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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

#241

Post by presentation »

otterley wrote: post #234
raron wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The major advantage is now that the expensive and time-consuming part of provisioning a new mobile service (sending out a physical SIM card) I don't know, choosing service package, signing paperwork, identifying and other KYC stuff (tens of minutes) for me was always much more time-consuming than the few seconds of reading the barcode(?) from a new SIM card and giving it to the customer (or putting it into an autom…

> I can't see any advantage of eSIMs They are incredibly handy when you are traveling abroad, you don't speak the local language fluently, you want cheap data, you don't want to study 100 different prepaid plans from 10 different local primary and MVNO carriers to figure out the best offer, you don't want to wait for the shops to open because your flight landed late at night, and you don't want to scan your passport…

Yeah, basically people here think that their experience is the only experience there is with phones. I wager not that many people are actually physically going to stores in many markets anymore like this commenter, and definitely next to nobody is switching their SIM cards literally every month like a sibling commenter is doing, but for people like me who live and travel abroad, eSIMs have been great.

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

#242

Post by ValentineC »

decimalenough wrote: post #236
ValentineC wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I can get a year of roaming across 120 countries for around US$15. Which plan is this? That sounds pretty awesome to have handy at all times. I'm assuming it's probably just 1GB or so though.

https://www.amaysim.com.au/international/roaming A$25 gets you 2GB for a year, there are beefier versions too.

Looks like that's on top of the monthly subscription fee, so I guess it only makes sense for someone wanting an Australia number on top of it.

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

#243

Post by ffsm8 »

renewiltord wrote: post #235
starkparker wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Odd how it works out, but my work Pixel 8 on Google Fi forgets its eSIM about once every three Android updates. Usually takes 15 minutes to an hour to work itself out, with no indication as to what happened or why. Turned me off completely from eSIM-only devicess and Google Fi for personal use. Hell, as I write this my on-call phone just notified me that its eSIM isn't valid. Good thing I'm not on call yet!

Classic Google. I’ve used the eSIM on iPhone flawlessly across numerous countries for 8+ years now. It’s typical that their stuff wouldn’t work on their own hardware.

I've been using esim only for years on my pixel 8 too, with no issues related to them at any point

I suspect all issues are ultimately caused by the carriers, not the esim technology itself.

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

#244

Post by thaumasiotes »

tscherno wrote: post #184
AlexandrB wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google authenticator lets you move accounts easily using a QR code + phone camera.

But no way to backup to cold storage last time I checked. Took a picture of the QR code with another phone and printed it.

> Took a picture of the QR code with another phone and printed it.

Why? Decode the QR code and store the text however you prefer to store text.

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

#245

Post by ffsm8 »

TacticalCoder wrote: post #232
walidthedream wrote: post #32

I am quite annoyed by the people who don't see the issue with eSim because "they never had an issue" with it. It's like having one murder down your block and stating that you don't see the issue because nobody attempted to murder you so far. ESim are backed up as part of iCloud backups, had one dodgy carrier in Europe (Lyca) who never activated my eSim so I switched back to a new carrier but I had to get a transfer a…

> I am quite annoyed by the people who don't see the issue with eSim because "they never had an issue" with it. It's like having one murder down your block and stating that you don't see the issue because nobody attempted to murder you so far. TBH that's most people on most subjects. First one that comes to mind: "I'm an honest citizen and never did anything wrong and never had a bank account frozen, hence it never h…

But all of the issues people cite wrt esim have in some way been mentioned years ago too, just in relation with regular sim cards.

Seriously, the tech is massively over vilified in this thread. You can get issues, but the alternative isn't perfect either

It's partly luck and partly choosing high trust carriers what gets you a stable experience.

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

#246

Post by venusenvy47 »

ajb wrote: post #162
Youden wrote: post #144

For what it's worth, this is entirely a carrier problem and has little to do with the technology. Various people and the article have outlined some bad experiences but to give a contrasting example: Digital Republic, a local MVNO here in Switzerland, allows you to replace your eSIM by simply logging into their web portal with TOTP-based 2FA and clicking a button. No SMS, no contact with support, no reidentification.…

The flaw with the technology is that it is designed so you need the co-operation of your carrier, when previously you did not. Indeed, for the first versions moving a sim profile could not even be initiated independently by a user, but required them to contact support. Now there is the "device change" protocol which can be triggered by an app on the phone, but I think it still requires the co-operation of carrier ser…

This is especially bad in the US, where the government doesn't like to force companies to implement consumer-friendly laws. It was such a great thing when GSM SIMs were introduced, to avoid the carrier lock that was so common in the early days of cell phones.

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

#247

Post by coderatlarge »

ValentineC wrote: post #125
coderatlarge wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

this carrier approval to move esim problem is more generalized on modern “smartphones”. unless you opt in to cloud providers holding your data there is no easy way afaik to migrate your authenticator apps to another phone. and a host of other authentication/authorization data is tied to the device in an opaque way. don’t get me started on apple’s unpredictable model of sending 2fa to some other “trusted” device which…

> unless you opt in to cloud providers holding your data there is no easy way afaik to migrate your authenticator apps to another phone. You could self-host Bitwarden/Vaultwarden, or something like that. > don’t get me started on apple’s unpredictable model of sending 2fa to some other “trusted” device which means tou never know what tou need to bring with you. I think they send 2FA to all supported devices on one's…

i just ran into a situation activating a new device in which apple were trying to send to a device i had forgotten to “properly” remove from that icloud account.

and also another situation in which the 2fa code would flash on the remote device and disappear in a fraction of a second. i eventually captured it with screen recording but every time i did it the code was not accepted.

my conclusion: apple had silently ruled that i would not be allowed to activate using that particular icloud account. no idea why. i tried a different one and things went through ok.

arbitrary power in practice.

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

#248

Post by coderatlarge »

thaumasiotes wrote: post #244
tscherno wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But no way to backup to cold storage last time I checked. Took a picture of the QR code with another phone and printed it.

> Took a picture of the QR code with another phone and printed it. Why? Decode the QR code and store the text however you prefer to store text.

i wish there were a straightforward way to export a file of some sort that i can backup without creating yet another special case to manage.

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

#249

Post by coderatlarge »

AlexandrB wrote: post #97
coderatlarge wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

this carrier approval to move esim problem is more generalized on modern “smartphones”. unless you opt in to cloud providers holding your data there is no easy way afaik to migrate your authenticator apps to another phone. and a host of other authentication/authorization data is tied to the device in an opaque way. don’t get me started on apple’s unpredictable model of sending 2fa to some other “trusted” device which…

Google authenticator lets you move accounts easily using a QR code + phone camera.

that’s good to know thanks but creates more special cases to manage if i just want to backup my stuff so i can manually recover when i need to (on lost device say).

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

#250

Post by wolvoleo »

Totally agree. I swap phones a lot and it's a nightmare with eSIM. For example I sometimes use an old phone when I go hiking or to a big festival. Better to have that stolen or broken. Some providers even charge money every time you swap.

Also, if I would drop my phone and break it I can simply remove the SIM and stick it in a backup phone. Can't do that with an esim either without the carrier cooperating.

Luckily all my current used phones still have two sim slots. It's something I select for but I'm sure eventually it will become harder.

Sure for a one month travel SIM it's super handy but I don't want it for my main number.

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