> not only is eSIM a way for operators to impose restrictions on unlocked pre-paid phones
Are you outside the US? I've used eSIM on iOS many times with a number of carriers and MVNOs and never noticed a fee (unless you're talking about a postpaid carrier's line activation fee, usually around $36, not related to esim or not)
It's not only the fee. eSIM simply needs too many entities to cooperate just so you don't have to look for a paper clip.
An eSIM only phone could have a bigger battery, if the manufacturer replaces the sim tray with a larger battery. That’s what Apple has done in the iPhone 17 series released last week. The US versions are eSIM only, and have better battery life.
That’s a trade a lot of people would gladly make.
The iPhone 17 in the UK still has the SIM tray, something I'm glad about. Knowing I can pull the SIM and slot it into my old iPhone 8 where there is no eSim support is valuable to me.
And how about knowing that it takes a minute to swap a physical sim and there is no server to take its sweet time and at worst not respond like for eSIM?
Say you arrive somewhere where your regular provider doesn't have signal so you get a prepaid sim from the one provider that does have signal. How do you install it if it's an eSIM? You don't have connectivity on your regular.
> Say you arrive somewhere where your regular provider doesn't have signal so you get a prepaid sim from the one provider that does have signal. How do you install it if it's an eSIM?
One, you can plan ahead. Two, most of those spots have Wi-fi for this purpose.
There are legitimate reasons to prefer a physical SIM. This isn't one.
I just think your mountain holidays aren't remote enough :)
I'm not saying your scenario is unrealistic. I'm just saying it's avoidable. I'll generally buy an eSim, if I need it, before taking off for my destination. In the cases where I forgot and was somewhere I couldn't get it, the SIM vendor let me hotspot to activate.
Only time I’ve used an eSIM was a potential problem with roaming on our corporate deal (was supped to be free roaming but they stop said $1.80 a meg) when I landed in New York. I was connecting before we’d finished taxiing.
I have no idea where to get a local sim from, but it would mean I wouldn’t have my normal phone number (unless I had a phone with two physical sims - very rare), and presumably would have had to find a shop at 3 am body clock time and 10pm local time. Maybe there was one post customs, I don’t know as I was autopiloting to the taxi.
>a phone with two physical sims - very rare
...? - they are literally the norm in Android land nowadays, it's only Apple that INSISTS upon a single SIM or, in third-world variants, two eSIMs.
People can buy roaming and travel sims before they travel and have them delivered to them and activated.
In Europe, in the past it used to cost about 5€ and there was a limitation on the amount of swaps.
As it is nowadays, I am not up to date.
Bouygues France still charged a 10€ fee as of September 2024. Didn't need to move it to another phone though, so I don't know how that works.
That 10 € fee is exactly the cost they would have charged for a physical SIM, shipping included.
Bouygues was one of the companies lamenting the change. They viewed it as a "loss of connection with their customers", whatever that means. I haven't set foot in a phone store in I don't even remember how long, but at least 10 years, so I have no idea what the hell they're talking about.
Read it as: "we wouldn't be able to use our physical stores and physical SIM card distribution as an advantage anymore".
Makes it harder to sell a SIM card along with a new phone, or upsell an entire new phone to someone who wants a SIM card.
eSIM profiles also cost money in a sense - there’s a cost per-profile generated and per download usually from the eSIM personalization provider.