This is a problem for somebody reviewing phones, but how much of a problem is it actually for the average user who will change phones once every few years? And will probably be doing so at a phone store where they can support it.
Those of us who swap SIMs when travelling are also affected. I travel outside my country several times a year and must say that eSIMs sound like a good idea until you actually deal with them. Spending vacation time debugging an eSIM is an annoying distraction.
It’s a software implementation though, so if you have a rooted phone or use another Android OS, you have limited options in apps that implement eSim for you.
OpenEUICC is a good one, but sometimes requires magisk modules to work.
I remember it took me half a day of fiddling to get my eSim working under Lineage.
People forget that your phone supporting “feature X” means that even though it has all the hardware to do X, it still needs to software, which might not be part of the devicetree.
For example paying for items with your phone’s NFC does not happen because of NFC capability. There are no open source solutions to Google Pay. It’s an agreement brokered between Google and Banks that allow the bankcard to be “cloned” and used via NFC, not the NFC doing any cloning of your actual bankcard
Much more likely to be the phone vendor not releasing this “absolutely basic functionality” to customisers. Some vendors hate their customers having freedoms.
I don’t think it was a basic problem, but something to do with vendor’s implementation of it not being in the device tree and so it could not just be copied over as a binary blob
It can, but both my Fairphone and old pixel could have a physical sim and an eSIM. I daily drive both with my old US number and my current EU number. Can’t have two active eSIM cards at once though
If eventually, that is every phone, then grab a hotspot and get tethering.
I did have a chuckle at the thought of having a cellphone for your (modded) cellphone… but then I thought about it: “meh, yeah… it’s not a bad idea. I’d do it.”
Well then goal achieved, custom roms will be even harder to use, and from when I’ve seen I’ve got every reason to belive that every phone will get to that point.
In most countries, getting a phone in a store is something done only by people happy to pay lots extra for a little human help, surely? The average user now signs up online and gets a phone in the mailbox.
If I asked my mom for her SIM card, she’d ask for her purse so she could attempt to find a credit card that doesn’t exist.
She has no idea how a phone works in any capacity. I’m not being insulting about it, I am informing you of blatant and honest truth.
My cousins, people my age are a hard maybe, I know two family members who went in-store recently. They treat their phones like cars. They use them and that’s as deep as it goes.
That’s not so informative without any idea of your age and thereby the ages of your examples.
Many of them could still follow the assembly/card insertion instruction sheet with pictures that comes in the mail from the phone company, even without knowing which part is called a SIM.
And maybe your area’s phone stores aren’t as notorious for overcharging as the UK’s.
I think it’s just highlighted by someone doing it regularly, it’ll happen the same % of times when someone else does it, maybe more since they don’t know the process.
I also don’t know how many people change phones in a store, I never have, but I’m not average. And even then, maybe a carrier store can help you, but I doubt the generic shop or branded supermarket can offer much support for an issue with a carrier.
I wonder how much of a problem it is when you lost the phone that had your eSIM. If the registration flow requires SMS authentication, how are your supposed to register your eSIM on your brand new phone?
I will never use an ESIM due to this. I have had by ass saved multiple times by being able to use a physical sim card when my device failed to work or i needed to be able to port a number.
My last phone went for a swim, I changed phones just be removing the sim card, and putting it in the replacement phone. Easy 20 second process vs an hour trying to argue with customer service that I am the account holder, and no I can’t receive a one time pin, the phone is toast then another 20-30 minutes of waiting for the towers to identify that the ICCID changed and that the new sim is actually allowed to communicate with them. The last time I changed my sim card on t-mobile, I didn’t have roaming data for almost 30 days due to desync between the USC towers and Tmobile on if I was actually authorized to use the tower or not.
Then back when I used MVNO’s it was even worse. Arguing over device compatibility and identification when you lost access to the device was like pulling teeth. The agents never understood that broken means broken, and despite saying 4 times the devices either don’t turn on or has no service, they still insist on trying to send a one time pin, because according to their end the phone is active on the tower somehow.
