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

[ian87w]

A huge issue with being esim only is a scenario that I’ve encountered recently.

My iPhone 12 Pro Max had a cracked screen due to a swollen battery so i reset the phone and powered it off for safety, but because I had a physical sim I was able to stick that in a spare SE that I had in a drawer to remain contactable.

Luckily a couple of hours later I had a brand new iPhone 12 Pro Max via Apple Care+ and I was back up and running.

Thing is if you didn’t live near an Apple Store and had to mail the device in how do you stay contactable in the meantime? Or in my case I had to drive down the motorway to the Apple Store, if I hadn’t have had the SE with my SIM card in it what would’ve happened if I broke down and needed to call my recovery company I couldn’t have done it.

Esim is a great idea but until you can switch it between devices as easily as a physical sim it’s going to cause problems when a hardware issue with your iPhone arises.

This is an issue, and it's something that the carrier had the option to make it easy for consumers or not. It should be the same process as if you lost your phone (and thus the eSIM in it).

The idea is this, with the eSIM being digital, and with proper implementation, you should be able to go to the carrier's website or their app, log-in, and then re-activate the eSIM. But of course, the carriers probably will make it harder than it should be, or simply don't support eSIM digitally. I mean with some carriers are still forcing users to get a physical paper for the QR code is a clue that this will be be quite painful transition.

 

[exoticSpice]

People want their phones to work NOW not 10 years from now.

You have to start some where.

 

[ian87w]

I understand the benefits of eSIM but eSIM-only just feels like Apple making life more difficult for the user. Again.

Truth be told it probably saves Cook ten cents on the cost of the SIM tray and associated hardware.

It's chicken and egg.
Remember the transition from mini/microSIM to nano SIM? This was quite painful for travelers as well as many countries' carriers are not as readily provide nano SIM. Many have to cut their microSIM manually. But hardly anyone remembered those days now.

eSIM is the next progression of the technology. As long as the SIM slot still exists, the lazy carriers wouldn't do a thing. In my country, Samsung tried talking to the top carriers to provide eSIM support alongside the launch of their foldables, and it fell on deaf ears. I'm actually glad at least Apple is brave enough to take the first small step, and having it in the US first makes sense as all US carriers (except some MVNOs) have eSIM support.

We are in a painful transition period, and I'm sure some carriers will make it extra painful by making things more difficult than it should be. However, I believe this is the logical step forward, and it takes somebody like Apple to put the foot forward.

 

[User 6502]

Lol the iPhone 14 must have flopped really badly if apple is already trying to justify their move.

 

[ian87w]

Lol the iPhone 14 must have flopped really badly if apple is already trying to justify their move.

Since the eSIM thing is US only, I believe this is more of marketing/educational, to let people know the options when they're traveling.

Problem is, this is piss poor information, and Apple is not helping. Many of those carrier partners only support eSIM on postpaid, which is useless for travelers.

If Apple really cared, they should provide a dashboard for eSIM readiness of their carrier partners, disclosing how well eSIM is implemented, plans supported on it, any fees, etc, so consumers will see which carrier is the douche ones, and then can make educated buying decision. What Apple is doing now is not much other than simply them patting themselves on the back.

 

[2540497]

Let’s be real - carrier availability is a niche issue. Hardly any Americans travel abroad let alone regularly and the ones that do, MOST use roaming, not buy and swap out SIM cards. So the problem of going to East Africa and not being able to swap out a SIM is quite frankly NICHE.

What this will do, at the expense of that tiny tiny minority of people being inconvenienced, is get networks around the world in a war footing and realise this is coming globally and they need to adapt to eSIM or, frankly, die as customers will disappear to the networks who do.

That has long term gain for short term pain.

Time to evolve!

 

[ian87w]

Let’s be real - carrier availability is a niche issue. Hardly any Americans travel abroad let alone regularly and the ones that do, MOST use roaming, not buy and swap out SIM cards. So the problem of going to East Africa and not being able to swap out a SIM is quite frankly NICHE.

What this will do, at the expense of that tiny tiny minority of people being inconvenienced, is get networks around the world in a war footing and realise this is coming globally and they need to adapt to eSIM or, frankly, die as customers will disappear to the networks who do.

That has long term gain for short term pain.

Time to evolve!

I hope that's the case. eSIM progress has been really slow.

 

[usr0]

I'm just astonished at how much Apple has become so arrogant. Serioulsy, has anyone here in the past few months tried to activate an eSim with any carrier in the US? Well, I have tried many times with Verizon and T-Mobile and I have to say it's a nightmare!! Yes, surely they may have fixed and trained the carriers here in the US to activate eSims, but, can you imagine going to somewhere like Greece (Trust me, I was there and tried with Cosmote - impossible), Ghana, Guatemala etc where there is perhaps no such thing as an eSim or, you simply can't speak the language to activate an eSim at the local corner store?

What was impossible with trying with Cosmote? I activated an eSim there and it costed like 10 euros? Problem free.

