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4tune8chance

macrumors regular
Dec 6, 2012
157
133
Brisbane, Australia
I love using eSIMs. Someone steals your phone, they cannot pull the SIM to prevent you from tracking it.
All they can do is shut it off. The moment it gets turned back on, you got a location. I'll never use a physical SIM card again if I don't have to.
Installing and activating an eSIM was pretty easy with AT&T... not sure about other carriers.
Gave my daughter an iPhone 11 Pro that was unlocked. Didn't have a SIM card in it or any plan setup for it at the time. Just went to the AT&T website on her phone (via WiFi obviously) and had an eSIM installed and activated in about 10 minutes.
Hadn’t thought of that (stolen phone), good point.
 

Sappharad

macrumors regular
Mar 21, 2009
102
91
I hope this move encourages more carriers to adopt eSIM. I use an MVNO where eSIM isn't an option, but would prefer to have my physical SIM slot free for international travel whenever that becomes feasible again. If they're forcing native carriers to use eSIM as a result of this move to sell directly through Apple, perhaps it will help eSIM trickle down to other carriers faster.

Or if there's truth to the iOS 15 beta feature mentioned on the previous page, I guess that works. I don't know how that could be real though, what would prevent someone from stealing a SIM and cloning it then?
 

sw1tcher

macrumors 68040
Jan 6, 2004
3,866
10,528
would be a lot more useful if second non-data lines were cheaper.
You want cheaper than $8/mo for unlimited talk/text and no data (U.S. Mobile and Tello)?

Every now and again, Tracfone will run a special through their eBay store for 360 days (not 365 days) of service for unlimited talk/text for $100 -- choice of AT&T, Verizon, or T-Mobile network.

If you don't need unlimited talk/text, then there are even less expensive plans such as the recent (but expired) offer for 1200 minutes talk / 1200 text for 1 year prepaid plan for $24, or customize a plan from Tello (300 minutes talk / unlimited text / no data is $6/mo) or U.S. Mobile

There's also Red Pocket (T-Mobile MVNO) on eBay. You can get a 1 year plan that gives you 200 minutes talk / 1000 text per / 200 MB data per month for $30 (works out to $2.50/mo)

None of this applies if you're outside the U.S. though. But if you're not, cheap no data plans do exist.
 

_Spinn_

macrumors 68040
Nov 6, 2020
3,951
8,546
Wisconsin
So maybe I’m missing something but since this is for eSIMs what is stopping Apple from adding this support to older phones? Is there hardware component along with software changes?
 

bry2k

macrumors member
Jun 22, 2007
30
1
Does dual SIMs mean I could connect the phone to two different carriers, ie, T-Mobile + Verizon?
 

SigurTom

macrumors regular
Sep 23, 2015
181
537
any reason I should now activate an eSIM with the new phone instead of moving the nanoSIM from my iPhone12?
 

jaytv111

macrumors 6502a
Oct 25, 2007
837
611
So maybe I’m missing something but since this is for eSIMs what is stopping Apple from adding this support to older phones? Is there hardware component along with software changes?
There is hardware attached to eSIM, a secure chip that the eSIM relies on for verification, so this probably has doubled up eSIM secure chips (Or a new eSIM chip that has 2 secured elements for 2 simultaneous eSIMs).
 

Bearxor

macrumors 6502a
Jun 7, 2007
743
394
Wonder if I'll be able to call Verizon to switch my number over to the new (paid for in full) 13 Pro eSIM without having to pay their garbage activation fee. If not, guess I'll just take the SIM out of my current phone and put it in the new one as I've always done.
I was able to swap mine via online chat with no issues or fees.

I think if you take the SIM out and download the Verizon app you may be able to do it yourself in the app.
 

Sorinut

macrumors 6502
Feb 26, 2015
257
257
any reason I should now activate an eSIM with the new phone instead of moving the nanoSIM from my iPhone12?
The **only** issue I found, is that my vehicle (‘19 VW) doesn’t recognize my phone when it’s using e-sim. It just says “no sim” on the screen and doesn’t show signal strength. It still works fine with CarPlay.
 

