For the past three generations of theiPhone, Apple has stood alone in a particular area: eSIMs. Apple made a shift that many had anticipated since the first eSIM was launched in 2016, dropping the physical SIM card tray from theiPhone 14.
Except, this was only in the US, as the company bowed to pressure from carriers to go eSIM-only, and every iPhone since has followed suit just in the US. This is likely to continue with theiPhone 17 seriesnext month, including theiPhone 17 Air, but now Apple won’t be alone as Google has joined the party.
The newPixel 10,Pixel 10 Pro, andPixel 10 Pro XLall lack a SIM card tray in the US, but thePixel 10 Pro Foldstill retains it. This split strategy approach, coupled with the pain of activating eSIMs without engaging the carrier or when traveling, further muddies the mess that is eSIMs.
It’s time for the industry to decide on a standard and stick to it. We either go all-in on eSIMs or return to including a SIM card tray in every phone. The current approach doesn’t work, and it’s up to the big three phone makers to decide which direction to go.
The current state of eSIMs and physical SIMs
I remember phones with mini SIMs, microSIMs, and the current nanoSIMs used by most SIM cards today. Most phones released since 2015 have used the nanoSIM standard, and while the industry was quick to transition to the nanoSIM standard, it’s been much slower to take the final step.
When eSIMs were first introduced, the promise was of a global standard that would make it easy to activate a new SIM card when you land in a new country. Industry alliances promised that it would usher in an era where your SIM card could easily move from phone to phone or you could switch between networks with just a few taps.
In practice, eSIMs are far more complicated right now. Most major carriers globally support eSIMs, especially as virtually every phone now supports adding an eSIM, but not all carriers support eSIMs for prepaid clients. Some require you to seek further customer service, download apps for activation, or follow other convoluted procedures.
Even if you’re a paying postpaid customer, the process of switching SIM cards can be considerably far from the initial promises. Then there’s the process of transferring eSIMs between phones, with some carriers supporting it and others requiring their intervention or some form of registration. If you’re switching from Android to iOS or vice versa,
If eSIMs are to be the true future of cellular connectivity — and as you’ll read below, I hope it does — then the status quo won’t suffice. Instead, we need to force carriers globally to put their own interests aside to build a global eSIM standard that every carrier can support, so eSIMs can finally live up to their promise.
Why carriers and phone makers love eSIM-only phones
The main reason carriers love eSIM-only phones is that it makes adding a second SIM card much harder. This directly increases loyalty and revenue per customer, especially if they keep their smartphones locked for the duration of any device finance agreement, making it challenging to unlock the phone once it’s paid off.
These customer frustrations are designed to ensure it’s just hard enough to leave the network, whether temporarily while traveling, or permanently in search of pastures new. Yet, some of the core reasons customers may want an eSIM are for travel, and carriers have taken considerable steps to make it less necessary.
For years, carriers in the US and the UK (where I have extensive experience) made it so costly to travel abroad that seeking a local SIM card for data was the preferred way to travel. Now, the big three carriers all include roaming for free or at a fixed daily rate with a monthly cap, so there’s no bill shock once you return home.
Add in the frustration of finding a carrier store in a foreign country that supported prepaid eSIMs, and the ability to also make and receive calls on your main phone number, and the ease and safety of traveling with your home SIM card becomes more appealing than jumping through hoops to get around it.
Of course, the ubiquity of eSIMs has made it effortless to add a new SIM card for data (or for calls, texts, and data) when you travel, and apps likeAiralo, Holafly, and Sallymake it easy to install a new SIM card. Yet, they won’t always work; you have to prepay for data, and you’ll still be charged for any incoming or outgoing calls, texts sent, and data usage on your main SIM card if it’s turned on. The answer is clear: we need one global standard.
Why I hope eSIMs become the dominant standard
I hate the current state of eSIMs, but I love eSIMs as I often have 4 or 5 eSIM profiles installed on a single phone. I have over 14 active SIM cards from around the world — yes, I know it’s an obscene amount, and yes, it’s hard to keep track of them all — and more than half are installed as eSIMs.
However, of the nine installed as eSIMs, only four can be easily switched between phones, and only two can easily migrate betweeniOSandAndroid, or vice versa. That makes for just 15% that has delivered on the initial promise of eSIMs.
Of course, things could stay like they are now, but then eSIMs wouldn’t achieve their promise. In particular, it wouldn’t be straightforward to access eSIMs in any country, and notable holdouts like China would take longer to support the standard. However, China has finally begun issuing eSIM licenses to the country’s phone makers, so it’s slowly moving in the right direction.
At the same time, if all phones go eSIM only, carriers will have to improve the customer experience. Suppose a specific carrier requires engaging customer service. In that case, the costs of acquiring a customer will be astronomical, and senior management would quickly adopt self-serve solutions rather than see a large increase in overhead expenses.
The same applies to carriers who don’t support prepaid customers or have certain requirements; any obstacle to eSIM customers will be quickly resolved when eSIMs are the only choice. Perhaps then, eSIMs will be as useful as we were promised they would be.
