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RumorConsumer

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Jun 16, 2016
1,667
1,195
Ive seen some mutterings about various drawbacks to eSIM usage.

Heres a few:


My issue is that I have an iPhone 11 Pro Max with
- Verizon on physical SIM
- AT&T on eSIM.

Set up and recognition was easy.

The issue is that when the Verizon account is active the AT&T service takes a huge performance hit. On a Speedtest, I pull 60-80mbit easily when only the AT&T eSIM is active. When the Verizon is active as well that number plummets to 20%. I dont even have Verizon service where I am testing it, purely Wifi calling mode.

I had found some other forum post the other day that I cannot locate where somebody is talking about this but there is no solution. Any thoughts?
 
Also does this happen if I do the opposite but instead for Verizon ?
 
Try setting the SIM to 3G and try once more please. If that also brings back your eSIM speeds to normal then your‘re having the same issue as I have. I‘ve already reported it 3 times with the feedback assistant but so far Apple seems to ignore me....
They must have effed something up with the modem firmware when both lines are set to LTE
Not exactly what I expect from a 1400€ phone (also an 11 Pro Max)
E0D37D2A-6FD4-44C9-857E-32D15F46AC5F.png
 
Help me understand. I think I saw something similar on my XSM.

T eSIM is enabled and primary. VZM pSIM is enabled and secondary. In this config, you see DL (and UL?) speeds are reduced on T.

WiFi (802.11) is off (or out of range), and VZW is connecting through “WiFI” (aka WiFi calling T LTE data) as there is no local VZW cellular service?

I cannot say I’m surprised. iPhones only have one modem. So the baseband is constantly scanning for the VZW carrier signal, and the T LTE connection is carrying heartbeats for VZW, all while trying to run the speed test.
 
This is interesting. I am not using an iPhone now (using a Pixel 3a) and have noticed that when I have both a physical SIM and am using the eSIM as well, I get very strange behavior with the dialer when I call into my voicemail on either line. The dialer keypad is either very slow in responding or does not respond at all. I haven't noticed any drop in data speeds (not that I have been checking) but I have been trying to figure out this voicemail dialer problem.
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For what it's worth, I did just checked data speeds on my eSIM account (Tmobile) just now and it was horrendous. 3.55mbps down. But I have no idea if that's just Tmobile this time of day (4:20pm here). I checked early this morning and it was almost 100mbps.
 
A further update.
With a physical SIM inserted and the eSIM activated in my Pixel 3a, I am getting an average of 1mbps download speeds.
With no physical SIM I average between 30 and 40mbps.

So apparently, this is not just an iPhone issue.

I also tried something...for my physical SIM (which is on Verizon) my phone has the options of:
Global
LTE/CDMA
and
LTE/GSM/UMTS

The default is Global.
If I change that to LTE/CDMA, the speeds jump back up to 30-40mbps
 
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this is all so weird. im sure there is some explanation for this but I dont know what it would be.
 
I don't know. But I do know that some strange behavior happens at times with both the physical SIM and eSIM. An example is that in the Pixel 3a, I have the option to turn off the eSIM and use only the physical SIM. But if I do this, I cannot make any phone calls with using the physical SIM line. Once a number is dialed, the phone just sits there as if I had done nothing.
 
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