Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Using eSIMs with devices that only have a physical SIM slot via a 9eSIM SIM car

neilzone.co.uk

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

181–190 of 244 posts

Re: Using eSIMs with devices that only have a physical SIM slot via a 9eSIM SIM car

#181

Post by Ayesh »

mrshadowgoose wrote: post #157
mfkp wrote: post #124

These have been around for a while. Alternatives: https://esim.5ber.com/ https://esim.me/ https://jmp.chat/esim-adapter

Just an anecdotal single data point: I've tried the esim.me and the jmp offerings in the same set of phones. esim.me was generally quite glitchy and ultimately just stopped working. The requirement of having an esim.me account also just rubbed me the wrong way. jmp has been a seamless experience so far.

I also bought an esim.me card a while ago before they started to jack up the prices. It worked one or two times, but stopped working after.

I ordered a 5ber yesterday, and waiting for it to arrive.

Re: Using eSIMs with devices that only have a physical SIM slot via a 9eSIM SIM car

#182

Post by causality0 »

larusso wrote: post #147
sunaookami wrote: post #33

Haha what a coincidence, I bought a 9eSIM adapter a few weeks ago! There is a new eSIM-only card in Germany where you get 3 GB of data plus unlimited SMS and calls per month for free. To order it I had to use Frida and the Android emulator to fool the app into thinking the device had an eSIM. After that you have to do some JavaScript shenanigans on the website to get the QR code. But after that, everything works flaw…

What’s your use case for the adapter. To use the free service on a non eSIM capable phone? Or for some other stuff? Thanks for the info about the provider. Didn’t hear about the offering yet.

That would be mine, yeah. Set up an old phone with one of those esims from a company that offers small amounts of data for free for watching an ad, then drop it in my glove box as a backup in case something happens to my real phone.

Re: Using eSIMs with devices that only have a physical SIM slot via a 9eSIM SIM car

#183

Post by Neonlicht »

andix wrote: post #173
daveoc64 wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As noted by other commenters, some carriers (I think all of the UK carriers) use IP-based geoblocking to ensure that Wi-Fi Calling only works when using an IP address registered in the UK.

I think most EU carriers use geo blocking for VoWiFi. A lot of non-European carriers advertise VoWiFi as a cheap alternative for roaming. For EU carriers roaming used to be a big business (Europe is probably the region where most traveling abroad happens, many small countries close together without travel restrictions). The EU carriers don't seem to be able to let go of crazy roaming charges (5€ per minute and more a…

Nowadays you can just use WhatsApp to make phone calls. It's free.

Re: Using eSIMs with devices that only have a physical SIM slot via a 9eSIM SIM car

#184

Post by klausa »

stavros wrote: post #174
harha wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One announce with eSIM is that you can’t move them freely, despite being advertised as equivalent. Depending on the provider it can get quite complicated (physical visit in store, fees) to move to another device.

Sorry, move them from what to what? Surely an eSIM isn't locked to the first phone I use it on?

It is.

The QR codes that provision the eSIM are single-use.

Most "real" carriers will of course let you migrate your eSIMs, with varying degrees of pain involved (my Japanese eSIM migrated automatically from iPhone to iPhone; the German one involved making a phone call); but ~all "travel plans" eSIMS will be single-use only.

Re: Using eSIMs with devices that only have a physical SIM slot via a 9eSIM SIM car

#185

Post by lxgr »

stavros wrote: post #175
lxgr wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can swap my eSIM between phones faster than I can remove my phone case.

There's a difference between "my specific thing works" and "all such things work". Not all eSIMs are transferable.

Yes, but that's a problem of bad network operators, not the eSIM standard.

Operators could also release physical SIMs that get tied to a given phone's IMEI after first insertion if they really wanted to.

Re: Using eSIMs with devices that only have a physical SIM slot via a 9eSIM SIM car

#186

Post by lxgr »

miki123211 wrote: post #150
lxgr wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At least Vodafone Germany intentionally blocks (or used to block) foreign IPs for their gateway. I'll always trust them to needlessly ruin perfectly fine technologies. Fortunately, as far as I remember at least iPhones route VoWiFi traffic over a VPN, if any is connected, so that's one way to still use it abroad.

This is actually less unreasonable than it seems at first. The Vo WiFi spec only defines handover procedures for networks that implement VoLTE, but VoLTE roaming was historically almost nonexistent, although the situation is improving somewhat. This means that if you go out of range of your WiFi router, your cell phone has no idea how to request a handover from the network, and the call drops.

By that logic, shouldn't they never have rolled out VoWLAN as long as they still have some non-LTE covered areas in Germany either?

Also, I'd much prefer a call getting dropped to suddenly changing from being included to billed when traveling abroad.

Re: Using eSIMs with devices that only have a physical SIM slot via a 9eSIM SIM car

#187

Post by Scoundreller »

laurencerowe wrote: post #165
mbesto wrote: post #140

Tangentially related - I recently got the holy grail of eSIM travel router setup: - GLiNet Mudi v2: https://store.gl-inet.com/products/mudi-v2-portable-4g-lte-r... - EIOT Physical eSim https://store.gl-inet.com/products/esim-experience-seamless-... - 20GB Worldwide Airalo for 365 days ($69): https://www.airalo.com/global-esim/discover-365days-20gb Buy the airalo esim on my iphone. Download the QR code. Upload it to t…

At least if you’re travelling to Europe there are far cheaper offers with local carriers for about €/£ 5 for 20GB/30days valid across the EU and often UK. Lycamobile and Simyo usually have good deals though ended up needing to get a physical SIM in Spain as they require showing ID.

I forget if it was with Lyca or a similar brand, but they would deduct 5 cents for each sms before you setup a plan. I was incredibly careful to not do anything and disabled almost everything but apparently iPhone phones home in a way that’s totally hidden from the user and most providers hide and zero the charge but not these rando brands.

Another 5 EUR down to tube because I only had 4,95 for my 5 EUR plan.

Dunno why I put my SIM card in first but I guess I had to for some reason (was on wifi and had access to a computer)

Re: Using eSIMs with devices that only have a physical SIM slot via a 9eSIM SIM car

#188

Post by dlenski »

Reason077 wrote: post #180
polishdude20 wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's the reason for the mudi device? Why not just use the esim in the iphone and have the iphone in hotspot mode? Just battery life?

A 4G/5G router creates a "real" WiFi network rather than a personal network. Hotspotting is great for 1 or 2 devices, but devices are reluctant to connect to a personal hotspot automatically (Apple devices, at least). You have to manually select/tap the hotspot every time, which gets to be a pain when you have multiple devices and you're using it as your daily, primary internet connection. I might also want to leave…

> A 4G/5G router creates a "real" WiFi network rather than a personal network.

A properly functioning phone hotspot is a "real" WiFi network. The ones created by Android devices, at least, are running `hostapd`, which every Linux-based home router is running behind the scenes.

> devices are reluctant to connect to a personal hotspot automatically (Apple devices, at least).

Solution: don't use Apple devices.

Re: Using eSIMs with devices that only have a physical SIM slot via a 9eSIM SIM car

#190

Post by stavros »

klausa wrote: post #184
stavros wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry, move them from what to what? Surely an eSIM isn't locked to the first phone I use it on?

It is. The QR codes that provision the eSIM are single-use. Most "real" carriers will of course let you migrate your eSIMs, with varying degrees of pain involved (my Japanese eSIM migrated automatically from iPhone to iPhone; the German one involved making a phone call); but ~all "travel plans" eSIMS will be single-use only.

Oof, that's not great...
Post reply on HN