iPhone Air Help from USA Verizon users pleas.

[jabbawok]

I travel frequently to the USA from the UK. I have a US mobile sim on their Verizon network. On my iPhone 16p I had it in the sim slot and my UK sim was eSIM. When I ordered the sim I had to give my iPad imie because they said the iPhone wasn’t compatible. I guess they have a database of imie numbers or something. Anyway the sim worked fine in my iPhone when I was there.
Now I have just got the iPhone air, and of course when I give them the imie, they say it isn’t compatible so they won’t give me an eSIM. I tried with the iPad imie, but they say that doesn’t support HD voice, so won’t work.

What do Verizon do when they issue an esim?
In ROW we just get a qr code and it just activates.

I had no issue getting a T-Mobile eSIM but where I’m working at Cat in Mapleton, the only thing that works is Verizon.

I’m wondering if I give them some random USA imie they might give me an eSIM that I can activate on the air, or maybe they bind it to the imie you give them and then I’m screwed.

Any input would be helpful. Thanks.

 

[Sheepish-Lord]

Forgive me as this was a little hard to read so here’s some basic things for US carriers:

1. You can’t use the same esim for phones, tablets, etc. As you said, some are data only and some are voice.
2. You should be able to give one of your Air esim/imei and get a plan. I’m not sure if they still do the QR code but I believe you can Google it and find it on their website.
3. Have you talked with anyone at Verizon about getting a new esim, seems like a pretty easy issue.

 

[Bigwaff]

US Mobile MVNO Verizon network is WARP. If your iPhone is carrier locked to Verizon, you should be able to use one of the IMEI to obtain an eSIM from US Mobile on WARP. US Mobile uses QR code to set up eSIM. If your iPhone is carrier locked to other than Verizon, you’ll need to join the appropriate US Mobile MVNO network, Dark Star (ATT) or Light Speed (TMobile). If iPhone carrier unlocked, it’s your preference, any one of the three. If unlocked, the nice perk of US Mobile is you can switch on demand to which ever network works best based on your location. Sometimes a godsend when traveling in US.

 

[jabbawok]

The sim in my iPad is a regular voice/data sim and it works fine.

I gave US Mobile the IMIE of my Air and they say they can't issue an esim as its not compatible. its seems Verizon (who US Mobile are using) have some kind of lookup tool that they use that check the IMIE and if its not on the list they won't issue a SIM or an esim. When I ordered the original SIM they wouldn't send it when I gave them the iPhone 16 Pro imie, but they would when I gave them the iPad imie. The SIM worked fine in my iPhone 16 Pro.

The ROW Air is fully compatible with their network but their lookup only shows USA phones for some reason. when I put the IMIE in the Verizon site I get "The phone associated with the Device ID you entered is not compatible with the Verizon Wireless network."
If I can't get them to issue an esim I'll probably have to go back to Tmobile and live with the zero service at the factory.

Thanks.

 

[Bigwaff]

If I can't get them to issue an esim I'll probably have to go back to Tmobile and live with the zero service at the factory.

Maybe you can sign up with US Mobile MVNO Light Speed (T-Mobile). Once on the US Mobile network, maybe you can switch to their WARP (Verizon) network.