DeepIn2U

macrumors G5
May 30, 2002
12,114
6,322
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
I love using eSIMs. Someone steals your phone, they cannot pull the SIM to prevent you from tracking it.
All they can do is shut it off. The moment it gets turned back on, you got a location. I'll never use a physical SIM card again if I don't have to.
Installing and activating an eSIM was pretty easy with AT&T... not sure about other carriers.
Gave my daughter an iPhone 11 Pro that was unlocked. Didn't have a SIM card in it or any plan setup for it at the time. Just went to the AT&T website on her phone (via WiFi obviously) and had an eSIM installed and activated in about 10 minutes.

Wow I use eSIM and love it and never thought about the security aspect of it!
@rjohnstone good post and thinking.

both and others recall since iOS 13 the low power use for FindMy even when the phone is “off” that others with iPhone close by will silently transmit the iPhones location so pretty much anti theft and theft finding at all times!!

lol I can’t wait till all Apple stores fully open up and we see boneheads taking dual esim iPhone 13s trying to sell them lol. Like “the money team” guys at Burger King self evidenced on YouTube. Look that up it’s comical.
 
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jaybar

macrumors 68000
Dec 11, 2008
1,952
568
Help. I don’t understand eSim. I am on Verizon and will be ordering a 13 PM. How do you keep your same number and plan.
 

Sorinut

macrumors 6502
Feb 26, 2015
257
257
Help. I don’t understand eSim. I am on Verizon and will be ordering a 13 PM. How do you keep your same number and plan.

it’s essentially a software sim, instead of a physical sim. When T-Mobile changed mine, I just read off some numbers from the “about” screen, and they changed it on their end and after that I took out my physical card. If you want to use it, you can just call Verizon support and they can switch it on their end. You can also add a new e-sim just by scanning a QR code, but I haven’t personally seen it.

I’m back to a regular sim for boring reasons. There is absolutely no difference day-to-day.
 
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zorinlynx

macrumors 604
May 31, 2007
7,674
15,365
Florida, USA
This is making me wonder how many years until Apple gets rid of the SIM card slot completely.

I love having a physical SIM for my main line, because it makes it trivial to move my service to a new device if something happens to my phone. If things end up going eSIM only it'll be like the old days of CDMA2000 carriers like Sprint and Verizon where you had to call in to move your line.
 

Sorinut

macrumors 6502
Feb 26, 2015
257
257
This is making me wonder how many years until Apple gets rid of the SIM card slot completely.

I love having a physical SIM for my main line, because it makes it trivial to move my service to a new device if something happens to my phone. If things end up going eSIM only it'll be like the old days of CDMA2000 carriers like Sprint and Verizon where you had to call in to move your line.
It’ll be a while. There are still A LOT of areas/carriers that don’t support it yet, but who knows.

Apple still offers a dual physical-sim phone in China.
 

ian87w

macrumors G3
Feb 22, 2020
8,617
12,409
Indonesia
I really hope this pushes the carriers in my country to start using eSIM. I always find it funny how some carriers in my country are now talking big about 5G, yet they don’t even have widespread VoLTE nor adopt eSIM.
 
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ian87w

macrumors G3
Feb 22, 2020
8,617
12,409
Indonesia
This is making me wonder how many years until Apple gets rid of the SIM card slot completely.

I love having a physical SIM for my main line, because it makes it trivial to move my service to a new device if something happens to my phone. If things end up going eSIM only it'll be like the old days of CDMA2000 carriers like Sprint and Verizon where you had to call in to move your line.
I hope soon, as it’s probably the only way to force many archaic carriers like ones in my country to adopt the tech. These carriers are so lazy despite them raking in huge profits from the pandemic.
 
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jaytv111

macrumors 6502a
Oct 25, 2007
837
611
This is making me wonder how many years until Apple gets rid of the SIM card slot completely.

I love having a physical SIM for my main line, because it makes it trivial to move my service to a new device if something happens to my phone. If things end up going eSIM only it'll be like the old days of CDMA2000 carriers like Sprint and Verizon where you had to call in to move your line.
The magic of eSIM is gonna be using a carrier app to activate a phone (or it may become like the iPad and let you sign in right from Settings). Yes you’ll need WiFi to download the app and sign in to activate, but it can be done over public WiFi.
 
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