iPhone XR Is anyone else furious about the lack of eSIM support?

[MRrainer]

Well, for what it's worth I switched to Swisscom eSIM this week for my main contract. It was mostly painless, except that I am on a corporate plan and don't have access to our customer-portal, where the QR code which activates the eSIM is displayed. They sent it by email and walked me through it by phone (your physical SIM is deactivated the moment an eSIM is generated for the number).

Why do this? I am on-call every couple of weeks and I'm going to put the on-call SIM of the on-call phone (a Pixel 3) into my XR, so I only have to carry one phone even when on-call.
The on-call phone used to be a Galaxy Note 3 and I put that SIM via an adaptor into the phone that was the on-call phone before that, a trusty iPhone 3G (without S). Not sure if you can get an adaptor for the nano-SIMs, but I honestly wanted a phone with better battery life anyway...

As a bonus, if I need to have a local SIM when on holiday, this is now possible, too.

 

[comptr]

Verizon offers eSIM, I have had it since December of last year. I just had to chat with CS and they were able to switch me to eSim.

 

[George Knighton]

The way Apple probably intended was, that you keep your main plan on the physical SIM and all your prepaid plans (locally when you travel) as eSIM.

There are some signs in iOS that you’re right about that.

But having said that, I have been using my main T-Mobile plan on an eSIM ever since the workaround became known, and it has performed flawlessly.

 

[George Knighton]

I think that perhaps what iOS did not anticipate was that so many of us would want two plans that were active all of the time.

For me, my cheap and speedy T-Mobile plan is working all of the time, and a cheap Verizon MVNO (Xfinity Mobile) is my backup for those very rare times that T-Mobile doesn't have coverage and Verizon does.

But Xfinity Mobile does not support eSIM in any way, including Apple Watch.

So T-Mobile cellular data plan ended up on the eSIM and Xfinity Mobile ended up as the physical SIM, all iOS proclivities notwithstanding.

 

[IPolo1106]

Sorry to say, that you may look at this from the wrong side.

The way Apple probably intended was, that you keep your main plan on the physical SIM and all your prepaid plans (locally when you travel) as eSIM. That way when you travel you never have to change a SIM card and have the risk of losing it. All you do is activating the local eSIM.

From this perspective T-Mobile might be the only carrier worldwide that is doing it right. For someone that travels to the US, they just keep their main SIM and activate via the App a prepaid T-Mobile eSIM. Traveler plan 21 days 2 GB for $30 or 30 days, unlimited talk and text, 10 GB of data for $40. You can activate it with an email address, zip code and credit card.
Imagine if all large carrier worldwide would offer this kind of prepaid. You can load several eSIM’s. If you travel frequently to many countries that would be the solution to look forward to.

So the main question is how many carriers worldwide do offer prepaid on eSIM?

I know personally:
- T-Mobile (USA)
- AT&T (USA)
- Telekom (Germany) - but you have to get a physical SIM first and then convert it to eSIM

I currently have these plans on my phone (T-Mobile on SIM and the others on eSIM). When I travel the end of this month to Germany all I have to do at the airport is to turn the Telekom eSIM line on and it will automatically turn the AT&T line off.
No more removing case, open SIM slot and fiddle with SIM card).

By the way with the EU liberation of roaming in 2017, I can use the Telekom eSIM in the other EU countries without roaming fees.

In addition I have as you mentioned the basic text and data from T-Mobile.

Lastly, I changed my iMessage and Facetime setup to “start conversations from” from an email, rather than my phone number. That way it doesn’t matter which phone number and data plan is active and hopefully will not mess with my Messages and keep everything in one conversation.

So start pushing all carriers to offer easy prepaid as T-Mobile does.

However I do understand that for now due the lack of prepaid eSIM carriers, you may still have to wait for T-Mobile postpaid eSIM.

