Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Other The world isn’t ready for eSIM only phones…
- Thread starter nStyle
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Esim is good for the consumers, but bad for established carriers. The carriers prefer to lock in customers and keep all available hurdles..
Apple has the strongest grip on the American market, which means carriers have to adapt to maintain customers who want iPhones. Apple wouldn’t be able to force the situation in other key markets without risking their own customers.
It would be possible to cobble together a somewhat inelegant solution for US residents travelling overseas. There are quite a few apps such as Airalo (https://www.airalo.com/ and on the App store here - https://apps.apple.com/us/app/airalo-esim-phone-internet/id1475911720) offering eSIMs to give world wide data connectivity. The data isn't particularly cheap but for relatively short trips possibly a solution on its own as long as you only make voice connections via FaceTime, WhatsApp or anything else that goes over data and you don't need to be able to receive SMS messages on your international number because as a data-only eSIM there won't be a number to send messages to anyway. But even that could be got around by also signing up to a rolling (monthly) VOIP number in the country you are visiting and running the VOIP client on your phone (I did say it was somewhat inelegant!).
Even if this move in the US is a wakeup call for carriers around the world 12 months is a long time for US travellers to have this problem. If Apple did care about that market I wonder whether it could create some sort of unified service where it offered a data eSIM similar to Airalo coupled with a virtual VOIP number in a decent number of countries around the world and all integrated together such that when overseas a traveller could have calls to their overseas VOIP number forwarded as an incoming FaceTime audio call and SMS texts forwarded to iMessage. I guess that if Apple was going to do that it would have done so already.
In my view that would have been a decent thing to do to ease the pain of US travellers and in the mean time be an extra revenue stream for Apple since the data and VOIP number would cost money. Some travellers might even prefer that as a long term solution since if it could all be set up online for any country you are about to visit before departure and you are instantly allocated a virtual number in that country and you don't need to install and VOIP client software because it all integrates seamlessly with FaceTime and Messages.
Even if this move in the US is a wakeup call for carriers around the world 12 months is a long time for US travellers to have this problem. If Apple did care about that market I wonder whether it could create some sort of unified service where it offered a data eSIM similar to Airalo coupled with a virtual VOIP number in a decent number of countries around the world and all integrated together such that when overseas a traveller could have calls to their overseas VOIP number forwarded as an incoming FaceTime audio call and SMS texts forwarded to iMessage. I guess that if Apple was going to do that it would have done so already.
In my view that would have been a decent thing to do to ease the pain of US travellers and in the mean time be an extra revenue stream for Apple since the data and VOIP number would cost money. Some travellers might even prefer that as a long term solution since if it could all be set up online for any country you are about to visit before departure and you are instantly allocated a virtual number in that country and you don't need to install and VOIP client software because it all integrates seamlessly with FaceTime and Messages.
Yep same. I’m on mint and I’m just assuming I’ll be able to do it in the app, but we’ll see lol
This is straight from Apple on how to do exactly what you asked.
About eSIM on iPhone - Apple Support
Learn what an eSIM is, how to set up an eSIM on your iPhone, and how to transfer a physical SIM to an eSIM.
I suppose it depends on the kind of travel you do. For long-term many months to years travel... I agree a simless option is not for you.
However, for folks who go for short term trips <1 month for work or leisure then I'd argue it makes little difference. There is no need to buy a sim locally or even worry about local esim support.
Since 2011 my work had me traveling constantly internationally literally all over the world. In that time, I never once bought a local sim card. I chose my carrier carefully based on the ability to roam at a good price. For a long time I used Google FI as my primary carrier for this reason... my phone just worked exactly as at home pretty much in every country I visited.
After iPhone XS came out and had the eSim, I was super excited... but it wasn't till apps like Airalo came out that things got really good for travelers. Nowadays you can have whatever primary carrier you want, even one that doesn't support ANY roaming. Download and activate an esim for the country or region you will be visiting... and bingo 30 seconds later your phone works as it does at home. With iPhone's IMS capabilities you can even make and receive wifi calls/sms over the data connection of your downloaded eSim.
