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Swapping SIM cards used to be easy, and then came eSIM

arstechnica.com

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Re: Swapping SIM cards used to be easy, and then came eSIM

#61

Post by delta_p_delta_x »

compass_copium wrote: post #44
delta_p_delta_x wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Worse quality, latency, potential to lose one (or both) earbuds, having to faff with batteries and charging and cases (and charging the charging case) when I can just... plug it in, bam, music in my ears. The knotting is a small price to pay for the improved quality and convenience in every other way. What's wrong with analogue audio?

Shouldn't it be the same thing? You either have the DAC on your phone convert the digital music file to an analog signal and send it over the aux cord to the speakers in the headphones, or have the digital file sent over Bluetooth and converted by a DAC in the headphones, right? It's not like you're plugging your headphones into a record player.

> have the digital file sent over Bluetooth and converted by a DAC in the headphones, right

This is not how Bluetooth wireless audio works. PCM audio is re-encoded on-device into any one of a few Bluetooth-capable codecs that is then streamed to the client device. This is a primary cause of latency.

Re: Swapping SIM cards used to be easy, and then came eSIM

#62

Post by throw4fr5yy »

reverserdev wrote: post #12

Some random person I met dropped their phone in a river, just after arriving in a foreign country. He bought a new phone, but getting back to his phone number was not easy or possible for him (while in a foreign country). If he had an eSIM it would have quickly solved the problem for him. Instead he had to wait until he got home to pop in a new SIM card. I learned from this experience that maybe eSIM is a good idea a…

A colleague of mine was in a similar situation except he had an eSIM. It didn’t help because AT&T would not provision him a new eSIM internationally.

As another anecdotal data point, I was able to switch phones internationally using a physical SIM by just putting it in the new phone.

Re: Swapping SIM cards used to be easy, and then came eSIM

#64

Post by parliament32 »

Yizahi wrote: post #59
parliament32 wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> requires that I receive an SMS on my eSIM to move it to new phone So there's no CS path for lost/stolen/destroyed phones? That doesn't make sense, I'm sure it's a very frequent occurrence.

When I lost my phone with a physical sim, I had to go to the operator' office and answer a quiz about which three different numbers I've called and received and when exactly did that happened. Apparently I've failed and they demanded that I would bring a phone box with IMEI sticker on it (yes, the one which all "influencers" tell us we don't need to keep) and then they restored me my sim card. I imagine the same proc…

What country was this in? Quizzes and phone boxes sound.. odd. I've never heard of anything more complicated than rolling into your telco's nearest kiosk with your ID and them just provisioning a new one for you.

Re: Swapping SIM cards used to be easy, and then came eSIM

#65

Post by maipen »

waweic wrote: post #16

Technologically, eSIMs are pretty nice. The electrical interface between the phone modem and the eSIM is the same as with a real SIM card, and the eSIM can run the same applications as a real SIM card, so at this point you can buy smartcards that can be swapped between devices and run eSIM applications. esim.me, 9esim and the "sysmocom eUICC for eSIM" (seems to be the most open/friendly at this point) are some of the…

I think the major advantage for consumers is being able to securely ensure their cards never breaks and device restarts make their sim always available, no need for pin. Even if someone steals your phone they can’t disable your SIM card unless you don’t have a pincode.

I’ve had a SIM card constantly fail and require me to put my pin to unlock it multiple times in the same day. If someone wanted to call me they would not be able to because I didn’t know it was off.

Re: Swapping SIM cards used to be easy, and then came eSIM

#66

Post by brewtide »

delta_p_delta_x wrote: post #9

> We gave up the headphone jack. We gave up the microSD card. Some people might have given it up. I personally own a Sony Xperia phone, and intend to buy another Xperia next year, which will almost certainly still have both. In fact Sony is the one manufacturer that returned to a headphone jack after having removed it for a while. It might be more expensive than the competition, but this is my voting with my wallet.

I've rocked pixels for a good while now, but the Xperia lineup has always been something I've really debated.

My largest concern is camera quality: obviously it is Sony, but if you wouldn't mind, could you elaborate on their camera 'stack' a bit (esp. in relation to pixel phones if you have first hand experience...).

Re: Swapping SIM cards used to be easy, and then came eSIM

#67

Post by instagib »

pxx wrote: post #28
worldsavior wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But why? What's wrong with Bluetooth?

latency is absolute killer. then there's also the fact that splitting the output is difficult, pairing (especially multi-pairing) is finicky but the real response is "what's wrong with a usb-c to 3.5mm adapter"

If you’re in the low percent running cabled headphones, you probably are also running a headphone amp if necessary or not which uses more cell phone power.

Now you need a usb->usb + 3.5mm to keep it charged up or an add on battery.

Re: Swapping SIM cards used to be easy, and then came eSIM

#68

Post by Yizahi »

parliament32 wrote: post #64
Yizahi wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I lost my phone with a physical sim, I had to go to the operator' office and answer a quiz about which three different numbers I've called and received and when exactly did that happened. Apparently I've failed and they demanded that I would bring a phone box with IMEI sticker on it (yes, the one which all "influencers" tell us we don't need to keep) and then they restored me my sim card. I imagine the same proc…

What country was this in? Quizzes and phone boxes sound.. odd. I've never heard of anything more complicated than rolling into your telco's nearest kiosk with your ID and them just provisioning a new one for you.

Lost phone was in Ukraine. We have both prepaid sim-cards and contract sim-cards. Contract would work like you've describes. Prepaid is more complicated.

Re: Swapping SIM cards used to be easy, and then came eSIM

#69

Post by reverserdev »

skylurk wrote: post #14
reverserdev wrote: post #12

Some random person I met dropped their phone in a river, just after arriving in a foreign country. He bought a new phone, but getting back to his phone number was not easy or possible for him (while in a foreign country). If he had an eSIM it would have quickly solved the problem for him. Instead he had to wait until he got home to pop in a new SIM card. I learned from this experience that maybe eSIM is a good idea a…

If you damage your phone, as opposed to completely loosing it, the sim card is almost never damaged. So changing phones can be done without any customer support or web forms or calls to service provider etc. Actually, every phone I ever had eventually got replaced this way, I am still using the original sim card from years ago.

I should have clarified that he dropped the phone in the river AND he did not attempt to get it back from the river, thus the SIM card is considered lost as well :)

Re: Swapping SIM cards used to be easy, and then came eSIM

#70

Post by reverserdev »

throw-the-towel wrote: post #42
reverserdev wrote: post #12

Some random person I met dropped their phone in a river, just after arriving in a foreign country. He bought a new phone, but getting back to his phone number was not easy or possible for him (while in a foreign country). If he had an eSIM it would have quickly solved the problem for him. Instead he had to wait until he got home to pop in a new SIM card. I learned from this experience that maybe eSIM is a good idea a…

> If he had an eSIM it would have quickly solved the problem for him. Except many carriers have you jump through hoops to activate an eSIM on a new device. Here in the comments one person has to receive a new QR over snail mail.

Indeed I became aware thanks to this thread!

For me it was 10 mins through my provider's app (and I was also doing it internationally)

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