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Not for someone in the USA who stays here, for them who cares. Get an eSim if you have a postpaid plan.

There are benefits like the carrier no longer being able to blame bad service on the sim card for example.

But for those who travel this is a dealbreaker, especially because there are many places that do NOT offer prepaid eSim service, and if you go somewhere for a few weeks, you will be paying a HUGE amount of cash to your carrier.

Some are worse than others.

Verizon gives you for $10, 500 MB of data, then after that 500MB is another $10.

if you were not careful, or heaven forbid your phone downloaded updates and chewed through a few gigs you are adding on potentially hundreds to your vacation.

But yea, if you are in the USA and have a plan I agree, stop whining.

I travel globally for my job, nice try. T-Mobile includes international roaming in their Magenta MAX plans, it's a much better deal than many European carriers prepaid. Can just pay for flat-rate pass for 4G/5G speeds.
 
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Right now traveling will be a little tougher, yes but you definitely shouldn’t be dependent on Verizon for traveling.

Right now you can check if the local carrier in the country you are heading to offers prepaid eSIMs. Some do even if they don’t advertise it.

You can also use eSIM services like Airalo. Check esimdb.com for even more.

Expect all carriers to adapt though. That if they want to keep being Apple partners and be able to carry future iPhones.
i also have tmobile, and i will be looking into the max for data, and then adding this to my trip costs. Tmobile has a pretty generous daily roaming plan anyhow.
 
Curious how it will work when one's current SIM is physical though, as mine is.
This is not a weird scenario, Apple really should have had FAQs for each of the American carrier partners ready to go now; I have a feeling next Friday will be a sh*tshow.

If (and I am sure they are) T-Mobile supports switching physical to eSIM on iOS via the proprietary Apple system then I am sure when you use the quick setup feature on your current iPhone to setup your iPhone 14 it will then ask if you would like to transfer your number and it will handle the process for you.

I actually just did this yesterday on my iPhone 13 Pro Max on Telekom Deutschland (T-Mobile DE). It showed an option to turn my physical SIM into eSIM. I clicked it and it warned me that the physical SIM will not work anymore. I confirmed and in under 5 seconds the process was complete. It didn’t ask for anything, and was a prepaid plan.



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Absolute dick move by apple, especially if you are on a prepaid network. Visible is pretty much the only prepaid that supports e-sim and it's a giant cluster. My cousins use it and its a giant headache trying to swap phones or troubleshoot stuff.
I contacted AT&T and they told me my prepaid plan will work with eSim — they said many customers use this already.
 
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Since AT&T prepaid supports eSim, I would think the others would fall in line.

For international travel, I will just bring an older iPhone as a backup in case I can’t get eSim to work there. Am I the only one that keeps a backup iPhone on hand? I don’t see the reason for freaking out about this.
 
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Just because you think it is fine, you do not represent people that go places where eSim is not an option.

Go check reddit, many people like me that go places where eSim service is ONLY offered on a post paid contract, so bringing an iPhone 14 there makes it the nicest iPod Touch you ever had, unless you can somehow quality for a 1 or 2 year commitment with a carrier to use the device for the few weeks you might be there,

So no, do not assume that things are just fine because you won't be effected by this.


this is another reminder that compared to citizens of other developed nations, not that many United States citizens travel overseas on a regular basis.

last time I checked only a little over 1/3 of US citizens possess valid passports.... off the top of my head, I can only speak for Sweden where close to 90%(if not more) of the citizens have valid passports and many travel outside of Europe frequently.

Of course, most of us who travel overseas regularly almost always bring a 2nd smartphone anyway. Just before the COVID pandemic started at the end of 2019, I was logging anywhere from 170,000 to 250,000 BIS actual flight miles on TPAC/TATL flights each calendar year. In 2020, I flew less than 30,000 miles, which was a record low for me since 2001.

I'm sure Apple people have figured out that not including a SIM card tray will probably increase their profit by millions... so it wasn't a hard decision. (same way they make hundreds of millions, if not billions, by having the courage to remove the headphone jack... and people happily bought wireless Airpods and other headphones) :)
 
The outrage in this thread is hilarious. This is a big step forward, the SIM card slot was the biggest waste of space inside the phone. The few carriers that don’t support eSIM will now be forced to or they’ll lose business. You guys will get over it. Similar outrage when Apple got rid of the floppy disk drive, or the archaic USB ports, both genius moves in hindsight. :)
Wow, you have no self-respect. This is the same apologism that willing victims always use to excuse their own weakness and laziness. And you're making the same dumb, invalid comparisons that tools made when Apple deleted the headphone jacks from their most popular music players. You're even regurgitating the ridiculous "waste of space" excuse. Regular SIMs are tiny; then Apple went to the "mini" ones and then the "micro" ones... a tiresome game of progressively screwing the consumer with nearly-proprietary junk that's indefensible from any practical standpoint.

The "E-SIM" is just the end stage of another consumer rip-off and crippling of an entire category of product. When willing victims like you eagerly lap up the abuse corporations trowel out, you don't just screw yourself; you abet the likes of Apple and Google in taking the market BACKWARD and screwing everybody.

Pathetic.

most of us who travel overseas regularly almost always bring a 2nd smartphone anyway
Why? I just got back from overseas, where I merely walked into a store and bought a SIM for my iPhone. Why should you have to carry a second phone and not have all your other data on it?
 
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So what I'm getting from this is I should drive up to Canada to get my next phone so that I can travel with it in the future. Not replacing my 13 mini for a while anyway, but ugh.
 
I'm surprised, I thought eSIM only might be next year, even for just 1 country.

