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Qualcomm wants to replace eSIMs with iSIMs, has the first certified SoC

arstechnica.com

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Re: Qualcomm wants to replace eSIMs with iSIMs, has the first certified SoC

#2
eSIMs are less convenient and less flexible than regular SIM cards - will iSIMs be any different?

How many iSIMs will a phone support? Will they support dual iSIMs or triple iSIMs so I can use one mobile number for work, another for my personal life and a third to use when I'm travelling overseas and want to avoid expensive roaming charges?

Re: Qualcomm wants to replace eSIMs with iSIMs, has the first certified SoC

#4
This seems like an inevitability; since eSIMs are already here, and manufacturers are going to be thrilled to have fewer moving parts.

But it’s disappointing all round. I absolutely love how easy it is for me to buy a new phone, swap in my old SIM and I’m instantly using my old number. As painful as transferring everything else is with new phones, at least I easily keep the same number.

With this (and I’d guess with eSIM too) I just have to hope that their process to transfer SIMs work flawlessly. And I have very little confidence in that.

Sidenote: also disappointed this gets published uncritically as if published by the phone manufacturers themselves, celebrating this as a pure positive instead of the trade off it is.

Re: Qualcomm wants to replace eSIMs with iSIMs, has the first certified SoC

#7
This looks like paid Qualcomm PR, for the following reason.

From the article, it looks a lot like Qualcomm trying to coopt the eSIM success now a few years old, by saying the electronics of iSIM are a custom block in their silicon, not a separate small chip.

But it doesn't clarify that others (like Apple obviously) can't realize their eSIMs in their custom SOC, as far as i see.

> Qualcomm says "the new iSIM is fully compliant with the GSMA Remote SIM Provisioning standard; meaning its subscriptions are remotely manageable through any standard platforms." That's the same standard as eSIM, and it's held to all the same security requirements, so theoretically, any carrier that works with eSIM shouldn't see a difference between an eSIM and an iSIM. iSIM is still just a hunk of silicon that needs software provisioning—where the silicon lives shouldn't really matter to your carrier.

Re: Qualcomm wants to replace eSIMs with iSIMs, has the first certified SoC

#8
post #2

eSIMs are less convenient and less flexible than regular SIM cards - will iSIMs be any different? How many iSIMs will a phone support? Will they support dual iSIMs or triple iSIMs so I can use one mobile number for work, another for my personal life and a third to use when I'm travelling overseas and want to avoid expensive roaming charges?

At least on the iPhone you can add many and activate two simultaneously. Most phones weren’t dual-sim!

Re: Qualcomm wants to replace eSIMs with iSIMs, has the first certified SoC

#9
post #3

Why isn't this a bit of generic software that can run on anything?

It's a physical storage about the carrier. as far as i understand it's more convenient for carriers to onboard clients and also for users in general if a phone dies for example you can swap it into another.

There are CDMA enabled phones that do not need a SIM card but they're a pain to transfer to another carrier. At least today.

Re: Qualcomm wants to replace eSIMs with iSIMs, has the first certified SoC

#10
post #2

eSIMs are less convenient and less flexible than regular SIM cards - will iSIMs be any different? How many iSIMs will a phone support? Will they support dual iSIMs or triple iSIMs so I can use one mobile number for work, another for my personal life and a third to use when I'm travelling overseas and want to avoid expensive roaming charges?

At least on the iPhone you can add many and activate two simultaneously. Most phones weren’t dual-sim!

Dual-SIM phones were the hot shit for years when phones were beginning to take off. I remember some weird adapters that cycled through SIMs when the phone was restarted and all kinds of other hacks.
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