For most people then, the best option will be to have a nano-SIM primary.
I say the opposite. There's no way I'm getting off the plane in Myanmar and signing up with a carrier through e-SIM. I think it's more likely I'll have my U.S. carrier through an e-SIM so I can throw in any old nano-SIM I pick up along the road.
(No way to get my cursor out of this quote block. Grrrr!)
Complicated as hell.Who needs this? Why can’t you just use a secondary dumb phone for abroad?
Why not use landlines? Phone booths are amazing. Or even better, telegrams? That is, of course, when you don't have a desk and paper available to write an old fashioned letter with a quill.
This is a good idea. I'm currently in the UK using AT&Ts overseas plan that costs $10 per day to have the same types of coverage as in the US. I've bought SIMs for use in the UK in the past but having an eSIM that is available whenever I need it will be ideal. What I don't know is what the best service is in the UK. Any recommendations welcome.
I have Verizon and have the same plan Doggone above has, $10 a day if I am in Costa Rica. That’s $300 a month and I don’t want to spend that. At the same time, I’d like occasional access to my US phone while abroad, for instance when I need to use two-factor authentication with my bank. I hate changing SIMs because I always lose them.
Is there a way to deactivate my eSIM when I don’t want to run up the charge?
Thanks for this. I have been wondering how it would work, although it's one of those features I likely won't have a need for.
My wife currently carries around 2 iPhones, 1 for work and 1 personal. She would love to upgrade and use the eSIM for her work number but I imagine that won't go over well with work. Her work iPhone is a managed device and I highly doubt they'll want her using her personal device for what she normally uses her work device for and basically losing control of if. We'll see…
This looks very well thought out.
Ha! Did you forget the sarcasm tag?
I’ll admit, I probably could have fleshed that out a little more.
In short, the company my wife works for issues her an iPhone. It has a profile installed and she doesn’t get a lot of control over what she can do, like install apps. They use their MDM to install the apps they want her to have, can wipe it remotely, etc.
She doesn’t love carrying around 2 devices, 1 work, 1 personal and would love to have a dual SIM phone to eliminate one. But I don’t see much of a compromise between her having the freedom she’s used to in a personal phone and the level of lock-down her company has on the work phone. So, as much as she would like carrying one phone I doubt it will happen anytime soon. And I imagine there are many people in a similar situation.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying a dual SIM phone is useless, quite on the contrary really. It just wouldn’t work in her scenario.
1) LOL No sarcasm in my comment. It's much better than I expected with the ability to have two active numbers with a physical and digital SIM. There are many additional options that I expect to see in the future.
2) If I was issuing work iPhones to employees and there was an option to let them use their personal device (so long as it was the right kind of device for our corporate apps) I'd be all about the savings. The company also gets to put responsibility of the iPhone getting lost, stolen, or damaged in the hands of the employee, but the employee doesn't have to carry two devices (which, from experience, is a pain).
There could be some logistical issues if you need to lock down certain aspects, but I think I could cover most of that with a well made app that required a passcode to enter after a restart and Face ID for other times. Can you do a remote wipe of an app through Apple's enterprise tools?
This being so new and corporations typically being slow to make changes I don't expect this to happen soon, but I can see it happening. Perhaps this will even lead to Apple making iOS 13 (or later) offering two spaces like Blackberry did. Perhaps Apple can design it so that their enterprise tool can completely setup the wallpaper, apps, and everything else available for the work space, and also let them remotely lock or erase that aspect of the iPhone if, say, the employee leaves. And with Face ID you can even have seamless security for the company when switching from your personal space to your work space without it being an inconvenience to the user. They might not even realize there is security when switching to the work space.
This is a good idea. I'm currently in the UK using AT&Ts overseas plan that costs $10 per day to have the same types of coverage as in the US. I've bought SIMs for use in the UK in the past but having an eSIM that is available whenever I need it will be ideal. What I don't know is what the best service is in the UK. Any recommendations welcome.
I'd go with an MVNO such as giffgaff, which is the one I use personally here in the UK. They lease their lines from O2 (one of the big daddy telcos which you probably know) but their prices are soooo much cheaper, and no contracts. £25 will get you a month of unlimited calls, texts and data (throttled after 20GB), but you can also select smaller packages if you don't need the "unlimited" allowances. Hope that helps.
Complicated as hell.Who needs this? Why can’t you just use a secondary dumb phone for abroad?
The reasons for wanting a dual sim phone are really too numerous to mention here. If you are an international traveller then you will know exactly how useful an extra Sim can be. In many airports around the world there are even vending machines that sell PAYG Sims for visitors. Who wants to pay $1.50/min (or more) to phone a number in the country where you are at that point in time? I don't and I'll bet you wouldn't want to either. Want to call for a Taxi/Uber? That will be $1.50/min and oh, Uber won't accept your booking as you don't have a local phone number.