 

[Stuey3D]

This is an issue, and it's something that the carrier had the option to make it easy for consumers or not. It should be the same process as if you lost your phone (and thus the eSIM in it).

The idea is this, with the eSIM being digital, and with proper implementation, you should be able to go to the carrier's website or their app, log-in, and then re-activate the eSIM. But of course, the carriers probably will make it harder than it should be, or simply don't support eSIM digitally. I mean with some carriers are still forcing users to get a physical paper for the QR code is a clue that this will be be quite painful transition.

Yeah my carrier o2 was one of the last major carriers in the UK to support eSim and they use a paper QR code with an activation limit and recently their activations process has been very slow when adding data to a cellular Apple Watch I wouldn’t trust it to activate in time. I doubt I could’ve switched to the SE and then to the replacement 12PM in the space of a few hours like I did with my physical sim.

I did use o2’s eSim for a bit to allow me to use the 2nd sim slot for my work SIM card, but in the end it was too much of a hassle so I switched back to the physical SIM.

Also if they did roll out eSim only phones worldwide I don’t know how it will work with MVNO’s like Tesco/Virgin etc who use others networks for their service because as far as I know none of them support eSim as it’s a top level network service only available to the big networks who own the infrastructure, none of the MVNO’s in the UK support the Apple Watch cellular as far as I know.

 

[iSayuSay]

Problem relies on carriers. If they start to adapt eSIM unanimously, then yes, Apple once again wins the mobile standard.

Remember microSIM on iPhone4? Yep Apple was the only one to use it, yet affecting all smartphones at the time. Too bad it was short lived then nanoSIM came afterwards. Again Apple won, but eSIM was a slow rollout from the beginning.

 

[Pezimak]

Making the US iPhones esim only was daft I thought, you may get some US carriers to change over to esim, but international ones won't. It's been an incredibly slow up take across the industry and I doubt Apple trying to force changes in the US will have much impact. We shall see.

 

[1rottenapple]

i just came back from turkey last year, getting esim to work was tricky, your best bet is a physical sim, the lady at the turkcell kiosk was completely clueless with esim so i was like forget it just give me a physical.

But guys apple says Esims are easy and superior to physical sim!

 

[Dented]

Amid criticism from some customers regarding the removal of the SIM card tray on all iPhone 14 models sold in the United States, Apple today published a new support document outlining various "options and benefits" for using eSIMs while traveling abroad.

Apple says an eSIM is more secure than a physical SIM since it cannot be removed from an iPhone that is lost or stolen. Apple also says that eSIMs eliminate the need to obtain, carry, and swap physical SIM cards, or wait for them to arrive by mail.

The support document notes that the iPhone XS and newer can store eight or more eSIMs, while the iPhone 13 and newer can have two eSIMs active at the same time.

"This could, for example, include one eSIM for your home and another eSIM for the place you're visiting," the support document explains. "You can swap which of your stored eSIMs are active simply by changing your selections in Settings."

The support document includes information for customers looking to roam internationally with their existing carrier, purchase an eSIM from a local carrier while traveling abroad, or purchase a prepaid data eSIM from a worldwide service provider.

Apple says customers can activate an unlocked iPhone 14 model purchased in the United States with over 400 carriers that support eSIM on the iPhone in 100 markets around the world. Apple adds that many worldwide service providers also offer prepaid eSIM data plans for long-term use in countries around the world.

Some people have expressed concerns about eSIM availability while traveling abroad with eSIM-only iPhone 14 models from the United States.

In his iPhone 14 Pro camera review, travel photographer Austin Mann said he was "a bit concerned about the practicality of an eSIM-only approach for travelers with US iPhones who frequently visit the developing world," adding that he usually purchases a local SIM card in countries where he travels to so that it is easier and cheaper to communicate with people within the country. Mann said he would be thrilled to toss out his collection of physical SIM cards, but said he has been unable to figure out how to sign up for an eSIM line in East Africa, where he plans to travel to next summer.

The support document is unlikely to assuage disappointed customers, but it does serve as a helpful resource for using eSIM technology.

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

The problem for Apple is that while they can try and peddle the line that esims are international and fine for travel, they undermine that argument immediately with the fact that these esim only models are only for sale in the US, and they elected to keep the sim tray for literally every other country on earth. That doesn’t exactly spell international adoption to me.

 

[Rrrr1234]

We all know the benefits to eSIM, the issue is not there. The issue is that many carriers outside (and even inside) the US still doesn't support it to this day.

You don't need a local carrier. I've used Ubigi's eSim data roaming plan in several countries. Pricing is very reasonable, cheaper than other roaming rates.

The remaining problem is not having a local number since only few global eSim providers offer that. WhatsApp or other non sms messaging apps can partially overcome this.

 

[iSayuSay]

The problem for Apple is that while they can try and peddle the line that esims are international and fine for travel, they undermine that argument immediately with the fact that these esim only models are only for sale in the US, and they elected to keep the sim tray for literally every other country on earth. That doesn’t exactly spell international adoption to me.

