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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

#201

Post by a456463 »

etrautmann wrote: post #50
birdman3131 wrote: post #45

It seems nobody recalls how bad it was back in the day. CDMA phones (Mostly carriers like Alltel, Verizon and sprint.) did not have sim cards until 4g/LTE. Before that to migrate phones you had to get customer support involved. AT&T and other GSM based carriers had sim cards on their phones and it was so much nicer. Nobody has been able to convince me that esim is not just going back in time 15+ years. We moved to si…

I agree, although two counterpoints. One is that carriers would just lock the phones in the US anyway. Second is that eSIM is easier while traveling.

for now.

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

#202

Post by a456463 »

digitalPhonix wrote: post #91
Sargos wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>being able to just show up in a country, download an app This seems like a "draw the rest of the owl" situation. If I arrive in a new country with no phone data (which is why I need a sim in the first place) then how do I download an app? Being able to walk up to a guy at the airport and within seconds slide in a SIM solves that data problem.

You can get the app and provision the esim in your home country, or use airport wifi?

not all airports have that. and even when they do I have had to fight to stay online or get online requiring entering email and clicking the link in the email before being granted online access.

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

#203

Post by a456463 »

kiwijamo wrote: post #154
abigail95 wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess I'm lucky enough to only have had providers where it would take 0-3 hours to create a new eSIM profile. Compared to 3-7 days for a new SIM.

Note that if you just have a broken phone you don't need a new SIM, you just pop it out and pop it in the new phone. So 1min for a physical SIM vs 0-3 hours to create a new eSIM profile. I know which one will be faster. :)

Not only that... horror stories of eSIM transfers getting stuck and losing the phone number

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

#205

Post by a456463 »

izacus wrote: post #43

My telco requires that I receive an SMS on my eSIM to move it to new phone so... yeah. It's amazing if the phone for whatever reason doesn't work and that then requires a long customer support call that might not work. The direct phone-to-phone transfter the devices offer is also blocked on the carrier. Another issue I had was (travel) eSIMs failing to provision because the carrier didn't whitelist my phone brand/mod…

Lost money on quite few esims this way.

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

#206

Post by a456463 »

neelc wrote: post #90

The funny thing is, I used eSIM on a Pixel 3, since it was the easiest way to activate on Sprint. Now, no big carrier will use a Pixel 3's eSIM. But then on Sprint, they tried to copy the CDMA activation system on LTE whereas everyone else just used SIM cards directly. Sprint was very progressive on eSIM even if they were slow to VoLTE. My Pixel 3 moved to a physical SIM due to switching to T-Mobile 3 months before t…

i refuse to use pixel 10's for this reason.

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

#207

Post by a456463 »

gsuth wrote: post #114

The only eSIM issues I’ve had have been in the US. Some carriers use single-use eSIM QR-codes. So you need a new one for every swap. In Europe and Canada I’ve always been able to reuse the eSIM QR I got initially. Have I just been lucky or has anyone had problems outside the US?

This used to be possible, IIRC. Not anymore tho

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

#208

Post by Marsymars »

progval wrote: post #112
tzs wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can get adapters that support charging. An example is linked below. Note: I have not tried this. It is simply offered as an example to show they are available. https://www.amazon.com/Headphone-Charger-Charging-Earphones-...

Doesn't any such cable/adapter violate the USB-C spec? https://www.reddit.com/r/UsbCHardware/comments/10xj74r/why_d...

Depends how it's implemented.

USB-C extension cables aren't allowed, but pass-through charging is allowed. I suspect a $7 cable from a Chinese amazon seller is not spec-compliant, but e.g. Belkin sells a spec-compliant "3.5mm Audio + USB-C Charge Adapter".

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

#209

Post by digitalPhonix »

a456463 wrote: post #202
digitalPhonix wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can get the app and provision the esim in your home country, or use airport wifi?

not all airports have that. and even when they do I have had to fight to stay online or get online requiring entering email and clicking the link in the email before being granted online access.

What’s wrong with provisioning the esim in advance then? Android and iOS both support loading many (8?) esims and swapping the active one(s)

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

#210

Post by mbirth »

mikepurvis wrote: post #172
kiwijamo wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Note that if you just have a broken phone you don't need a new SIM, you just pop it out and pop it in the new phone. So 1min for a physical SIM vs 0-3 hours to create a new eSIM profile. I know which one will be faster. :)

Yes, that was the situation for me exactly, that basically if I lose or break my phone, I obviously have other devices that can access 1Password and my email, but I'm locked out of anything that requires SMS or an authenticator app to 2FA. Definitely made me feel that at the very least I should be getting a yubikey so that I can have authenticator codes across multiple devices.

Back when eSIM was relatively new, while upgrading to a newer iPhone, my wife’s eSIM didn’t get transferred over but still got deactivated on the old phone.

And the T-Mobile Germany portal to download a new eSIM required authentication via SMS to that now deactivated number. That was fun. (As they didn’t have an alternative procedures to provision eSIMs in place, we had to go visit a store to get a new physical SIM first and could then convert that to eSIM.)

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