Technology

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.

Nice to see another feature getting removed to make phones slimmer which is necessary because of uhh... 'Cuz the uh... You know that thing that uh...

eSIM is really hard to change device in Taiwan due to government (NCC Department) "instructions" (that carrier sometimes misinterpreted it):

• Can not transfer by yourself, you need to go to carrier to transfer.
• 300 NTD (~10 USD) per move (can be waived under some cases)
• Might deny if you move too often recently.
• ~~And now (actually start few days ago), you need to show proof of purchase (or gift) of the target device. Carrier can deny if you fail to do so, and they'll say they're following government instructions.~~ NCC said it should not be applied to eSIM as it's one-time use only, but such rule already executed for few days and caused troubles for some people.

So physical SIM is more flexible here. (For now)

EDIT: NCC Department said the instructions are just suggestions, carrier should do KYC properly, but how all major ones do the same annoying stuff is beyond me...

EDIT 2: NCC Department clarified the new KYC instructions. (Chinese) 媒體揭露KYC指引相關報導恐有誤解，NCC今日邀集三大電信業者溝通說明，持續滾動因應實務情形

The screen died on my wife's iPhone, fine I have other spare iPhones aplenty she can switch to. But at some point she had accepted a prompt on the iPhone to switch to eSIM so we couldn't just move a physical SIM over, you had to go through the "transfer eSIM" menus, which we couldn't do because the screen was dead. The only option the carrier gave us was going to a physical store.

I'm never switching my main carrier to eSIM, what a PITA for absolutely no upside.

(they're great for throwaway travel SIMs though)

For me the main benefit of eSIMs is they allow multiple numbers on a single phone which is super handy.

Reading the article though, and I think the described problem is entirely the fault of the carrier and not the design of eSIMs. The carrier should have allowed alternative verification methods (email, online account, in-person at store) other than just sending a text to the disabled number.

When a mobile carrier needs to verify your identity for an account change, they all do the same thing: send a text message. And what happens if you don’t have a working SIM? That’s right—nothing. Without access to my account or phone number, I was stuck with no way to download a new eSIM. The only course of action was to go to a physical store to download an electronic SIM card. What should have been 30 seconds of fiddling with a piece of plastic turned into an hour standing around a retail storefront.

It's like everyone forgot what a pain in the ass it used to be when Verizon was cdma and didn't use sim cards.

I don't think a physical SIM is a guarantee that the phone number remains intact. The SIM is a token in the system that links a piece of hardware to a phone number and that link is maintained by the carrier. My phone spontaneously stopped being able to make calls and receive SMS. I went through the usual steps to rectify it but no dice. The carrier had to manually reconnect my number because it had become a victim of their periodic cull of disused numbers. Took quite a few calls over a period days to achieve this. 'yes I have turned it off and on...' ad nauseum.

Fucking duh.
Carriers fucking suck in every metric possible, you have to be insane to want to get their shitty support and shitty apps involved in anything more than the strictly necessary

All of the bad parts of esim are the fault of the carriers in my experience. I'm on a MVNO that created their own method of generating a new esim and moving the number via their website and app and it is painless for the most part.

They only let you do it 4 times a billing cycle though without talking to customer service. Which I suspect is the fault of the upstream carrier somehow.

And for people that don't want proprietary carrier apps on there phone? Don't have WiFi, so you can't download the virtual sim? On a OS that isn't Google or Apple?

The worst thing is how a normal SIM now costs 60$ with most providers here

I love eSIM because one day on the bus I was tired of AT&T speeds being shit in my commute, so I decided to switch carriers. By the time I walked home from the bus, I was done releasing my number and setting up my new eSIM to my new carrier and immediately got faster speeds. It just worked.

I completely understand if you’re changing numbers all the time it could be annoying, but it was just a simple activation for me.

eSIM sounds good on paper, but the implementation is horrible. You should be able to easily back them up. Also I expected to be able to have many many eSIMs rather than be limited to one or two.

I've actually just had my eSIM decision backfire on me.

I switched months ago and hadn't had an issue until I got ready to go to an airport last week. I figured I'd be able to switch off the eSIM and switch on Airplane Mode so my phone could essentially be an offline iPod, but when I landed and tried turning it back on it didn't work. I then found people discussing the same issue on their phones (GrapheneOS + Pixel 7) and really regretted messing with it.

My carrier's account login hilariously requires an SMS 2FA to the phone number that's been yeeted from existence and since I've been staying with in-laws this Christmas I'm not willing to sit on hold for however many hours to recover my account till I get home.

what's worse: none of my trusty backup phones support eSIM. so when my eSIM phone dies, i'm pretty much fucked until i buy a new one. :/

I don't use eSIM most of the time but when I travel and I don't want roaming, damn it's nice. I just go on Airalo or Saily, pick a destination, pay something like 20 bucks and get the data. I load it up on my phone, travel, land and voila, works right away while I'm still on my way through customs. No WiFi needed, no "quick" trip to a random shop or a large provider that'll try to upsell whatever. I just land, connect, use my VPN and voila.

Also if your phone doesn't support eSIM you can use https://jmp.chat/esim-adapter

I think I'd be fine if I had to use eSIM (when I get a new phone every few years, I touch the SIM exactly once to move it to the new phone and then forget it even exists until the next phone).

I still like having a physical SIM though and haven't converted it, even though I could. I like the idea that, if my phone dies, I can easily switch it into a new phone (even someone else's). I don't think I've ever done that, at least not since the days of dumb phones with limited/expensive plans, but I like to know I could. The only downside is that I have to enter the SIM PIN if I restart my phone.