International travel can be done with prepaid eSIMs, but apparently it's data-only, it doesn't seem like any prepaid eSIMs offer voice or SMS. In principle there's nothing that stops them from offering voice and SMS though, eSIM is the same as SIM for their cellular capabilities.

But of course some people are saying they need a local phone number. I mostly stuck with using data when overseas (I did use a physical SIM but then again it was my iPhone X which predated the eSIM). I thought the world was using Whatsapp, maybe try Whatsapp calling and texting people instead? You could also use a Google Voice number and preload it with money for international calling and use data. It would shield you from using your regular number and give people a Voice number instead, and it can text and voice call.

So is there a drawback to getting rid of the physical SIM, yeah, but I think the world can work through it, carriers should now work hard on making eSIM exactly the same as physical SIM but better.
 
Yes, Verizon did for "ESN swaps" and Metro by T-Mobile did (and I believe may still even now in some cases where dealers are used) for "IMEI changes". SIM swapping was a key selling point for GSM-based technologies when those fees were still common.
Wow, man. This is going to be a mess. I’d like to say that carriers will keep things as they are with no device changes fees… but come on. I’d be giving them too much credit.

:confused:
 
So how would this work if I have T-Mobile now on an iPhone 13 Pro with a physical SIM?

Do I buy the T-Mobile version fo the 14 Pro or the generic one? I am post-paid and no contract so I have always bought the "no carrier" model in the past and just swapped SIMs

Can I move from the physical SIM to an eSIM in the new phone without having to go through the nightmare of direct T-Mobile involvement (i.e. call them or go to a store)?

It used to be so simple to just swap SIMs into the new phone, this seems like a real step back.

Its super easy on T-Mobile to move your Sim to the eSim in your 13. Either contact support or do it yourself. Instructions below. Youre welcome!

 
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To everyone panicking about this, relax. This will be a good thing long term. Now carriers will be forced to properly support eSIMs, rather than continuing to beat around the bush. Within a year nearly every carrier in the world will likely be on board and swapping eSIMs around will be super easy.

This is a necessary step to move the technology forward.
 
So I can no longer purchase an unlocked iPhone when visiting the US and pop in my SIM? Crazy! Imagine all the lost sales for them from international visitors to the US retail stores! I live in a country where the none of the mobile providers use eSIM, only physical SIM cards.

Terrible move on Apple's part.
That will mean more stock available to Americans in the next few months at US retailers. I think eventually iPhones sold in Europe will lose the SIM card tray as well.
 
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this is another reminder that compared to citizens of other developed nations, not that many United States citizens travel overseas on a regular basis.

last time I checked only a little over 1/3 of US citizens possess valid passports.... off the top of my head, I can only speak for Sweden where close to 90%(if not more) of the citizens have valid passports and many travel outside of Europe frequently.

Of course, most of us who travel overseas regularly almost always bring a 2nd smartphone anyway. Just before the COVID pandemic started at the end of 2019, I was logging anywhere from 170,000 to 250,000 BIS actual flight miles on TPAC/TATL flights each calendar year. In 2020, I flew less than 30,000 miles, which was a record low for me since 2001.

I'm sure Apple people have figured out that not including a SIM card tray will probably increase their profit by millions... so it wasn't a hard decision. (same way they make hundreds of millions, if not billions, by having the courage to remove the headphone jack... and people happily bought wireless Airpods and other headphones) :)

Nope, hadn't used a 2nd cell phone or sim swap since the flip-phone days. T-Mobile was the first US carrier to drop international roaming text and data charges in 2013 and it still applies today.

Even 5GB/data included is enough for someone on a simple vacation. Simple upgrade pass for unlimited calling and 15GB blocks.

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I called T-Mobile support and they said that you have to call them on your old phone and they will guide you through the process of converting your physical SIM into an eSIM.
 
I am really concerned of how much Verizon will mess up, they had enough problems with physical SIM cards
 
I called T-Mobile support and they said that you have to call them on your old phone and they will guide you through the process of converting your physical SIM into an eSIM.
You dont have to call them, you can do it yourself to... call if you want hand held but otherwise no need for T-mobile CSR. Login to your T-mobile account and they have step by step instructions to do it.
 
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Apple has been offering ESIM since the iPhone XS/XR. Carriers have had 4 years to prepare for this. If your provider doesn’t support ESIM…that’s on them for being hesitant to switch to a better technology. Hopefully this will ruffle their feathers to get going on adding support for it.
 
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It’s a smart move by Apple to remove it only on iPhone 14/14 Pro models sold in the US. Foreign carriers that have dragged their feet on eSim now know that next year’s 15/15 Pro will probably lose the SIM card tray in their country (with maybe the exception of iPhones sold in China and India). It’s their unofficial warning.
 
Well you can still get the regular iPhone 14 or the iPhone 14+ they still have sim trays

Apple's US website clearly states that iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus as "Not compatible with physical SIM cards" just like iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro max...

 
Doesn't bother me, we use T-Mobile and they include international roaming in the Magenta MAX plans, you just have to pay for a flat rate pass if you want LTE/5G speeds instead of 3G or lower included. Been doing this for years going to Europe. Changing SIM card is so old, can keep the same number and all the good toys.
Actually, according to my legacy T-Mobile One plan, you get 5GB of high-speed data overseas before it slows down. I just noticed that change a few days ago in the plan features page of the T-Mobile app. Before that, data was always slow overseas unless you upgraded.

I also noticed one year of free Apple TV was available to me so now I won’t have to pay for Apple TV until October 2023. :D
 
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