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Apple Promotes Benefits of Using iPhone 14 With eSIM While Traveling Abroad
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I'm happy about this decision but I can understand can cause problem for US customer.
Apple is pushing this technology that now will really arrive in the world and US customer will "pay" for it in the short terms.
My experience from Italy is that 3 years ago to have an iphone dual sim the only chance was to buy through Hong Kong (not very cheap).
In the menatime some telco here has open to the technology so that we have now 6 company offering it.
Just now I changed to a iphone 13 and now using a phisical and an esim succesfully.
But if I have to think to an US tourist coming here I can see they can have just 2 well knowv carreer offering esim but they have to go at selected kiosk and have to made it in person so not very easy.
The other 4 companies offering esim are very local, and you have to know them otherwise impossible to find.
Just for your info I'm using one of this little company and the process is very easy, and you can activate the esim in the same day of the purchase receiving the QR code on email for free.
Apple is pushing this technology that now will really arrive in the world and US customer will "pay" for it in the short terms.
My experience from Italy is that 3 years ago to have an iphone dual sim the only chance was to buy through Hong Kong (not very cheap).
In the menatime some telco here has open to the technology so that we have now 6 company offering it.
Just now I changed to a iphone 13 and now using a phisical and an esim succesfully.
But if I have to think to an US tourist coming here I can see they can have just 2 well knowv carreer offering esim but they have to go at selected kiosk and have to made it in person so not very easy.
The other 4 companies offering esim are very local, and you have to know them otherwise impossible to find.
Just for your info I'm using one of this little company and the process is very easy, and you can activate the esim in the same day of the purchase receiving the QR code on email for free.
The US is the only Apple market with any clout.... The rest of the planet will still roll with physical sims/esim dual setups for quite some time...
Possibly true. But in the mean time, those who travel aboard especially to less developed places are going to have a much harder or impossible time with local eSIM
To give advance warning to carriers outside the US that it won't be before too long until all iPhone models worldwide are eSIM only.
More specifically, the piss poor operational security of US carriers lends itself quite well to make the US the harbinger of the death of physical SIMs.
Most in carriers the US will happily send you a SIM card by mail without any need for ID. In fact, most carriers in the US will just as happily have you read them the ICCID (a.k.a SIM card number) on a SIM card you already have and activate your line on it.
This is pretty much unheard of overseas, where you either have to pick up a SIM card at the store and ID yourself or have one delivered to you by a courier who will check your ID and scan it in with a portable scanner.
Using a SIM card that you had laying around in the drawer is entirely out of the question.
On the flip side, overseas they mostly couldn't care less which device you activate on the line (i.e. which IMEI is active), whereas in the US some carriers either block unrecognized IMEIs or, such as AT&T, activate capabilities on the line based on the IMEI they expect to use the line.
eSIM however, is pretty much designed to mimic this American laissez-faire approach to SIM activation. Your phone essentially has a SIM card built in and in the settings you can find its ICCID.
In short, eSIMs provide three main ways of activating service.
Either you provide your carrier with your phone's ICCID, your carrier can then activate service on that ICCID, similar to how they would do it if you'd provide them with a physical SIM's ICCID or you can scan a carrier provided QR code, which basically contains an encryption key and some information for the carrier's backend to recognize who you are to accept your phone's ICCID to activate a line on.
You can also initiate activation entirely from your iPhone and then log into your cellular account, after which the above basically happens in the background.
There are some other varieties of enabling an eSIM or sometimes they are combined, but that's the gist of it.
In theory, with eSIM, you can just go into your iPhone's settings and easily transfer a line by logging into your carrier account or purchase a new line as a new customer. Even hop around from carrier to carrier depending on your needs in a particular situation.
And I've witnessed this ideal approach firsthand when purchasing data plans for my iPad, in particular abroad.
In practice, some carriers, although few, like to put up hurdles by requiring verification or requiring you to get in touch with them over the phone.
The amount of steps is a bit dependent on your carrier, but the major US carriers support what Apple calls eSIM Quick Transfer.
In that case it's extremely simple and you don't have to contact your carrier.
Steps as follows:
- Connect your backup iPhone to Wifi and make sure it's logged into the same Apple ID
- Go to Settings
- Tap on Cellular
- Tap on Add Cellular Plan or Add eSIM
- Tap on your number in the "Choose a Phone Number" screen
- Confirm
- Done
In my experience T-Mobile likes to provide these codes for you to enter manually, whereas AT&T strongly prefers providing you with a QR code.
In any case, this seems to be a shot across the bow aimed at carriers outside the US.
AT&T locks their phones to the AT&T Network. When I try to add another eSIM to test out anther carriers network I'm not able to do so unless the phone is unlocked. Has anyone come up with a solution for this? AT&T does not unlock the phone until the device is paid off. If you traded in your old phone phone you receive a credit each month. If you pay off the phone early you loose the credits.
