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Apple Reportedly Plans to Remove iPhone's SIM Card Tray in More Countries Next Year
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This is simply not true, there are more carriers worldwide that do not support esim than those that do.. especially pay as you go, & or prepaid plans.
Physical sim swapping yes, esim/imei device swapping absolutely not. The current primary attack vector is social engineering of/at the carrier to provision an alternate device - bad actors are doing this over the phone/via chat (& not by physically swapping sim cards)
Those carriers can start supporting eSIM then. eSIM is just SIM but digital, it’s not like eSIM doesn’t work with prepaid plans. In fact, because eSIM does not require any physical card to be produced and distributed it will actually be cheaper for carriers to use. I’m shocked prepaid carriers aren’t already using it.
Globally there are many prepaid eSIMs available. More and more all the time! eSIM will only become increasingly popular as more devices support it, and some devices go eSIM-only.
There’s just no need to remove a physical slot. We have eSIM as an option already.
They are better devices when they have the flexibility to do both
Well, it saves space and cost for the manufacturer to remove the SIM slot. And improves reliability since there's one less moving part that can potentially let moisture and dust in to the device.
But I do agree that flexibility is nice, and today I still have a slight preference for devices that support both SIM and eSIM. But eventually everything will be eSIM, so we won't have to worry about physical SIM cards any longer.
Yes, this is a problem, Some carriers require the device to be within range of the provider network.
This is also not true.. esim requires new SM-DP+ infrastructure that will increase carrier costs (at least initially) & that will almost inevitably mean increased costs to consumers. Pre-paid carriers operate on razor thin margins.
For that to happen, eSIMs have to be bulletproof and work 100% of the time.
I posted far upstream in this thread about how I went to the Cook Islands on vacation and the people in the airport Vodafone CI kiosk could not get their eSIM to work with my iPhone 14 Pro Max, no matter how hard they tried. If I hadn't had the presence of mind to bring my unlocked iPhone SE 2020 (with physical SIM tray), I would've had no Internet for 2 1/2 weeks. There's a big world out there that isn't First World countries ...
No internet for 2 1/2 weeks might have actually been a blessing in disguise…
Not when you need to find places to book things like snorkel boat tours, etc.
I do sim only and the provider I use don't support Esim and to be honest, I prefer a sim, makes things easier to change if I do want to change, whihc now Vodafone have grabbed hold of Three, I may well be changing as I hate Vodafone.
What about dual sim, can esim support that?
The only reason Apple is getting rid of the sim tray is to cut costs and to make their phone even slimmer and yet have camera lenses sticking out.
Why worry about physical sim? My phone is four years old and apart from a one time when I was checking a sim for someone, it has not left the phone, but at least with it, if my phone goes belly up, I can stick it in a spare phone I have. Try doing that with esim.
Now that, in the UK at least, home phones are staring to vanish, the mobile phone is what we have t rely on. so if it goes belly up, you are stumped, certainly as they get older. Being able to change the sim into another phone is ideral.
As for dust and moisture, only if you are taking the sim in and out all the time.
I don't like this Esim idea, it gives network providers more control.
You'd just get on WiFi, go to your carrier's website/app, log in to your account, generate and download a new eSIM. Easy! Maybe some carriers make this difficult and make you call their customer service or whatever to get a new eSIM, but I think over time it will improve as their eSIM support infrastructure/systems get better.
But look at a similar scenario: suppose your phone gets lost or stolen while you're traveling abroad. With the SIM card in it. How are you going to get a new physical SIM from your home carrier? Much better in this situation to have eSIM!
eSIM supports more SIMs than physical ones, seven or eight IIRC.
Like it or not, eSIM is the future.
Exactly. Only issue I have had with getting an eSIM is when the Vodaphone rep in Portugal insisted that ll iPhones have SIM slots and was trying to figure out how to open the antenna cutout. I finally convinced him the phones sold in the US have no SIM slot and he needed to install an eSIM.
I did not know esim supported more sims, even so you still need to get in touch with the network provider. with pysical sims I can go into a shop and buy one if need be
I don't think Esim is going to something I will be using anytime soon, if at all. My phone I will keep as long as I can, and I normally only buy budget phones and pones i have seen so far don't have esim, also the network I use don't support them as far as I know
This is prime reason why I held onto my iPhone X and iPhone 12PM, in case I ever travel out the US and have an issue with eSIM. I’ll have my backup phone that still uses physical SIM cards.
I had an English O2 pay as you go plan for over 15 years. They stated only their SIM cards were allowed for that feature - no eSims.
So I do not have to go back to Southern Africa where only SIM cards are available at the borders.
Apple is piling on the bovine by products to push a cheaper construction even though not everyone on the planet has access to eSims.
So I do not have to go back to Southern Africa where only SIM cards are available at the borders.
Apple is piling on the bovine by products to push a cheaper construction even though not everyone on the planet has access to eSims.
When I was last in Portugal (more than a year ago) I got a tourist eSim with unlimited 5G data from Vodafone Portugal. All done online, no need to go to a Vodafone shop or anything. Worked great!
https://www.vodafone.pt/en/esim-portugal.html
Yea, it's pretty easy and the tourist eSIM is a good deal. We went in because we wanted a resident account vs tourist.
I'd never bothered to even look at eSIMs until I got a compatible phone, and also found a cheap multi-network physical SIM.
Where I live, the network coverage changes by the metre as you move - even within my house and garden (and they are modest in size). So multi-network was hugely desirable. (Partner is on a different network so I knew she sometimes got coverage when I didn't, and vice versa.)
Now I wish the multi-network also supported eSIM! Maybe soon...
Where I live, the network coverage changes by the metre as you move - even within my house and garden (and they are modest in size). So multi-network was hugely desirable. (Partner is on a different network so I knew she sometimes got coverage when I didn't, and vice versa.)
Now I wish the multi-network also supported eSIM! Maybe soon...