I'm not upgrading to the 14 series from my current 12 Pro max, but it certainly isn't due to the sim situation. The new phones just didn't wow me enough to go through the hassle of an upgrade.
With Covid slowing down all my international travel, I really took the opportunity (and boredom frankly) to investigate lots of carriers and MVNOs. I ultimately landed back on T-Mobile with their Magenta Max plan. That plan now gives me 5GB of high speed data internationally free, with unlimited slow speed data. If I run out of my free high-speed data, I just download a sim from Airalo, US Mobile, Dent, or any of the other vendors out there and I'm back in business in minutes.
Meanwhile... buying physical sims has always been a pain in the ass and has gotten worse over the years. Previously you just had to hunt down a store that was open when you landed (not always easy if it was a late flight, or came in on a sunday). Then you had to figure out how to explain in the native language of the place you were in what kind of sim you wanted. Often times in the small stores it was a cash only situation, so you even had to cough up local currency.
Now in many places they require you to show ID to buy a sim card. Some countries even require a local bank account to get a local sim. For the short term traveler, all of this hassle simply isn't worth it.
To be clear. I think the ultimate solution is to have a phone like the iPhone 13. 1 physical sim card slot and 2 esim slots. However I honestly don't think the removal of the sim tray is nearly the disaster people are making it out to be... at least not in the context of international travel.
I'm assuming you mean the 'transfer of a physical SIM or eSIM on your previous iPhone to an eSIM on your new iPhone after setup' section? But this is also true of eSIM only iPhones??This is straight from Apple on how to do exactly what you asked.
About eSIM on iPhone - Apple Support
Learn what an eSIM is, how to set up an eSIM on your iPhone, and how to transfer a physical SIM to an eSIM.support.apple.com
I know many people who were going to buy the iphone 14. Some have postpone their purchases and others went to the Apple store for the 13 Pro Max.
I think you can transfer from and existing esim to another from what i read.
I think when we power up the new phone for the first time we will get a new phone menu to activate cellular this way
Very true. My point was that this will end up working out in the end. The phone will still contain a SIM it will just me an eSIM so not “useless“. Everyone will deal and it will be the norm.
People freaked when Apple removed the headphone jack. People said they’d revert back to it. Samsung made fun of it.
Today we live without it via Bluetooth. They never reverted back to it. Samsung no longer has a headphone jack.
I wish it was more clear.I think you can transfer from and existing esim to another from what i read.
I think when we power up the new phone for the first time we will get a new phone menu to activate cellular this way
I know you can transfer eSIM's via BT but both devices need to have iOS 16 and it has to be carrier approved.
I can't get a clear answer. Either they can give me one when I pick up my iPhone 14 PM at Apple on Friday or I'll just bring the darn thing to my local AT&T store.
Out of interest what does the scene look like in the US re MVNOs supporting eSIMS? Here in the UK that is a big black hole because we have a very active MVNO market offering very good value for money but as far as I have been able to see there isn't a single one offering eSIM in the UK at the moment.
PAYG is the other eSIM black hole here and at one time that would have bothered me because as a fairly light user I used a PAYG SIM but PAYG pricing has got more expensive and MVNO packages cheaper so now I get better value for money with a 30 day rolling SIM-only MVNO plan.
I wish it was more clear as well. I guess we will find out more we get our phones on Friday.
I switched to esim on my 13 PM today and will install IOS 16 when released on Monday.
Hopefully that will help when switching to the 14 PM. I am doing instore pick up and transferring my data from old phone to new one. So if i run into any hiccups at least store personnel might be able to help.
I’m a huge fan of eSIM, switched my T-mobile service eSIM as soon as it became available years ago.
Unfortunately as much as I want to upgrade to the 14 Pro, I just can’t because of the loss of a physical SIM tray and how that severely impacts international travellers.
Apple should have still offered a unlocked version with physical sim.
Unfortunately as much as I want to upgrade to the 14 Pro, I just can’t because of the loss of a physical SIM tray and how that severely impacts international travellers.
Apple should have still offered a unlocked version with physical sim.