Then there’s benefits like when I put an s20 on total wireless 2 years before the company supported 5g devices due to the ability to use a physical sim. I upgraded to an s20 from an s9 after being told that both total wireless and red both supported 5g phones. Only to argue with both of them after I actually bought the device that they couldn’t actually activate/transfer it onto the device. I just took the 4g sim card (which they previously said would not work on the device), and threw it into the s20, and then used that until I eventually swapped to a first party carrier.
I could never use an ESIM, you lose way too much control over your device.
you are supposed to be able to have multiple, 1 or 2 of which can be active, and switch between them whenever you want.
but afaik that’s only possible on rooted phones with openeuicc or another app like it, because by default only google’s own app is allowed to handle esim configuration, and that has limitations in what it allows.
When traveling you can pre-purchase an E-SIM and already have it loaded to your phone in advance of landing - avoiding the whole airport SIM purchase shuffle, or he holding off on using your phone until you get to a convenience store, etc.
I use an E-SIM for my personal plan, saving the physical SIM for a work line.
Kind of like the jack. They say removing it does this or that but all it really did was save the corporation a couple cents and was overall a downgrade and removal of functionality for the average person.
This is a problem for somebody reviewing phones, but how much of a problem is it actually for the average user who will change phones once every few years? And will probably be doing so at a phone store where they can support it.
Those of us who swap SIMs when travelling are also affected. I travel outside my country several times a year and must say that eSIMs sound like a good idea until you actually deal with them. Spending vacation time debugging an eSIM is an annoying distraction.
I buy eSIMs every two months when I travel. I only had issues when I fucked it up by deleting one myself. I’m on eSIM like 20
Can’t your phone store multiple esims? I thought that was actually one of the selling points of the stuff.
It’s a software implementation though, so if you have a rooted phone or use another Android OS, you have limited options in apps that implement eSim for you.
OpenEUICC is a good one, but sometimes requires magisk modules to work.
I remember it took me half a day of fiddling to get my eSim working under Lineage.
People forget that your phone supporting “feature X” means that even though it has all the hardware to do X, it still needs to software, which might not be part of the devicetree.
For example paying for items with your phone’s NFC does not happen because of NFC capability. There are no open source solutions to Google Pay. It’s an agreement brokered between Google and Banks that allow the bankcard to be “cloned” and used via NFC, not the NFC doing any cloning of your actual bankcard
That’s not a problem with eSims, that’s just a problem with your custom ROM not shipping with absolutely basic functionality
Much more likely to be the phone vendor not releasing this “absolutely basic functionality” to customisers. Some vendors hate their customers having freedoms.
I don’t think it was a basic problem, but something to do with vendor’s implementation of it not being in the device tree and so it could not just be copied over as a binary blob
It can, but both my Fairphone and old pixel could have a physical sim and an eSIM. I daily drive both with my old US number and my current EU number. Can’t have two active eSIM cards at once though
This never happens
I haven’t been to a phone store in 15 years
I go to a phone store every time I get a new phone!
checks when my last phone was bought… 2018
I go to a phone store every six or seven years!
points at Lineage boot logo
not you
Speaking of Lineage…
I wonder, how long will it be before you’re not “allowed” to install esims on phones with custom firmware?
Either due to the esim application not installing/running on modified firmware, or the phone will just not allow it.
If that stops Lineage from being practical on that phone, then fuck that phone in particular.
If eventually, that is every phone, then grab a hotspot and get tethering.
We are well on our way. The EU is holding the manufacturer liable if a cellphone radio is “modded”, thus manufacturers are blocking the ability to unlock bootloaders.
I did have a chuckle at the thought of having a cellphone for your (modded) cellphone… but then I thought about it: “meh, yeah… it’s not a bad idea. I’d do it.”
Well then goal achieved, custom roms will be even harder to use, and from when I’ve seen I’ve got every reason to belive that every phone will get to that point.
In most countries, getting a phone in a store is something done only by people happy to pay lots extra for a little human help, surely? The average user now signs up online and gets a phone in the mailbox.
