Apple Reportedly Plans to Remove iPhone's SIM Card Tray in More Countries Next Year

[ProbablyDylan]

Let us know when they actually make use of the space gained by axing the tray.

 

[Futurix]

This will be a pain in the backside in the UK, where a lot of the virtual networks or pay as you go contracts do not offer e-sims

Oh yes, initially I thought O2 (PAYG) were just slow but by now they are clearly using eSIM availability to push people towards contracts.

 

[Octavius8]

Maaaaaaaaaany carriers don’t support it in Latinamerica.
And even less carriers support it in prepaid, which is a BIG deal in most Latin America.
But, then, who would want an iPhone 17 which basically the an iPhone 14?. Another reason to keep my mighty 15 pro max for 3 years.

 

[Adora]

I have an old sim in another country with an old phone number that I use whenever i travel there. That plan will most likely never be available as esim and that means i likely lose the number too. Also, I liked to have the option to go to a shop somewhere in the world and just buy a sim and use the local phone/internet services. No you have to do it from the US or at the airport when you arrive.
And I used to put my work phone sim into my private phone when on vacation. That way i can still check work stuff without have to carry a second phone around.
Also, I have bad experiences with esims. I have a t-mobile contract (prepaid, USA) from years ago. I switched it to esim at some point about 5 years ago. Now there is no way to get the esim transferred to a new phone as its a prepaid plan. Tried several times to transfer it and neither their website, not their online chat, nor their experts and not their t-mobile shops can move the esim to anpother phone. So when that phone dies I lose the contract and with that the number. esims are stupid.

I wonder if there are still EU countries where you can just buy a SIM card without having to register it. A few years ago this was still possible in many countries here. Now you have to buy pre-registered SIM cards on eBay or so to have more privacy.

Those prepaid cards in every shop still exist here too but you have to register them with your ID card and video of you in an online video conference to activate them in most cases. Some have other options too, but those are not really better. So tourists need a Hotel WiFi or an open WiFi somewhere at first to activate their card or maybe use expensive rates of their foreign card, if it even works here too.

Seems they want to push people to eSIM more and more.

I tried it with an iPad, what data rates are offered in my home. There was one available even without having a WiFi or mobile connection (at least no card was inside) somehow. When on WiFi there are some more. But all those have this annoying activation process too.

 

[Apple Fan 2008]

I just got a 16 Pro a few days ago, and I forgot they removed the physical sim until I asked the guy at T-Mobile if I had to swap the sims out.

But I do have to say that moving the sim digitally from one phone to the other was easy.

 

[ellpee]

I must have missed Apple announcing the “iPhone 17 Air.”

 

[Kottu]

Had been using esim in Sweden since 2019. No problems at all. But when I travel to India, I do need to use regular SIM as installing eSim in most of the countries is not easy like in Sweden.

 

[Adora]

so will mmwave be offered then???????

Do you like fried brain?

 

[adrianlondon]

I did not think anyone used a SIM these days to store phone numbers, apart from maybe those that have non-smart or feature phones.

Modern iPhones don't have a function for saving or exporting contacts to a sim.

 

[votdfak]

So, no way to turn off your phone really, no way to remove your battery and soon no way to remove your sim. We know where this is going.

 

[CapitalIdea]

Personally I wouldn't need it but I usually put my sim from work into my private phone, so I don't have to carry two phones all the time. This would suck.

Just ask whoever manages your work’s phones to convert you to an eSIM. Anyone with account access should be able to do it with a quick call and your IMEI number I believe.

 

[CapitalIdea]

Why does Apple always try to sell removing things as a feature? Especially for people with multiple phones the option to simply take the SIM card out of one phone and put it into another phone is very convenient. And it will never cost a fee.

Because with eSIM you don’t have to worry about sim swapping thefts which happen in many cell phone stores and repair shops.

 

[Adora]

It's possible to setup a SIM PIN

Most or even all come with a pre-set one here, that I always change to almost the same one the iPhone has. But I only use the standard four digits, after three failed attempts you need a long code anyway, to set a new one and can use it again.

 

[GMShadow]

Always amusing to see people acting like not having a SIM is unprecedented.

CDMA networks didn't have sims until the move to 4G. Somehow we all survived.