Using one physical phone is also far more convenient that having two. I used to have two phones and it was a real PITA. Everyone is used to carry one phone. You pretty well know where it is without even thinking. That isn't the case with two phones. I had many instances where I forgot where the local phone was just when I needed it. So I bought a Samsung dual Sim phone in the Middle East. Problem solved. The one PITA remaining was the Samsung crud on the phone esp Facebook that could not be removed or disabled but that is another issue. I used that phone when working in Dubai, Kuwait, Saudi, Brazil, Argentina, S. Africa, India, Russia and a few other countries along the way.
When you say only 10 countries support eSIMs, do you really mean carriers? If I had a dual SIM iPhone [I currently have a OnePlus 3, with two physical SIMs, in México] and had an AT&T eSIM and a Telcel physical SIM, would the eSIM be supported for my US number? I am way out of contract and have no interest in starting another...
This seems unnecessarily complicated; or at least the explanation of it is.
When you say only 10 countries support eSIMs, do you really mean carriers? If I had a dual SIM iPhone [I currently have a OnePlus 3, with two physical SIMs, in México] and had an AT&T eSIM and a Telcel physical SIM, would the eSIM be supported for my US number? I am way out of contract and have no interest in starting another...
This seems unnecessarily complicated; or at least the explanation of it is.
the e-sim support is at carrier level. you’d have to check with your us carrier to see if they support it, and how they implement it ie qr code or app.
So people think about dual SIM's being for 2 countries. But what about if I have an ATT and a TMobile plan in the US and want to use both on one phone?
Wouldn't / couldn't I use an XS Max and have ATT be my primary and TM be my secondary?
Looks like I will continue to carry two phones when I travel abroad. Well unless I can get my hands on the Chinese model of XS Max.
Why would you rather spend what is probably around $2K USD on that iPhone or carry around two of them when you can just use an eSIM or carry an extra an extra physical SIM?
Looks like I will continue to carry two phones when I travel abroad. Well unless I can get my hands on the Chinese model of XS Max.
Why would you rather spend what is probably around $2K USD on that iPhone or carry around two of them when you can just use an eSIM or carry an extra an extra physical SIM?
I already have two phones. I don’t want to jump through hoops as described in the article. If it was easy I would do it. If Verizon would configure the eSim as my US number and I could put in a physical local Sim as needed fine, but it has to be seamless. If I receive an incoming call from the US it answers on the US number. If I make or receive a call on the foreign local number then it just works like it would using two phones. If not, I’m out.
i would have liked a new well featured SE so I could carry a second, smaller personal phone to get around the profile problem.
Agreed, I have an iPhone 8 as my main device and a Nokia dumbphone for my backup. When I'm in my work country the Nokia it has my home country SIM in it, when I'm travelling home or O/S I swap SIM's. I'd be much happier with one big and one small iPhone, but the SE just doesn't do it for me.
Comments
I've bought SIMs for use in the UK in the past but having an eSIM that is available whenever I need it will be ideal.
What I don't know is what the best service is in the UK. Any recommendations welcome.
Is there a way to deactivate my eSIM when I don’t want to run up the charge?
2) If I was issuing work iPhones to employees and there was an option to let them use their personal device (so long as it was the right kind of device for our corporate apps) I'd be all about the savings. The company also gets to put responsibility of the iPhone getting lost, stolen, or damaged in the hands of the employee, but the employee doesn't have to carry two devices (which, from experience, is a pain).
There could be some logistical issues if you need to lock down certain aspects, but I think I could cover most of that with a well made app that required a passcode to enter after a restart and Face ID for other times. Can you do a remote wipe of an app through Apple's enterprise tools?
This being so new and corporations typically being slow to make changes I don't expect this to happen soon, but I can see it happening. Perhaps this will even lead to Apple making iOS 13 (or later) offering two spaces like Blackberry did. Perhaps Apple can design it so that their enterprise tool can completely setup the wallpaper, apps, and everything else available for the work space, and also let them remotely lock or erase that aspect of the iPhone if, say, the employee leaves. And with Face ID you can even have seamless security for the company when switching from your personal space to your work space without it being an inconvenience to the user. They might not even realize there is security when switching to the work space.
In many airports around the world there are even vending machines that sell PAYG Sims for visitors.
Who wants to pay $1.50/min (or more) to phone a number in the country where you are at that point in time? I don't and I'll bet you wouldn't want to either. Want to call for a Taxi/Uber? That will be $1.50/min and oh, Uber won't accept your booking as you don't have a local phone number.
Using one physical phone is also far more convenient that having two. I used to have two phones and it was a real PITA. Everyone is used to carry one phone. You pretty well know where it is without even thinking. That isn't the case with two phones. I had many instances where I forgot where the local phone was just when I needed it.
So I bought a Samsung dual Sim phone in the Middle East. Problem solved. The one PITA remaining was the Samsung crud on the phone esp Facebook that could not be removed or disabled but that is another issue. I used that phone when working in Dubai, Kuwait, Saudi, Brazil, Argentina, S. Africa, India, Russia and a few other countries along the way.
the e-sim support is at carrier level. you’d have to check with your us carrier to see if they support it, and how they implement it ie qr code or app.
When end they take the wraps off their 5G network then they’ll need eSim for the areas they don’t cover.