Except they are normally country locked and need 10 mins of calls logged on local sim 1st before they are unlocked internationalBuy from places like Singapore and Malaysia. Still come with 1 physical sim plus esims
You will need a local friend in Malaysia to assist else its a problem
100% Agree.
Funny you should ask…
Was in Istanbul* again earlier this year and no eSim without a local address , local ID and local bank account.
Physical prepaid sims meanwhile? A dime a dozen with plenty of choice and very decent rates… available right inside the aiport.
No prepaid UK eSims in UK. At. All.
You need to be tied in to a 12 month/24 mth plan at least.
Exactly!
Why should we be forced to spend more.
Somewhere in this thread a poster mentioned Apple execs being out of touch with the down to earth basics of ordinary travelling. I'd agree.
I cannot imagine Tim Apple in a kiosk at Istanbul Airport… for people like him things just "happen… magically".
Edit:
* From my experiences this year, the same situation in Rome, Athens and Marrakesch
AT&T is extremely greedy and I'm saying this as an AT&T customer who just switched to them due to T-Mobile having extremely poor service in the area I recently moved to.
There's no end to their greed.
Like you said, if you pay off early you'll lose your trade-in credits, essentially giving them your old phone for free.
T-Mobile will just keep adding the credits to your bill until you've received all of the credits.
Decent carriers will temporarily unlock your phone for foreign travel, AT&T simply states that you should buy their roaming plan:
AT&T is also the only carrier that will lock the Apple SIM, that came/comes with iPads, to themselves so you can't easily switch without having to get a new Apple SIM.
Anyways, sorry for the rant.
There is no solution other than purchasing an extra phone to use for international travel or testing purposes.
Am I misinterpreting what is being offered here:
https://esimjapan.com/product/esim-japan-fixed-plans/
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.
I agree it is the way forward but we're not there yet. And don't forget they actually make a model with a SIM card slot, why isn't this available in the US as an option!?
What if you use SMS for 2FA and your phone breaks? At least with a SIM you can pop it into another phone so you can still log into mission critical services.
If your other phone also supports eSIM, then you can activate your line on the backup phone.
If the backup phone is an iPhone as well then there's a good chance your carrier supports Quick Transfer, which allows you to transfer it over without needing to contact the carrier.
And Three still don't - though they have had a trial which has now ended. (I'm with Three. Best balance of coverage and cost for me. Only MVNO piggy-backs on EE get near.)
I anticipate eSIM coming soon.
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I think that's bull*****. Here in Germany most of the providers don't give you an esim without contract. After many years with the iphone i can say - nothing ist easier and faster than changing a simcard. It takes not more than a minute if you have anything on the table. In case of stolen phone you'l call your provider - that's it. Anybody can give you a phone to do that call - computers to do that aren't aroud all the time.
I think it got introduced in 2020 or 2021. Right now it costs 99 EUR a month. Has unlimited everything with unlimited calling to the EU too, and 68 GB in the EU and Switzerland. The postpaid equivalent is like 10 EUR cheaper and includes UK too.
I know in many parts of the world, including Africa (from personal experience) fraudsters and black market dealers somehow find a way to move large volumes of new iPhones (from especially the US) to sell at really cheap prices in those markets. Now, a lot of those markets barely have carriers offering eSIMs. It’d be interesting to see how their business proceeds from here. Would they turn to European iPhones?
European? Unlikely with the new prices Apple imposed. They will most likely go UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Japan, Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong.
I am still on iPhone 11 and was waiting for the iPhone 14 to upgrade. However, I travel very frequently for work (and pleasure) and this just doesn't work for me. I'm considering paying the higher price to buy one in Europe (which has the slot) or just getting an iPhone 13 here in the US instead.
Not from the US so I don't have to worry about it right now, but I have used eSIM internationally for years now without much problems. Of course, the countries that I'm going to might differ from the countries that you're going to, so ymmv. But for example Germany and Japan are both on my top list of countries where I've been to many times, and you can find many excellent eSIMs for usage there (both as tourist and as resident, both with and without contract). I really have to doubt where you guys/gals are looking.
Anyway, you're Apple customers right? Have some courage.
Anyway, you're Apple customers right? Have some courage.
1. You can definitely use Uber without a local number if you have data. If you got an international number registered to your account Uber will use the in-app calling feature. Essentially acting like WhatsApp. I know because I used to roam in the US as I live overseas and had a good roaming plan on my line.
Still, I now do prefer local always. It makes everything much easier and I like having more data for cheaper and a low latency connection.
2. I agree tbh. I understand that Airalo and other similar services maybe a good fit for some but these services don’t fit my usage at all. Also very expensive for the little they offer