If I asked my mom for her SIM card, she’d ask for her purse so she could attempt to find a credit card that doesn’t exist.
She has no idea how a phone works in any capacity. I’m not being insulting about it, I am informing you of blatant and honest truth.
My cousins, people my age are a hard maybe, I know two family members who went in-store recently. They treat their phones like cars. They use them and that’s as deep as it goes.
That’s not so informative without any idea of your age and thereby the ages of your examples.
Many of them could still follow the assembly/card insertion instruction sheet with pictures that comes in the mail from the phone company, even without knowing which part is called a SIM.
And maybe your area’s phone stores aren’t as notorious for overcharging as the UK’s.
It is also a problem for us IT guys, when we need to migrate users from one phone to another it is super annoying to deal with eSIMs
That’s odd, I just swapped phones. Old phone was eSIM, it literally couldn’t have been easier.
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AI
I think it’s just highlighted by someone doing it regularly, it’ll happen the same % of times when someone else does it, maybe more since they don’t know the process.
I also don’t know how many people change phones in a store, I never have, but I’m not average. And even then, maybe a carrier store can help you, but I doubt the generic shop or branded supermarket can offer much support for an issue with a carrier.
I wonder how much of a problem it is when you lost the phone that had your eSIM. If the registration flow requires SMS authentication, how are your supposed to register your eSIM on your brand new phone?
My carrier supports TOTP for this.
The carrier can bypass that authentication, so basically the same process as if you had lost your physical sim. Show up at the shop in person with id.
I will never use an ESIM due to this. I have had by ass saved multiple times by being able to use a physical sim card when my device failed to work or i needed to be able to port a number.
My last phone went for a swim, I changed phones just be removing the sim card, and putting it in the replacement phone. Easy 20 second process vs an hour trying to argue with customer service that I am the account holder, and no I can’t receive a one time pin, the phone is toast then another 20-30 minutes of waiting for the towers to identify that the ICCID changed and that the new sim is actually allowed to communicate with them. The last time I changed my sim card on t-mobile, I didn’t have roaming data for almost 30 days due to desync between the USC towers and Tmobile on if I was actually authorized to use the tower or not.
Then back when I used MVNO’s it was even worse. Arguing over device compatibility and identification when you lost access to the device was like pulling teeth. The agents never understood that broken means broken, and despite saying 4 times the devices either don’t turn on or has no service, they still insist on trying to send a one time pin, because according to their end the phone is active on the tower somehow.
Then there’s benefits like when I put an s20 on total wireless 2 years before the company supported 5g devices due to the ability to use a physical sim. I upgraded to an s20 from an s9 after being told that both total wireless and red both supported 5g phones. Only to argue with both of them after I actually bought the device that they couldn’t actually activate/transfer it onto the device. I just took the 4g sim card (which they previously said would not work on the device), and threw it into the s20, and then used that until I eventually swapped to a first party carrier.
I could never use an ESIM, you lose way too much control over your device.
…how is that an improvement over physical SIM then ;D
you are supposed to be able to have multiple, 1 or 2 of which can be active, and switch between them whenever you want.
but afaik that’s only possible on rooted phones with openeuicc or another app like it, because by default only google’s own app is allowed to handle esim configuration, and that has limitations in what it allows.
When traveling you can pre-purchase an E-SIM and already have it loaded to your phone in advance of landing - avoiding the whole airport SIM purchase shuffle, or he holding off on using your phone until you get to a convenience store, etc.
I use an E-SIM for my personal plan, saving the physical SIM for a work line.
I think if I ever used ESIM I would do similar Physical sim for the primary line, ESIM for travel or temporary lines
AFAIK, the only ‘improvement’ is that it takes up less physical space.
Kind of like the jack. They say removing it does this or that but all it really did was save the corporation a couple cents and was overall a downgrade and removal of functionality for the average person.
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It’s not a physical SIM—the E
Ah yes, obviously. And the author mentioned going to the store in his article.