 

[Skyscraperfan]

Because with eSIM you don’t have to worry about sim swapping thefts which happen in many cell phone stores and repair shops.

How does that work? Wouldn't you take your SIM out of your phone before you give it to a repair shop?

 

[mike2q]

My only problem with this is that it gives the carriers far too much control over your phone. If I buy a new phone direct from the manufacturer I can just swap the Sim and be up and running, no need for the carrier to even be involved. The carrier will use esims as an excuse to add a pointless new phone charge.
Esims would be great if and only if they could be transferred just as easily between carriers and phone brands. Otherwise it's just added restrictions and inconveniences.

 

[Reason077]

I thought this would be a bid deal but honestly for me it really hasn’t been. eSIM has been really good. But for people that travel internationally frequently I can see this being a big pain.

Nope. It’s the exact opposite in my experience! eSIMs are much simpler and easier to manage than physical SIMs for international travel.

- You don’t have to juggle and swap different physical SIMs into your device when travelling between countries.

- eSIMs for your destination country can, in many cases, be purchased and activated before you travel, meaning you’re online as soon as you touch down at your destination

- No danger of losing SIMs when eSIMs are all securely stored in your phone.

- Dual-SIM support means you can keep your home SIM/phone number and your travel SIM active at the same time.

 

[jaytv111]

I suspect there is a reason that low cost providers lack support for eSIMs. It won't be laziness, ISPs would love to save money by not shipping physical SIMs. I wonder what the commercial relationship is between ISPs and Apple wrt eSIMs. It would not surprise me if ISPs had to pay Apple some sort of fee to support eSIMS.

The reason is that eSIMs need extra IT support, software licenses, servers for activation, and it has additional code considerations that need to be integrated into their back-end software.

So that is why, it's not a 100% drop-in solution to replace physical SIM, it involves changing their activation systems on a fundamental level.

The one thing that's not a change is that to support eSIM without activation (like roaming), it's 100% able to do that, but people need to be able to activate it. An eSIM can roam literally 100% worldwide so every network technically supports it like a physical SIM.

 

[ThailandToo]

I thought this would be a bid deal but honestly for me it really hasn’t been. eSIM has been really good. But for people that travel internationally frequently I can see this being a big pain.

That’s exactly it. When traveling, have to take a different phone with a SIM card. It sucks. I think buying iPhone internationally has been better due to the lack of a SIM card slot. For travelers who travel to developing countries. Places in South America, Africa and Asia don’t even have eSIM and don’t know what it is. For the countries that do, have to take a passport and go to a phone store. Whereas with a SIM card slot, can buy a card that works unlimited everything for a month for usually $10 to $15. This is obviously done for the carriers and nothing else.

 

[timborama]

It super simply to change an eSIM to another device, there is no reason to keep physical SIM slots.
Only the slow and weak can't figure it out and complain.

What if I’m traveling abroad and my phone dies (for whatever reason), and I buy a new phone… how do I transfer that eSim to the new phone while traveling?

 

[switz]

We traveled in a truck through seven countries in Southern Africa. There were NO eSims available at any border crossings and given the poverty there, eSims will not catch on. Prepaid actual SIM card was the only option.

Keeping my iPhone 13 mini because of the SIM card slot. It currently has an expired UK O2 "pay as you go" SIM card as that was the ONLY choice for that payment option.

 

[boxrick]

Every now and again I'll dump my SIM card between a few phones. E-SIM kills this.

Every time I switch around phones I need to request a new sim or code from my provider which can take a number of days. Some even have to post out a QR Code by snail mail!

 

[turbineseaplane]

It’s amazing how some topics can get people enthusiastically rooting for something that is against their own interest

Exclusively having eSIM only is not to your benefit as a consumer

Without question, the best trade-off is having both eSIM and physical SIM

 

[turbineseaplane]

Can also be a very high security risk.

There’s no security risk if you have eSIM and physical SIM as options.

Anybody worried about security concerns can just use eSIM only

 

[wdfly]

I thought this would be a bid deal but honestly for me it really hasn’t been. eSIM has been really good. But for people that travel internationally frequently I can see this being a big pain.

I really hate it, I want the SIM card back. It makes it impossible to upgrade a phone without paying someone else $50 to click a button.