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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

#101

Post by devilbunny »

ashray wrote: post #10
ACCount37 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What would be the use case of being able to transfer a SIM card from one device to another at will, you mean? What kind of question is that.

I'll post an example for the parent just in case they are honestly confused about use cases. Here is one that happened to me. I had an eSIM on my iPhone. My iPhone broke (screen became somewhat unusable, and the phone was stuck in a restarting loop). It was an older model phone so I checked the repair cost and thought I'd rather buy a new one. Bought a new phone. Now, to transfer my eSIM from the old phone to the new…

“I’m across an ocean from any of my network’s stores and need to activate a different phone on my regular network and number right now, on the side of the road, without WiFi or a computer or a different, working phone already on my account” is to me the most obvious case where eSIM is weak. And having been in that situation before eSIMs, it was really easy - remove SIM, put in backup phone, use. Not so much now.

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

#102

Post by tezza »

Had a nightmare getting a holiday only e-sim in Australia

Couldn’t set up easily because no wifi

then I just simply could not cancel the damn thing… It required being in Australia, and like the article needed a SMS code and the support was only contactable Australian working hours… who wanted the SMS code again.

So once back in Blighty there was no way… had to cancel the credit card to stop payments

So you are at the mercy of the competence of the provider

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

#103

Post by ValentineC »

flowerthoughts wrote: post #99
pxeboot wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> ESim are backed up as part of iCloud backups You can’t actually backup an eSIM. If you could, they would be easy to clone. I know Apple uses that terminology, but that isn’t what is happening in the background. Same with transferring an eSIM. A new one is issued each time.

Isn't that just semantics? It's tied to the same phone number, and I assume the generation of a new eSIM invalidates any old one (as happens with my carrier.) It's essentially backed up, even if it's just a (carrier, number) pair. If the Lyca account is trashed, the rest is just an implementation detail.

But it's not, because some carriers explicitly don't allow eSIM transfers, or reuse of the initial QR code, or even the forced generation of a new eSIM without either customer support manually revoking the previous one, or deleting it yourself from the old device.

I think the problem here is: there's no consistent regulation on how a replacement eSIM can be provisioned on a new device.

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

#104

Post by PebblesHD »

My experience with eSIM has so far been quite negative. I’ve upgraded phone twice since being forced to use one by my carrier and it’s been a pain both times. The initial setup of scanning a QR code was nice, why is every subsequent SIM change a 10 step dance in an app (or worse a support call) rather than one phone showing the QR and the other scanning it?

Once this phone needs updating, I’ll be swapping carrier to one that has regular SIM cards.

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

#105

Post by ValentineC »

spwa4 wrote: post #77
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…

The spec allows carriers to disallow removal of an eSIM, to allow for subsidized phone business models (in other words: this change was demanded by the carriers). So you should blame the carrier, not the manufacturer that simply implements the spec. It might be nice if manufacturers implement a HUUGE LOUD warning when enabling an eSIM that requires carrier authorization to remove though. Someone should put that in th…

> The spec allows carriers to disallow removal of an eSIM, to allow for subsidized phone business models (in other words: this change was demanded by the carriers). So you should blame the carrier, not the manufacturer that simply implements the spec.

Gosh, that sounds pretty nuts if some $5 throwaway travel eSIM refused to be removed after a few days of use.

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

#107

Post by yumraj »

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"

Adapter causes unnecessary wear on the charging port.

Recently had a phone go bad when the thunderbolt port stopped working due to the same port being used repeatedly for charging and for audio adapter.

So when I updated the phone I grudgingly decided to get a BT earbud.

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

#108

Post by ianburrell »

delta_p_delta_x wrote: post #24
worldsavior wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But why? What's wrong with Bluetooth?

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?

LE Audio should fix the quality and latency problems. The latency is significantly lower and the bandwidth is twice Classic Bluetooth. There are new default codecs that are better, and there should be enough bandwidth for lossless. The other nice thing is enough bandwidth for bidirectional streams instead of low quality audio when use microphone.

The current problem is that LE Audio implementations are new with lots of headphones having them as beta.

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

#109

Post by delta_p_delta_x »

brewtide wrote: post #66
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...).

I own an Xperia 5iii (so about four-and-a-half years old now), and I also own a Pixel 10.

The Pixel 10's camera is unequivocally better. The JPEG outputs are processed, 'Instagram-ready'. The output from the Sony camera even in JPEG mode is considerably more muted, neutral, and has less contrast. Note that this is not representative of newer Xperias' camera quality; I've heard they have improved considerably. I'm not too concerned because I hardly use my phone to take photos; I have a Nikon mirrorless for that.

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

#110

Post by pan69 »

The way telecommunications works needs a complete overhaul. IMHO it needs something similar to a domain name system where you register (and own) your phone number and control which provider your eSIM is pointing to (like DNS). But so many industries are rooted in control it would be nearly impossible to make any meaningful change.
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