461–470 of 531 posts
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The problem with services like Airalo is that they almost never give you a local phone number. In many countries getting a phone number involves showing a physical id.
Problem? This seems like a huge win, the sooner we get rid of phone numbers the better.
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> If you are a local ISP, you better be part of the program if you want to sell your services to apple's devices eSIMs aren’t some apple run “program” you have to take part in.
Yes they are: https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/109874
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> [...] Google, which made a global MVNO. > Google Fi is a service for US residents only, as of late 2019. [1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Fi
I meant this (from the same article): > When outside the United States, cellular phone calls cost $0.20 per minute, data costs the same $10 per gigabyte (i.e. there are no extra data charges outside of the US), and texting is free
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> If I'm traveling I can just buy a SIM card at a kiosk and pop it in I don't understand this comment. Pre-COVID I used to travel a lot for business, with an iPhone. iPhone has physical SIM + virtual SIM. My "home" SIM would stay in my iPhone. Meanwhile I would have one of the many eSIM apps (Truephone, GigSky etc.) on my phone, which I would activate for international data for X days which would enable me to continu…
The difference is the price. Any international eSim plan is many times more expensive per GB than a local sim card. Especially if you need a lot of GBs.
Plus, in reality who needs "lots of GBs" these days when travelling ? You need "enough" GBs to tide you over between WiFi hotspots which, let's face it, in 2021 are everywhere and free in many places (hotels, conference venues, offices, shopping centres, coffee shops etc.).
I don't like it. Having a physical object the embodies your phone's identity is a lot easier to deal with in many ways than an ethereal emulation of said object. For instance, if I'm traveling I can just buy a SIM card at a kiosk and pop it in, even if I can only communicate through little more than pointing and grunting. Another example: I got a new phone recently, but since all my stuff was still on my old phone, a…
I imagine a world where you just a bring a phone anywhere and it you open your network settings, go to your cellular data menu, and then automatically it detects the mobile network providers that support the towers it can see. Then you tap on the one you want, select the package you want, pay for it from that menu and then bam you are connected. All without having an existing Wi-Fi or Cellular data plan. There needs…
(For iPhones to work on your network you would HAVE to sell bandwidth to Apple who then uses it for international roaming. The user really is connecting to and using Apple's Network, the local ISP only has the priviledge of serving packets to Apple devices.)
Hope they use the extra space to add more battery and not for making the phone thinner.
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>> For instance, if I'm traveling I can just buy a SIM card at a kiosk and pop it in That is exactly what apple doesn't want you to do. They don't want users making deals with local ISPs for service. They want in on that transaction. Virtual SIMs, controlled by phone manufacturers, will allow them to exercise a degree of control over wandering users. If you are a local ISP, you better be part of the program if you wa…
To me, there is nothing to indicate this is a power grab by Apple. Google supports eSIM. Google can sell you cell service for your iPhone from the couch. If any phone manufacturer is trying to compete with the carriers, it would look a lot like Google, which made a global MVNO. Yes, there is usually a business motive behind every business decision. The GSMA makes it sound like the carriers want it, as well as the pho…
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I share your concerns but at the same time I think, why would we even need a SIM? Isn't it simply a device for accessing account on someones system? We don't have SIMs for ADSL or Fiber internet? We don't have SIMs for Reddit ot Twitter? Why would we have SIMs accessing GSM networks? There's no fundamental reason why we simply don't sign in into these networks like signing in to HN. Surely, it adds a layer of anonymi…
> I share your concerns but at the same time I think, why would we even need a SIM? In the Before Times: handy for travel. Having a (e)SIM for your personal number (but perhaps disable data), and when you arrive at your destination just pop in a new physical SIM for local data (and calling). > We don't have SIMs for ADSL or Fiber internet? I wish we did. At least for ADSL you can use PPPoE to login into a network wit…
The current and last several iphones have been dual sim, one physical and one eSim. I'm wondering if they keep an eSIM-only model as having two eSIMs. The dual sim implementation is very weird, like its clear they only imagine that someone is popping in a different SIM for travel, as opposed to just having two numbers they use all the time like I do. Even most of the support is catered to travellers with a temporary…