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by kalleboo 1205 days ago
eSIM is good when the carrier does a good job of it, but it's terrible when the carrier does a bad job. There are carriers where any change to eSIM must be called in and you have to talk to a rep, where it takes hours to issue, etc.

Basically we're going back to the USA-style CDMA days where the carrier is in full control of your experience, which worries me.

I agree they're great for the use case of just buying a travel eSIM and activating that.
1 comments
World177 1205 days ago
> There are carriers where any change to eSIM must be called in and you have to talk to a rep, where it takes hours to issue, etc.

There's also now the option to just keep your primary phone number on a cheap plan, and have multiple other eSIMs for data usage. There's no longer the problem with having to contact a carrier to switch data plans if used in this way.

Though, hopefully in time they will improve the experience anyway.

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vanilla_nut 1205 days ago
I use Google Fi in the US, which offers (unlimited?) data-only SIMs for no cost in addition to my phone number-associated SIM.

What exactly did eSIM enable here? With dual SIM phones, you can even put one data SIM and one number SIM in a single phone at the same time. Plus it's simple and easy to move either SIM to any other SIM-compatible device at any time.

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World177 1205 days ago
> What exactly did eSIM enable here?

Some examples include

* Backup service in the event that an attacker gains access to your Google Fi account. A backup eSIM with data service for a year has pricing starting at like $2.

* Fast network access in other countries. As far as I know, Google Fi is a carrier in the United States, and does not include network access in other countries.

* Deprioritized on data? The ability to instantly buy a major carrier eSIM and have the data speeds back.

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tssva 1205 days ago
> * Fast network access in other countries. As far as I know, Google Fi is a carrier in the United States, and does not include network access in other countries.

Google Fi offers network access in over 200 countries.

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World177 1205 days ago
You are correct. [1]

[1] https://fi.google.com/about/international-rates

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