Imagine how many more patents Qualcomm could fit into your phone by removing that ~2.5mm chip!
Qualcomm wants to replace eSIMs with iSIMs, has the first certified SoC
161–170 of 199 posts
Re: Qualcomm wants to replace eSIMs with iSIMs, has the first certified SoC
#162An 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.
> Now we are back at the cellphone is the SIM card.
No, because the eSIM provisioning process, as well as eSIM profiles themselves, are standardized, down to how the activation code is represented in a QR code.
SIM-less CDMA phone provisioning was never that flexible, as far as I know.
Of course, providers can make this as easy or hard as they want to (e.g. by not allowing the reuse of activation codes, tying activation codes to an IMEI, having an allowlist of supported phone models despite eSIM being a standard etc.), but they can already do much of that for physical SIMs as well.
Re: Qualcomm wants to replace eSIMs with iSIMs, has the first certified SoC
#163Man, what I as a consumer wants is to be able to have multiple cell phones on the same number... just like I used to have with a landline. This isim is just esim, except on the soc. And before anyone says just use google voice... no I don't want to use google. I don't want to deal with google. I don't want an abstraction.
Re: Qualcomm wants to replace eSIMs with iSIMs, has the first certified SoC
#164Man, what I as a consumer wants is to be able to have multiple cell phones on the same number... just like I used to have with a landline. This isim is just esim, except on the soc. And before anyone says just use google voice... no I don't want to use google. I don't want to deal with google. I don't want an abstraction.
Is this not offered by US carriers? In Germany I remember it being pretty common.
All phones on one "line" will ring at the same time, but only one will receive incoming texts, unfortunately, due to how SMS is implemented at the network level.
Re: Qualcomm wants to replace eSIMs with iSIMs, has the first certified SoC
#165This 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…
Huh, if that's the case, why would the linked article claim that they want to replace eSIM? Is Ars just wrong here?
Re: Qualcomm wants to replace eSIMs with iSIMs, has the first certified SoC
#166Earlier 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.
The eSIM is a secure element!
TrustZone is a technology building block, not a complete implementation. You couldn't simply run a SIM on TrustZone, but you probably can use it to implement an eSIM execution environment, which seems to be what Qualcomm is actually doing here.
Re: Qualcomm wants to replace eSIMs with iSIMs, has the first certified SoC
#167This 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…
> 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.
But dealing with the physical SIM card is the thing that's easy. People already know how to move a physical thing from A to B. Figuring out how to electronically transfer an electronic SIM is necessarily less easy, even if we lived in a fantasy world where operators all cooperated to try to make it as easy as possible to switch to a competitor (heh).
Re: Qualcomm wants to replace eSIMs with iSIMs, has the first certified SoC
#168So if the iSIM goes bad or stops functioning. Instead of replacing the SIM or eSIM chip. Now you have to replace the entire SoC because of one faulty component. Good for phone designers (as mentioned, more space for other components). Amazing for phone manufacturers because it pushes more units when a device goes bad. Bad for consumers because repairability is significantly reduced. Terrible for the environment.
Are you aware of any phone (released in the last 10-15 years) where it was possible to exchange faulty components, soldered onto a PCB, in the first place?
Re: Qualcomm wants to replace eSIMs with iSIMs, has the first certified SoC
#169Man, what I as a consumer wants is to be able to have multiple cell phones on the same number... just like I used to have with a landline. This isim is just esim, except on the soc. And before anyone says just use google voice... no I don't want to use google. I don't want to deal with google. I don't want an abstraction.
Wearables kind of pushed carriers to support this on consumer plans recently e.g. ATT calls it "numbersync" https://www.att.com/features/numbersync/.
Re: Qualcomm wants to replace eSIMs with iSIMs, has the first certified SoC
#170Wasn't one of the benefits of a smart card model was having a totally isolated chip that could run minimal software and provide a limited surface for attack? If you add everything to the same chip then doesn't this reduce the advantages of having that separate smart card (together with it's anti-tampering design)? We're also supposed to trust Qualcomm that this is secure... Sounds totally legit. SIM cards aren't perf…
Ultimately the weakest link in SIM security is the support rep at your telephony provider.