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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

#131

Post by franga2000 »

Reason077 wrote: post #17
chamakits wrote: post #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…

> "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." In theory, with an eSIM it's even easier to swap in your old SIM because you don't have to deal with the physical SIM card. Especially so if you don't have the physical SIM because it's lost or whatever. In my experience it's super frustrating to have to wait for…

> Some carriers [1] also support "eSIM Quick Transfer"

See, that's the problem right there: your carrier is the one who enables and allows you to do this. With physical SIM cards, all you need is a thin pointy thing and two fingers - no software, no cloud services, no network connection.

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

#132

Post by elzbardico »

chamakits wrote: post #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…

International plans are less expensive than they were in the past, and usually, with decent carriers, they can be enabled and disabled on demand from their customer app. Conversely, eSIM has the advantage that a thief can't simply remove the SIM after stealing your phone.

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

#133

Post by mFixman »

chris_overseas wrote: post #44
Reason077 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "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." In theory, with an eSIM it's even easier to swap in your old SIM because you don't have to deal with the physical SIM card. Especially so if you don't have the physical SIM because it's lost or whatever. In my experience it's super frustrating to have to wait for…

> eSIMs are a massive win when travelling, too. Instantly activate a data plan at cheap local rates in whatever country your travelling to, without having to first get your hands on a physical SIM... For many years I've owned dual-SIM phones and on many occasions have bought a local SIM a the airport or corner store when travelling for a week or more to countires outside my roaming allowance. This is almost always ch…

My experience is very different than yours.

I think you are getting scammed: airport SIMs are way more expensive than actual SIMs you get in town and eSIM you get on an app like Airalo. International providers are obsolete in the age of the eSIM, since you can get a local provider at the click of a button.

eSIMs are still a bit more expensive than physical SIMs you buy in a phone shop far from any airport... but that expense is worth having internet from the second you land.

My only disappointment with this is how hard it is to migrate, but eSIMs work perfectly for travelling.

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

#134

Post by londons_explore »

I don't see why this needs to be dedicated silicon at all...

Why not simply a Trustzone-like sandbox for all the code and data necessary for the sim?

Then the actual processing is done on the main application processor, and there is no physical device at all.

I assume carriers would want the user not to be able to inspect or extract the internals of the sim (logic, keys, etc), but most platforms already provide some way to do that for other purposes (DRM, secure boot).

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

#135

Post by kwanbix »

An now we are full circle.

I remember the first cellphones had no SIM.

You had to give the serial to the telephone company and they will activate your line in that cellphone.

SIMs where supposed to be freedom to move your line whenever you wanted.

Now we are back at the cellphone is the SIM card.

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

#136

Post by glitchc »

jjtheblunt wrote: post #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…

iSIM is a standard defined by the GSMA standards body. Qualcomm did not make up the term.

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

#137

Post by jen20 »

vanilla_nut wrote: post #118
r1ch wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> eSIMs are a massive win when travelling, too My experience with this was very disappointing. I decided to buy an eSIM at the airport while my friend opted for a physical SIM. He was done in 30 seconds, meanwhile I was struggling to find an open Wi-Fi network since provisioning apparently requires internet access. Then my device took almost 5 minutes "setting up" before I was online. Until an eSIM can be provisioned…

Great point. I'd love to see eSIMs managed via an open standard over NFC, phone-to-phone or POS-to-phone to "simulate" the transferability of physical SIMs without the tiny piece of plastic. But until then, I'm avoiding eSIMs entirely. I used to have a CDMA Verizon iPhone back in the day, and every time I switched to or from it (it eventually became my backup phone) I had to call Verizon to beg them to move my number…

Hopefully this will fall under the junk fee act proposed by Biden. Telcos are among the worst offenders and deserve nothing less than corporate euthanasia.

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

#138

Post by the_mitsuhiko »

coretx wrote: post #122
bpfrh wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I couldn't find that regulation and looking at wikipedia regulations about that are country specific: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SIM_lock#European_Union It seems sim locking is legal, but unlocking has to be allowed after some time. I couldn't see anything that would differentiate between a carrier lock by esim vs a sim.

By EU law, the vendor of the phone has to provide updates for N year. There is no such regulation for SIM cards. ( Provided by telco's ) This means the vendor of the phone, not the telco, can simply say "we did our N years of updates", rendering the phone useless as esim requires it in order to function. It's beyond the power of the telco, because it did not provide the esim. It's not a "SIM lock", it's far more devi…

I don't believe such a law exists on the EU level.

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

#139

Post by rsaxvc »

jeroenhd wrote: post #79
azernik wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Security. SIMs are smartcards - separate systems storing cryptographic material and performing trusted operations. A TPM that can be plugged and unplugged, basically, using the same standards as a chip-and-pin credit card. Equivalent keystores haven't been available built in to cell phones until the last few years.

TrustZone and Secure Element have been available for quite some time now. I think this problem is more because carriers/users don't want to give up control to software companies than it's about lacking hardware.

With the continued development of specex attacks, having those features in a separate domain reduces the attack surface some, compared to sharing a core with attacker controlled code.

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

#140

Post by justsomehnguy »

pilif wrote: post #91
DeathArrow wrote: post #88

Why is this a positive story? Downsides: -it is more cumbersome to replace phones, as you have to move identities from phone to phone and get approvals by carriers and device makers instead of just replacing the physical SIM -you can't just hand over your phone to someone else, you have to unroll yourself and enroll the other person -you don't have anonymity and privacy since is no longer possible to use a prepaid ph…

> it is more cumbersome to replace phones, as you have to move identities from phone to phone and get approvals by carriers and device makers instead of just replacing the physical SIM That really depends on the carrier. In my case, setting up a new iPhone to replace an old one means saying yes in the prompt displayed by the phone. Nothing else. This is more convenient than having to search for the SIM removal tool.…

> convenient than having to search for the SIM removal tool

Yeah, now I just need a printer or someone else with a phone. Oh, your camera isn't working/bad lighting/software shenanigans? Tough luck.

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