eSIM was supposed to replace SIM cards, but carriers turned it into a trap
(www.howtogeek.com)
Lee Duna
TechnologyI use an eSIM because it's the only way to have dual lines with my phone. Are there still phones that have 2 physical SIM slots for dual lines?
As an IT guy, I have to say that eSIMs have been way more annoying than normal SIMs since the start.
With a physical card, I can just pop it out and move it to another phone, with eSIMs I have to mess with the software, and usually issue a new eSIM when people are moving devices.
When traveling, I had an option to get SIM or eSIM during my stay. My phone already had a sim and SD card so I opted in for an eSIM.
It didnt work. Well, at least it didnt straight away. Technically, should work out of the box but it didnt. Troubleshooted for so long until I gave my phone to a worker who issued me my eSIM. After 5 minutes it worked. Not sure what she has done and what I havent. I was following instructions given 1 to 1 and it just couldnt work.
Nah. I am keeping my physical SIM. As you have stated, it is as simple as popping it in a device. Nothing to setup, troubleshoot or tinker. Just works OOB.
And that assumes it's free.
Some carriers will charge you for a new eSIM.
Oh, you want more funny shit? My carrier charges €4 for a physical SIM, but €8 for eSIM.
Another carrier around here even offers you a new SIM for free when signing up. But if you want eSIM, that's €10. Oh, and yeah, the code you get is single use. Want to move to another phone? You need a replacement eSIM. That's another €10 because fuck you.
Your carrier just sucks 🤷♂️
I've never once been charged for a SIM with an active sub.
Seems to be accepted in Slovakia. 3 out of 4 carriers charge for eSIM.
I bought an old surface pro 5 specifically for formatting and exporting tracks to usb for my dj decks because Pioneer are cunts and refuse to help make their software functional on Linux, even through wine. It detects if it's being run in a vm or through wine and refuses to work.
Anyway, it came with an eSIM and even though it was wiped the eSIM persists. I've not been able to figure out how to get rid of it. One drunken night I think I got close but was told the sys-admin needed to approve the removal. 🤷♂️
This is exactly why I want a regular SIM. I use an unlocked phone and can mostly just drop a new SIM in while traveling. It's like people forgot that GSM was designed in part with consumer freedom in mind.
Same thing with the cluster that is VoLTE support between carriers.
Isn't "I can move my phone between countries and carriers without worrying" something that was mostly sorted out in the 3G days?
Show me a piece of tech that Big Tech hasn't turned into a tool for customer capture, privacy invasion or advertisement in the last 25 years...
Still works like a charm!
The author seems to have a rather idealistic view of this. At best eSIMs were a way to cut costs for the manufacturer by leaving out the SIM slot, socket, and supporting circuitry. They were always supposed to be a trap for the user though.
eSIM promised frictionless switching, but carriers kept the friction
They never promised frictionless switching. Whereas with physical SIMs you just remove one and either put it in a new phone, or replace it with a new SIM, eSIMs require interacting with the carrier to coordinate pushing the config to the phone, with all the attendant headache, and additional friction, of doing so.
Moving your number between phones is now more complicated
Well, yes, you no longer have control of the process.
The idea is still good, but the ecosystem isn’t ready
The idea was never good, but the ecosystem is exactly where carriers want it. The extra hassle "encourages" users not to make changes.
and supporting circuitry
As far as it seems, that one should be the same. Just with the chip soldered-on instead of having a SIM slot.
Here's a guide on XDA forum on how you can just solder eSIM chip onto regular SIM contact pads and manage the eUICC with OpenEUICC Magisk module on OnePlus 11.
Osmocom reports some devices may recognize it as internal eUICC if the OS has LPA software.
By the way, there's also lpa-gtk, based on lpac which allows use of eSIM on some Linux phones.
I just had to buy a new phone because the SIM reader of my old one stopped working and the repair fee was exorbitant. Esim would have been great.
Never ZenFone again.
I dropped my "old" (less than 2 years 😭) Pixel and shattered the screen. As I can't go about without a smartphone I had to get a replacement ASAP. Of course I had eSIM there. I couldn't access my old phone because I can't see anything on its screen (I actually hooked it up to my monitor and was able to navigate to some extent by guessing where to tap, but it's cumbersome and I often miss-tap). Moving the eSIM to my new Pixel required me to contact my carrier's customer support. I thought it would be an easy process, where I simply log in to my customer portal and carry out the procedure there by myself. Nope. Also, I learned that the first transfer is free of charge, but I will have to pay the next time. What? :/
Just plug in a mouse and you will have a cursor on the screen.
Not a bad idea :) I use a Logitech mouse connected via their proprietary dongle which is in my PC, but I guess it might work if I plugged it into my monitor. I will remember that. Thanks.
I’m curious what friction they’re talking about. Except for the Saily ad in the middle, there no actual information about what they want changed and from what. My experiences switching eSIMS have all been seamless, but I’m still curious how extremely wealthy carrier companies fuck it up