It’s a slow rollout for sure. But you can safely bet that 2-3 years from now all iPhones will be eSIM only.

The loss of headphone jack, absence of charging brick. So many jerk moves by Apple, yet the whole industry seems to follow suit.

 

[d686546s]

Just get an app for that.

‎Airalo: eSIM Travel & Internet

‎Stay connected wherever you travel. With an Airalo eSIM (digital SIM), you can connect like a local in 200+ countries and regions worldwide. Install an eSIM and get online in minutes. No roaming fees — just easy, affordable, global connectivity. What is an eSIM? An eSIM is an embedded SIM...

apps.apple.com

Cheap data plans are available in all countries, including places like Ghana. And for calls just use WhatsApp or whatever.

It may be convenient, but it's definitely not cheap. I frequently travel to Ecuador and Airalo offers 1GB in a 7 day period on Movistar for ~USD 10. Those same 10 USD buy me 10GB in a 30 day period directly from Movistar. If you stay longer, like I sometimes, say 2-3 weeks, I'd spend almost USD on 3GB, whereas I could just buy 30 gigs and more directly from the carrier.

Which is fine if I have a choice and choose to pay for convenience. We'll have to see how well carriers will support eSIM.

 

[Rrrr1234]

The question isn't whether or not carriers abroad support eSIM, the question is, can I, a visitor to the country who doesn't have a local address, local bank account, local government ID, and who may not speak a word of the local language, get a plan with an eSIM before I walk out of the airport?

It's usually easy enough to buy a physical SIM card when you arrive, some countries have vending machines for them in the airport.

I'm going to Turkey next year. According to Apple, there are 3 carriers there that support eSIM. Fantastic. How do I get one? The carrier's sites are in Turkish. I stumbled through one of them with Google Translate. I think I need to already have a Turkish number to sign up. I'd most certainly need a Turkish address, possibly a Turkish bank account to pay for it.

Hell, I went to see what the options are for the UK, to at least remove the language barrier. Seems like none of them support eSIM for PAYG. I guess as a visitor, I'm not getting an eSIM.

And yes, I know about Airalo and the like. They're convenient, but expensive compared to local plans. They also don't support voice calling if that's something you need. Airalo is probably fine for most people for short term travel, but if you're spending a lot of time abroad, it's not going to cut it.

I've used Ubigi's data roaming eSim. Their pricing is way more reasonable.

 

[mejsric]

It takes time. In 10 years all new flagship phones will be esim only

Sim and using satellite. You dont have to change sim traveling around the world.

 

[ghanwani]

Thanks Apple, for the education.

While you’re at it, please also explain to us:

- Why was physical SIM only dropped in the US?

- When I break my phone and can no longer turn it on, what is involved in getting my standby phone up and running with the same SIM so I can receive calls?

 

[Jim Lahey]

posted in error.

 

[pauloregan]

I would be interesting to see a US internal phone layout compared to a EU internal phone layout so see what Apple are doing with the extra space.

I suspect it is fresh air.

 

[laptech]

The issue with eSim and international travallers could an intentional doing by the network carriers because they want international travellers to pay for roaming charges and expensive international call charges rather than the cheaper option which is to purchase a pay as you sim when at entry to the country. Not all carriers support eSim in all the countries in the world and those that do, many do not allow pay as you go eSim. I know the UK and a few other countries in Europe do not have pay as you go eSim, only eSim monthly plans, which does not help an international travaller if they are only staying for a week or two weeks. Hence why network carriers would prefer the roaming and international call charges because it makes them more money then using sims purchased whilst in another country.

 

[Dented]

It’s a slow rollout for sure. But you can safely bet that 2-3 years from now all iPhones will be eSIM only.

The loss of headphone jack, absence of charging brick. So many jerk moves by Apple, yet the whole industry seems to follow suit.

I don’t know, I mean I’m sure esims will be more widely adopted in future but in the short term this is potentially a much greater inconvenience/problem than those other moves Apple have made. Without headphones (and with a borrowed charger) the iPhone still functions as a phone and can be used for most things, but without a sim not so much. Even 2-3 years is a long time to wait for that to be sorted.

 

[mannyvel]

Let’s be real - carrier availability is a niche issue. Hardly any Americans travel abroad let alone regularly and the ones that do, MOST use roaming, not buy and swap out SIM cards. So the problem of going to East Africa and not being able to swap out a SIM is quite frankly NICHE.

Funny, everyone I know who travels swaps out sim cards because roaming is expensive and prepaid sims are cheap. The world is bigger than your world.

 

[wanha]

This is a classic example of Apple skating to where to puck is going to be.

The move to eliminate the physical SIM will certainly cause some pain in the short term, but the move will also force carriers around the world to ramp up support for eSIMs.

I expect other phone manufacturers to follow suit, as they usually do.