, get an iPhone 13 or get an Android.

 

[7149041]

Some here are seriously fighting eSIMs like their lives depended on iPhone 14 and don’t realize they can vote with their wallet. You think a physical SIM is important? Good. DO NOT get the phone then! Let Apple know and either keep your current phone, get an iPhone 13 or get an Android.

That's what I'll do, however I'm disappointed because I do like the dynamic island and other improvements, and was actually looking to upgrade from my 12 Pro Max. I still have a physical SIM I cannot convert or get rid of, and I travel internationally often enough for the lack of SIM tray to be a factor.

Voting with my wallet won't prevent me from complaining about it, though.

 

[Ted13]

No. The subsidized phones are locked. You must purchase the phone at full price to hope to have it unlocked.

Right, that's what I do, from the Apple store, not T-Mobile: but, I am not buying an "I don't tell Apple who my carrier is phone", I do tell them it is T-Mobile, meaning it has a T-Mobile SIM and by the time the new iPhone is ready for me to leave the store with: i.e., has been configured, my T-Mobile service has been transferred from my old to new iPhone.

 

[Ted13]

Come on, enough of this traveling excuses. If you are an avid traveler and know you will need physical SIM slot, why would you torture yourself by buying an eSIM only iPhone? An avid traveler would've been wiser, and either import a non-US iPhone 14, or use any other phones (all iPhones prior to the 14 still have SIM slots).

For the lay people, they would just use any of the global eSIM providers and move on. You can argue about the cost, but a lay user that rarely travels wouldn't be bothered with that details in the first place. Many people are still opting for roaming through their respective home carriers, even before eSIM existed.

The biggest annoyance about eSIM is actually from iPhone users in countries like mine, where we paid premium price for a dual SIM capable (nano+eSIM) iPhone that is practically a single SIM device since majority of our carriers don't support eSIM. If Apple's decision hasten the carriers to support eSIM, it's good news for us.

Good summary -- I am one of those travelers, and actually I have one additional solution -- carry an old iPhone with me, and use it to get local SIM card when traveling. The advantage there is I can still be contacted via my regular phone number on my current iPhone -- and since I use T-Mobile don't get some crazy roaming charge. Also what I do with my local SIM old iPhone, is put it in Hotspot mode and attach all my other devices to its WIFI. Win win

 

[hans1972]

If the benefit is so great, then how come Apple only made the change to the US model. Clearly they did not think the rest of the world is ready cuz otherwise they would have just made it worldwide (minus China but they already have their own right now). Do they think Americans do not travel much abroad or what

37% of Americans have a passport. 38% is the number of Americans to never have owned a passport.


Although they can travel to Mexico by car, and maybe even Canada under certain circumstances by car, without a passport.

 

[hans1972]

In China, foreigners are forbidden from using eSIMs since users must register with their national ID card (my cold realisation after buying a cellular Apple Watch here) so good luck to all Apples employees travelling to China for hardware production and prototyping.

Apple probably negotiates with their US carrier to get a good deal on traffic in China. I haven't seen large companies dealing with extra physical SIMs.

Even we has private individual can get eSIM for China: https://www.airalo.com/china-esim

 

[hans1972]

1. Japan is straight lie. Because all carriers in Japan ESIM are reserved for local contract plan. You need legal residency.

2. We aren’t talking about universal esim.

Either you lied or you didn’t understand the issue.

He's probably talking about getting an eSIM for use as a tourist and it's quite easy:

Japan eSIM, from $0.00 USD | World’s first eSIM store · Airalo

Data packs with real local rates. Manage your eSIMs and top up on the go with Airalo.

www.airalo.com

Now, it might be more expensive than getting a local SIM, but it still works.

 

[Ruggy]

Having your sim card stolen is one of the scariest things that can happen to you. It can lead to just about the deepest identity fraud available. Once they've activated it in a new phone with just a small extra amount of info they can completely take over your life.
Having a phone without a physical sim card must surely be more secure and it's the way to go.
There are other alternatives when abroad.
Skype credits for example work from everywhere, will call any phone and cost pennies to make an international call.

 

[hans1972]

There is no way having to figure out how to get an esim in foreign countries is easier than just buying a sim and popping it in. I have like 5 sims from African countries I visit. Luckily they didn’t update the 13 mini so I’ll just keep that one and use the new 14 pro max.

You can use services which cover most of the world and set it up before you travel.

26 countries in Africa on one eSIM:

Africa eSIM | Travel Without Roaming Fees | Airalo

Coverage across all popular countries in Africa. Instantly connect to a mobile network. Affordable eSIM plans. 100% digital installation. 24/7 support. World's largest eSIM marketplace. Download your Africa eSIM now.

www.airalo.com

 

[Krispykrme]

Exactly. The world isn’t ready for eSIMs, and will never be till Apple stomps and forces them to be.

Apple has been waiting since the XR/XS for carriers to get it together but many of them never bothered just because physical SIM still worked.

We all.. well, most of us knew that day would come. In fact, I never thought it would take this long for it to happen and it finally happened.

I travel a lot and I know that I initially will have to go through a lot of hassle to get the same level of service I am used to when traveling but I am on board the eSIM train which is why I upgraded to iPhone 14.

Again you over estimate Apple cloud on government infrastructure.

All it does is to make consumer suffer while transition happens

 

[Krispykrme]

You can use services which cover most of the world and set it up before you travel.

26 countries in Africa on one eSIM:

Africa eSIM | Travel Without Roaming Fees | Airalo

Coverage across all popular countries in Africa. Instantly connect to a mobile network. Affordable eSIM plans. 100% digital installation. 24/7 support. World's largest eSIM marketplace. Download your Africa eSIM now.

www.airalo.com

If you had bother to read into detail.

1. Airalo is super expensive compare to local esim.
2. You don’t get local number. Good luck with that.

 

[Krispykrme]

Apple probably negotiates with their US carrier to get a good deal on traffic in China. I haven't seen large companies dealing with extra physical SIMs.

Even we has private individual can get eSIM for China: https://www.airalo.com/china-esim

You are fully aware that airalo limitation right?

1. No local number means- you can’t use DiDi, 美團，順風車

2. Airalo is 4-5x more expensive. It’s like paying AT&T or T-mobile rate.

 

[Krispykrme]

He's probably talking about getting an eSIM for use as a tourist and it's quite easy:

Japan eSIM, from $0.00 USD | World’s first eSIM store · Airalo

Data packs with real local rates. Manage your eSIMs and top up on the go with Airalo.

www.airalo.com

Now, it might be more expensive than getting a local SIM, but it still works.

That isn’t the only problem.

The problem is lack of local number. On top of ****** pricing with it.

 

[hans1972]

Nope, you can't convince me this is a plus when most of the countries I visit don't have anyone offering eSim. I'm at the whims of T-Mobile (US) and whatever outrageous price they decide to charge for their international data plan.

List of eSIM providers: https://esims.io/en/providers

A service like AirAlo supports 192 countries and territories.

 

[ian87w]

In China, foreigners are forbidden from using eSIMs since users must register with their national ID card (my cold realisation after buying a cellular Apple Watch here) so good luck to all Apples employees travelling to China for hardware production and prototyping.

LOL. A company as big as Apple wouldn’t be telling their executives to hunt down some prepaid SIM. They would simply use roaming billed to the company, and I’m sure Apple also have special deals with their Chinese carrier partners for their internal executives.

 

[Krispykrme]

Apparently your history of iPhone releases escapes you, because your history of this is wrong.



iPhone: ATT only.
iPhone 3G: ATT only.
iPhone 3GS: ATT only.
iPhone 4, until October 2011: ATT only.

Halfway through the iPhone 4 cycle, did Verizon get the iPhone, after spending nearly 3 years bashing the phone.

It wasn’t until the october 2011 - the same time that Verizon got the phone - that Sprint did as well. Both CDMA, for their networks only. The only reason they got that was because the contract for exclusivity with ATT expired around that time.



source for the bold.



Exactly. So much for unsupported this or that, because they ALL fell into the global fold, just like unsupported this or that for eSIM will. Thank you for proving my point.



I never said that they were the first. I said that they had all of the US carriers adopt the global standard, instead of having separate, proprietary networks that they try to pass off as the standard.

You know what they say when people assume and try to put words into people’s mouths…



Pot. Kettle. Black.



Worked for me in Australia. Too bad it doesn’t work for you. But oh well; have fun with the whinge.

BL.

I was apple employee worked on the iPhone at that time.

So don’t tell me what you know or what you don’t know.

As soon as 3G is supported, CDMA was already in testing. Apple specifically setup a test environment covering IL1 thru IL6.

Stop embarrassing yourself.

LTE was already single global standard. But at time of LTE introduction- both CDMA and GSM for 2G/3G were still supported from HW side.

In other words, it’s apple that bend to support both CDMA and GSM I believe all the way to 2020. Your lack of technical knowledge and lack of actual history is beyond amazing.

 

[ian87w]

I have a feeling it will take 1-2 years tops - at least for Apple.

Probably 3 years based on the current pattern. Next year 2023, iPhone 12 is out, leaving iPhone 13 remaining with SIM slot. 2024, the 13 is out, so no more iPhones with SIM slot in the regular lineup. The remainder will be the SE, and since it’s an entry level model, it might be the last model to ditch the SIM slot, maybe by 2025/2026.

 

[Krispykrme]

LOL. A company as big as Apple wouldn’t be telling their executives to hunt down some prepaid SIM. They would simply use roaming billed to the company, and I’m sure Apple also have special deals with their Chinese carrier partners for their internal executives.

They have special deals for roaming with US carriers- when I left 10 years ago- it was AT&T. We had unlimited data world wide.

Voice was expensive and no one cared. I ran up $2000-$3000 a month easily. The motto was unless you are dead- you answer the company phone.

 

[hans1972]

That isn’t the only problem.

The problem is lack of local number. On top of ****** pricing with it.

But as American tourists, a local number isn't really a must-have for most people. They can call back to the US with FaceTime Audio or using another service. The few local calls if any, they can do with their US number.

 

[hans1972]

I actually have. None of the mobile phone operators in the UK support ESIM for pay as you go accounts. Same in India - and you cannot activate it without going in person and having them run a background check. Large swaths of South America and Africa DO NOT SUPPORT ESIMs. You can get a global e-sim sure but that defeats the purpose and simplicity of walking into a cell phone store or hut or gas station or wherever, buying a SIM, pop it in the phone, and you're good to go.

What's easier than buying the eSIM in an app before you travel?

For me, buying it in the country you're going to, is inconvenient compared to doing at home.

 

[Krispykrme]

But as American tourists, a local number isn't really a must-have for most people. They can call back to the US with FaceTime Audio or using another service. The few local calls if any, they can do with their US number.

Try to get DiDi and meituan to work in China without local number.

Try to book high speed rail in China without local number.

Before covid, getting high speed rail ticket at station is like feeding yourself to the wolves.

Don’t be so sure. At this moment you can’t even enter Taiwan without local number. I know Chunghwa telecom has pre-paid esim. But that actually require someone in Taiwan to buy that for you and activate it before you take off. Good luck trying to get local number in Taiwan airport when you land.

Unless you can receive local text from Quarantine office, you can’t be admitted.

 

[Krispykrme]

Probably 3 years based on the current pattern. Next year 2023, iPhone 12 is out, leaving iPhone 13 remaining with SIM slot. 2024, the 13 is out, so no more iPhones with SIM slot in the regular lineup. The remainder will be the SE, and since it’s an entry level model, it might be the last model to ditch the SIM slot, maybe by 2025/2026.

No

Unless emperor Xi dies. There will always be iphone with SIM card, period.