[thedays]

eSIMs are less convenient and less flexible than regular SIM cards - will iSIMs be any different?

How many iSIMs will a phone support? Will they support dual iSIMs or triple iSIMs so I can use one mobile number for work, another for my personal life and a third to use when I'm travelling overseas and want to avoid expensive roaming charges?

[asimpletune]

I’m not sure what you’re talking about. I know people who traveled for months, and they have half a dozen eSIMs on their phone. When they enter one of those countries, they just toggle the sim to active and it’s good to go. They do this all the while having a USA physical sim as well. This on iPhone btw.

[zarzavat]

Okay but how do you get local prices if there is no local eSIM? The best you can hope for is a travel SIM which may be multiple times more expensive than a local SIM.

[asimpletune]

If you can’t find one then i guess you can’t get local prices, but I’ve never had a problem getting an esim, including in Albania and Turkey. You just go to the a carrier store and you ask, scan a QR code, and you’re done. Most of the time the big cities that you would arrive in anyways will have them.

[MrBuddyCasino]

At least on the iPhone you can add many and activate two simultaneously. Most phones weren’t dual-sim!

[MisterSandman]

Which is awesome, but it also means that dual-sim capabilities is completely software based. In 10-20 years, could this be part of a subscribption, or be disabled by certain carriers who don't want you to use a cheaper data plan along with their sim?

[MrBuddyCasino]

They could have demanded this from physical dual-sim models as well. There is always some kind of software involved.

[mschuster91]

Dual-SIM phones were the hot shit for years when phones were beginning to take off. I remember some weird adapters that cycled through SIMs when the phone was restarted and all kinds of other hacks.

[gambiting]

I mean, all top end Samsungs are proper dual SIM phones still(they take two physical Sims). #1 reason why I'm still buying them and not any other brand. iPhones also support dual SIM but only with one physical card and one eSIM.

[pmontra]

Also not top end ones. Example, the Samsung A40, a mid range sub 300 EUR phone. There is plenty of space for SIMs in nowadays' ridiculously sized phones.

[coretx]

You don't even need Dual-SIM phones, contemporary SIM can contain various numbers/administrations. Both with and without hackery involved. It's just that the carriers don't want it / block it. This is also why many of them outright refuse to sell phones with dual SIM capability.

[mschuster91]

> This is also why many of them outright refuse to sell phones with dual SIM capability.

At least here in the EU, carriers don't follow typical US customs any more... a series of court verdicts following the 2005 commerce directive has all but eliminated SIM locking and other hostile practices by carriers, the worst you (unfortunately) still get is bloatware.

[krzyk]

eSIMs are more convenient - few days ago I changed carriers, and it was done just on the phone - I didn't have to go to physical store, I didn't had to wait for the SIM card to arrive by mail.

The only issue I can see is that I can't take that card out and put it in a USB modem to use in my router. But I have seperate SIM for that, that has cheaper data plan than my ordinary phone.

[jplona]

Why are eSIMs less convenient for you?

In all of the interactions I've had, eSIM works without issue and right away. Most of the times I've needed a physical SIM card I've had to wait for it to be mailed or plan a trip to a physical store, or the old one is the wrong size and I need a new one or an adapter.

[gambiting]

I can swap sims in about 30 seconds. With eSim I need to ask my carrier for a new eSim registration code to be generated which takes 48 hours. It's insane and I have no idea why we agreed to this standard.

[IshKebab]

Sounds like an issue with your carrier rather than the eSIM standard. I recently went to Europe and was able to buy a cheap data eSIM (1GB for £2) and activate it in the airport basically instantly.

With SIMs I would have had to order it through the post like a week in advance, and there's no way I would have gotten that price.

eSIMs are amazingly convenient for travelling: https://esimdb.com/

[jplona]

I think "insane" is a strong characterization.

I swap SIMs every couple of years, so a delay of 48h is well within the scope of planning for such an event. Additionally, I happened to do an eSIM swap today and it took about an hour.

For some use cases it's more convenient than a physical card, for some use cases (or implementations) it's less convenient. That doesn't make it insane.

[thedays]

I find eSIMs are less convenient as:

- there are far less providers that support eSIM and the ones that do generally charge more than providers that also support a standard SIM

- it’s often not possible to create a new account using an eSIM. I’ve had to buy a physical SIM and then go through a complicated transfer process and have to either wait on hold for a long time or go into a store to swap over to an eSIM with two different providers.

Most physical SIM cards these days come as a 3-in-1 that fits standard, micro and nano sizes so the size incompatibility issues seem to be mostly fixed in my country at least.

[i_love_cookies]

at&t refuses to give me a esim for the pixel6 i bought though them on the same account

the concept itself is fine the implementation is a downgrade since it gives the carriers more control

[kayodelycaon]

If you can find a corporate AT&T store in your local area, they should be able to help you. The franchise stores weren’t able to do this last time I dealt with this.

[roneythomas6]

Well just call any at&t store near you and ask them if they have eSIM and don't use their online chat for it. I had at&t eSIM on a Pixel not bought from them.