Ask HN: What's Your Experience with eSIMs?

As a tech enthusiast, I'm always excited to dive into the latest advancements, but sometimes, new technology comes with its own set of challenges. Unfortunately, these challenges can turn a fun experience into a frustrating ordeal, especially when the surrounding systems aren’t quite as reliable as they should be.

Recently, I decided to upgrade my SIM plan on O2, the UK's largest mobile network operator. At the time, I was using a physical SIM card but was intrigued by the idea of switching to an eSIM. eSIMs offer some great benefits, like the ability to use two numbers on a single-slot phone and the added security of not being physically removable, though the latter wasn’t my main concern.

I was using an Android device when I made the switch, and a few months later, I upgraded to a new Android phone. The O2 app allowed me to install the eSIM on my new device, but I quickly ran into trouble. Despite following the installation steps, my phone had no signal. The dreaded notification 'SIM 2 not provisioned' kept popping up. I tried everything—deleting and reinstalling the eSIM multiple times, leaving it overnight in hopes it would activate, and even turning off the old device to avoid conflicts. Nothing worked.

In a last-ditch effort, I deleted the eSIM from my old phone entirely, thinking that might solve the problem. But that only made things worse—now I couldn’t install the eSIM on any device. When I called O2 for help, they informed me that their system still registered my SIM as a physical one. To make matters worse, the system was stuck in a processing state, waiting for the eSIM installation to complete before moving forward. Their advice? Wait for 3-5 days for the process to time out because there was nothing else they could do—not even a visit to the store would help.

So here I am, stuck in a tech limbo, waiting for time to do what technology couldn’t. It’s a stark reminder that while new tech can be exciting, it’s not always smooth sailing.

What's your experience?

I needed dual sim so I could separate work from private. Ordered a Canadian Samsung s20 because their dirt cheap that had 2g support. Reflashed it with American firmware and now I have no 2g/3g support but do have dual sim (turns out same hardware in the devices they just use rom to change featutes based on where in the world you are as the base chip it worked on supported all of them).

I use the esim for work. Works great transferred a real sim to it via online portal, cost me $120aud for whole year plan, unlimited calls and text.

I’ve had my iPhone on eSIM (T-Mobile and Verizon) for the last 3-4 years with no issues.

Sorry to hear you’re having issues.

eSIM is amazing for purchasing roaming internet while traveling. There is a eSIM aggregator that I can recommend: https://esimdb.com/

I use a Helium Mobile eSIM, which I pay with crypto. I set it up in something like 10 minutes when I became eligible for an account. No problems so far.

I've also had eSIMs from FirstNet and AT&T, no problems there either. Running dual-sim hasn't been a problem either on any of my Galaxy or iPhones.