Just to be clear you have T-Mobile physical sim and at&t es I’m?
If this is correct how did you set this up because I have T-Mobile but at&t told me I had to gave my main line with them is that true?

 

[alphaswift]

Furious? No. A phone supporting or not supporting eSIM shouldn't make anyone furious.

 

[OBirder]

Just to be clear you have T-Mobile physical sim and at&t es I’m?
If this is correct how did you set this up because I have T-Mobile but at&t told me I had to gave my main line with them is that true?

I took an unlocked phone and asked to get a prepaid plan on SIM card. I didn't mention T-Mobile and I didn't mention eSIM. I took the $0.25 plan and loaded $30. I gave them my phone and loaded the SIM and did the setup. They allowed me out of a list of 10 phone numbers which one I would like.

At the end I asked them if I could buy 2 blue eSIM cards for $5 each.

Once at home I setup the account with a PIN. Then I went into the chat and asked them if I could update the SIM on the account. I gave them the number from the blue card. I never mentioned the word "eSIM".

A few days later I did the same with my wife's phone. Different people, but with the same result.

AT&T has an App which will allow you to change your prepaid plan to your liking.

So far it works very well.

 

[OBirder]

For me, my cheap and speedy T-Mobile plan is working all of the time, and a cheap Verizon MVNO (Xfinity Mobile) is my backup for those very rare times that T-Mobile doesn't have coverage and Verizon does.

But Xfinity Mobile does not support eSIM in any way, including Apple Watch.

So T-Mobile cellular data plan ended up on the eSIM and Xfinity Mobile ended up as the physical SIM, all iOS proclivities notwithstanding.

I have the exact same reason and should mention the T-Mobile international benefits. However since I found a way to get prepaid AT&T I used the same tactic, but kept T-Mobile on SIM and AT&T on eSIM. The AT&T prepaid costs me a little less than $9 a month per line (I only need it as backup in rare cases - mainly text message). For now with T-Mobile and AT&T prepaid I pay less what I paid before on an AT&T only postpaid plan with significant increased benefits.

Love the Dual SIM setup!

It has to be assumed that the MVNO providers will eventually follow with eSIM and then I may try a different eSIM provider. I would love to try a Verizon MVNO.

But as someone mentioned, no need to be furious. I work with what's available now.

 

[an-other]

I still carry two phones. I was looking forward to eSim to consolidate to one. The lack of support at launch killed the momentum for me, so I'll be back in the queue to upgrade this September. Fingers crossed things will have advanced.

 

[sbuntin]

I'm currently on T-Mobile, switched towards the end of last year. T-Mobile promised eSIM support by end of year.

They rolled out- in the end of December- support for eSIM for pay-as-you-go accounts only. I'm a T-Mobile One postpaid customer (like most users) and I can't use eSIM.

eSIM was a huge draw for me for the new generation of iPhones. I travel a lot, and I want to be able to pop a local SIM card in and get data. The new T-Mobile One plans allow you to get EDGE data speeds and keep using your US number while abroad- combining this plan with a local SIM card for data would allow me to still get my texts/calls on my US number while using LTE data locally when travelling.


It's now February. I'm planning my first trip out of the country since getting my iPhone XR. And still no eSIM option. I'll have to remove my T-Mobile SIM card when I get in another country, thus blocking me from getting any regular text messages/calls (just iMessages).

And there's still no ETA. Does anyone else find this infuriating? Apple advertised this feature as a dual SIM and the carrier's slow rollout of support makes it unusable.

Yes, I'm pissed. The eSIM (and the carriers' stated plans to support it) was a large part of my decision to purchase the XS. If TM can support it on pre-paid, then they can do it on post-paid too. In fact, they've proven it does work, as some people have had some success getting their account switched over to the eSIM by phrasing it as a "SIM swap". They just don't want to, for whatever reason.

Perhaps they're delaying so they can rebrand the "SIM starter kit" as an activation fee, or IMEI activation fee, or something like that, so they can get their $25.