181–190 of 216 posts
I would assume not, but this FAQ feels weird: "Unlike traditional removable SIM cards, eSIMs are built into devices during manufacturing and cannot be physically removed or replaced by users".
How does an eSIM work? Does it require any special hardware (beside the cellular radio, of course) on the phone or is it a purely software thing? If there is specialized hardware, is it a thing that can be later deconfigured/uninstalled or does it modify permanently my device? I would assume not, but this FAQ feels weird: "Unlike traditional removable SIM cards, eSIMs are built into devices during manufacturing and c…
I am not an expert, but I believe eSIM-support is essentially a feature of the modem + the OS of the device.
The eSIM itself is basically just a blob of data that serves the same function as a SIM card WRT identifying/authenticating a phone on a network.
> I would assume not, but this FAQ feels weird
Agreed, being completely pedantic, that really isn't quite accurate. The "eSIM" construct is completely manageable through software.
Both iOS and Android allow adding/removing/disabling/enabling eSIMs once they are provisioned to the device through a carrier.
I manage my own ASN, I've been thinking of branching out, experimenting by creating my own eSIM. Given the huge number of virtual ISPs offering eSIMs at various prices, I mistakenly assumed it would be relatively easy to find documentation on how to do that (perhaps via some ISP selling traffic bundles to virtual ISPs); maybe someone can recommend any resources?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_virtual_network_operato... You'd be cutting deals with the existing providers, one by one, and acting as a reseller. A dated doc: https://www.gtigroup.org/d/file/Resources/rep/2016-12-16/2eb...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
that's fine. small abuse isn't worth the cost to enforce. abuse at scale, however...
Around 2000 there was a dial-up service called Juno. It took about 15% of your screen to show a rotating banner ad and had some time limit for use. As far as I recall every restriction was implemented in the client. As such there was a really easy workaround to connect directly without using their software and bypass every restriction. A guy I know used that workaround and at some point got a letter in the mail from…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> if I go with my car one hour inland I'll end up in places where I'm sure I wouldn't be able to just find free wifi hotspots everywhere. What is the intersection of people who "have a car and are able to drive one hour inland" and "are so cash strapped that will subject themselves to a 'free' phone service that makes them watch ads every hour"? Also important: who would be interested in advertising to these people?
> What is the intersection of people who "have a car and are able to drive one hour inland" and "are so cash strapped that will subject themselves to a 'free' phone service that makes them watch ads every hour"? I'm talking about the people who live in those places already... The part about "if I go with my car" part is just to help you visualize that there are places outside of cities.
What I am trying to say is that, while I am certain that you can fund this useful for a segment of the population, how big this segment needs to be in order to become valuable for (a) advertisers and (b) investors willing to sink money into it?
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> The cohort Venn diagram is world travelers who can’t afford a global service? People who can pay for a flight but would rather watch an ad than pay for service? At this point I laughed, as I don't have global service, yet have flown round the world in the last fortnight. > And the value of that ad inventory of people unwilling to pay is? Yeah, I'm never going to click on your ads. Don't build a business model on me…
Don’t get me wrong. I don’t think it’s nonzero. I just don’t know if it’s enough to overcome the tonnage cost (bulk rate for IOT/B2B cellular), and the business development challenges for global cellular and advertising are no joke when we’re down to a freemium-ad-supported revenue model. Striking at the eSIM moment is a slick move, though. This would likely have been a hard non-starter in the physical SIM era (which…
I bought two data eSIMs to cover my trip - each one only covered one specific country.
To my frugal mind it wasn't worth paying the extra to upgrade to a 'global' data eSIM just to cover the handful of additional places I was in transit through (and turned out I had ready access to free wifi in those places anyway).
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I have a question. I had a Google Voice US number for almost 10 years that I lost because I could not do a verification from another US number. I verified with Twilio once as I was able to make their product work and receive a SMS from Google Voice but I couldn't make it work the next time. I had created that Google Voice number back in the day when those SIP apps were a thing which offered you a second number. (I li…
What do you mean you lost it? Did Google deactivate it? I also have my GV since 2010 and I haven’t connected a US number in a decade (I do have credit on it)
Wow. 1.95 euros a day for the non-ad version? In India (where I live) I pay less than 3 euros a month for a 1.5GB everyday 5G connection and unlimited nationwide calls. So it's definitely not a "fair local rate" as they claim.
This seems pretty cool, so it's free slow cell service in exchange for watching a video ad every hour, with optional prepaid plans for higher speeds/no ads. It does seem that your cellular is only active for an hour after you last watch an ad, which is unfortunate if you want to receive notifications throughout the day.
That's not what free means. It's cool until you realize that it only exists to take advantage of poor people. If the infrastructure cost was actually important, then they wouldn't serve ads in the first place.
What do you mean by infrastructure cost not being important? They either take a loss on the free plan to get downloads, the ads cover the costs and they break even, or they make a profit. All of those options seem fine and potentially sustainable to me (not sure about the loss leader though).
How does an eSIM work? Does it require any special hardware (beside the cellular radio, of course) on the phone or is it a purely software thing? If there is specialized hardware, is it a thing that can be later deconfigured/uninstalled or does it modify permanently my device? I would assume not, but this FAQ feels weird: "Unlike traditional removable SIM cards, eSIMs are built into devices during manufacturing and c…
eSIM: same (or similar) chip is soldered into your phone. Software is different, and allows storing the data part from multiple operators at the same time. You use your phone to switch between operators and add/remove potential operators (add part is over the internet via your phone, either via wifi or current active operator).
By way of analogy you can download new "SIM cards" to your esIM, switch between them, delete them etc. It's a feature of your phone, either it supports eSIM (has such a chip and supporting software on the phone) or it doesn't. You can't add it later.