The U.K. certainly is t ready, I ‘think’ all the main 4 carriers offer them but it’s a bit of a hassle to get them, but I don’t think a single MVNO does offer esim, and there are several of those. If they did offer one I’d happily use it as I don’t really travel and stick with the same provider. But if I did travel I appreciate how it can be a real hassle.
World wasn’t ready for no headphone jack, no charger brick.. but guess what? People adapt and adjust. It’ll be fine, just breathe..
Physical SIM tray is useful for non-travelers, too. If the phone breaks, out of battery w/o a charger, needs a software restore.
Or someone else I know who isn’t tech savvy breaks their phone and I provide a loaner iPhone or Android phone until they get theirs fixed.
Yeah. Losing the SIM slot is a complete bummer for me. Every time I’ve used eSIM, it’s been a hassle and I needed a new QR code from the carrier.
The only thing eSIM has made convenient are free trials through different apps. But you need an unlocked phone for those.
Can you imagine all the people buying these over the holiday don’t like the color and exchange their phone? Do not have any faith in US carriers handling eSIM demand.
Or someone else I know who isn’t tech savvy breaks their phone and I provide a loaner iPhone or Android phone until they get theirs fixed.
Yeah. Losing the SIM slot is a complete bummer for me. Every time I’ve used eSIM, it’s been a hassle and I needed a new QR code from the carrier.
The only thing eSIM has made convenient are free trials through different apps. But you need an unlocked phone for those.
Can you imagine all the people buying these over the holiday don’t like the color and exchange their phone? Do not have any faith in US carriers handling eSIM demand.
This is not a good comparison.
The removal of the headphone jack left the alternative within the control of the user. You could go out a buy wireless headphones.
The removal of the physical SIM leaves the alternative completely outside of the control of the user because in many places there is no eSIM available.
The phone being released in the US is fully supported. Majority of other carriers outside I’m sure support eSIM as well. Some smaller countries behind the times won’t but who’s fault is that?
Again, it will be fine. And my point is apple makes changes that sometimes takes others time to get used to, but it happens soon after.
It doesn’t matter if it’s physical SIM or eSIM, they both can be locked or unlocked. They created the whole locked phone thing with SIM, because the carriers were worried you would take your subsidized phone and change carriers and they didn’t want you to do that. Before SIM a phone would just work on one carrier and that’s it, it didn’t even need to be locked because there wasn’t a concept of moving to a different carrier.
CDMA inherited the old no-SIM system from AMPS, and Verizon and Sprint as a result had locked phones but they also didn’t really have phones moving to other carriers. Introducing SIM to those carriers was a whole ordeal for them and that’s why unlocking was such an ordeal, they were never GSM carriers so unlocking anything was new to them and they had to redo their internal systems, though mostly when the upgraded to LTE they got all that stuff sorted out (though Sprint would take a few years because they first deployed WiMax and that didn’t work out).
Anyways so who’s to say eSIM can’t be unlocked, well it’s literally the same thing with SIM, who’s to say you can’t get a SIM card equipped phone unlocked. But if you buy unlocked phones from the factory then this shouldn’t even be a worry, take a gander at the Apple store and they have only unlocked phones except if you buy an AT&T iPhone with an installment plan, I assume their software locks the phone when it’s setup but it can easily be unlocked too.
I’d say majority of countries outside US do not yet fully support eSIM, particularly for pre-paid. It’s not just “small countries”.
I’ve definitely struggled in my travels to UK, South America and Asia recently to find anything and always had to buy a physical SIM
Granted there are lots of data only options available, but in most situations you need a local number.
As a Brit living in the UK I agree on the current UK situation. If you are willing to sign up to a 12 month contract with a major network then eSIMs are available but outside of that you are unlikely to find a plan offering eSIM. None of the UK MVNOs yet offer eSIM and that is where the affordable 30 day rolling plans are and as for a PAYG eSIM not a chance.
eSIM.net provides PAYG eSIM in the UK. Runs on O2. But works through the whole of the EU under the roaming agreement.
Attachments
Last edited: