chi9741

If you want to understand why an eSim is terrible for consumers, you only need to look at the iPad that has an eSim built in. 

When I land in London, the only local carrier available on the eSim is EE. I cannot choose Vodafone, O2, or any other local carrier because they do not have an arrangement with Apple. That’s right, your phone’s manufacturer will be able to dictate what carriers and plans are available for their device. 

When roaming today, I purchase a local sim and have the exact same choices and service as any local customer. With an eSim, the manufacturer and carrier can arrange to make only throttled or more expenive plans available to visitors. 

An eSim puts the phone’s manufacturer between the customer and the carrier and will likely limit consumer choice and increase prices. 

Swapping a physical sim gives me unlimited freedom to change carriers as I please. With an eSim, I will be limited only to the choices Apple provides for me based on the deals they make with each carrier. Let’s also keep in mind that there would be nothing stopping your carrrier or device manufacturer from charging you an activation or “service swapping” fee. 

This is not a hardware issue. It is a business issue. I will only use phone with a physical sim for as long as I can to make sure I am in control of the service I purchase. 

You cannot get a LOCAL prepaid / pay as you go plan on an eSIM in most of the world.

Let me clarify why this is a problem for travelers. Yes, you can get data plans on eSIM that work while you travel but these are through MVNO operators that piggyback on local networks. They can be challenging to get setup, performance can be inconsistent, and you need to register on their app and be tracked, usually pay more than a local plan, and if something goes wrong it can be difficult to get corrected. Additionally, most of these services do not include a local phone number.

This is all more stress than is needed.

Many of us that travel prefer to go to a local mobile service provider, purchase a prepaid / pay as you go SIM, and pop it in our phone. Usually, the store clerk will help get it set up in a few minutes. If there is a problem, you can just pop back in a store and get it fixed.

I doubt saving space is the primary reason Apple is doing this. It is likely so they can monetize the eSIM. Imagine Apple telling carriers that they will not provision their plans on iPhones unless they give Apple a cut of the cellular service revenue. This would eventually drive up the cost of cell phone service and limit consumer choices. I do not understand how consumers can think any of this is a good.

Taking away the ability to put a local SIM in my phone is absolutely a deal breaker.

Soli said:

chi9741 said:

If you want to understand why an eSim is terrible for consumers, you only need to look at the iPad that has an eSim built in. 

When I land in London, the only local carrier available on the eSim is EE. I cannot choose Vodafone, O2, or any other local carrier because they do not have an arrangement with Apple. That’s right, your phone’s manufacturer will be able to dictate what carriers and plans are available for their device.

1) It's the carriers that are hobbling eSIM on your iPad, not the Apple.

2) All you described was how the carriers are bad for customers.

3) SIM is an acronym for subscriber identity/identification module, not an abbreviation for simulates or some other word that starts with sim.

1. I made no comment as to who if anyone was hampering eSIMs. Perhaps you meant to reply to a different post or start a new comment. Since you brought it up, the carriers hobbling a technology that puts control of their ability to reach consumers in the hands of device manufacturers does make sense. 
2. Perhaps the eSIM technology could be good if we the consumers were guaranteed all the same carriers, products, and quality of service as traditional physical sim cards. The point of my comment was that this will not be the case. As you can see from Apple’s own website, a carrier needs to participate with Apple to be a service provider on their iPad eSIM. https://www.apple.com/ipad/apple-sim/
3. I’m not sure what you are trying to prove with this comment. Did you want me to use SIM instead of sim? I doubt anyone was confused based on the context of the comment. Thank you for sharing your incredible intelligence.

foggyhill said:

chi9741 said:

If you want to understand why an eSim is terrible for consumers, you only need to look at the iPad that has an eSim built in. 

When I land in London, the only local carrier available on the eSim is EE. I cannot choose Vodafone, O2, or any other local carrier because they do not have an arrangement with Apple. That’s right, your phone’s manufacturer will be able to dictate what carriers and plans are available for their device. 

When roaming today, I purchase a local sim and have the exact same choices and service as any local customer. With an eSim, the manufacturer and carrier can arrange to make only throttled or more expenive plans available to visitors. 

An eSim puts the phone’s manufacturer between the customer and the carrier and will likely limit consumer choice and increase prices. 

Swapping a physical sim gives me unlimited freedom to change carriers as I please. With an eSim, I will be limited only to the choices Apple provides for me based on the deals they make with each carrier. Let’s also keep in mind that there would be nothing stopping your carrrier or device manufacturer from charging you an activation or “service swapping” fee. 

This is not a hardware issue. It is a business issue. I will only use phone with a physical sim for as long as I can to make sure I am in control of the service I purchase. 

You're just proving that Apple is right to go after the carriers. The eSim is better, there is actually no real reason to have a physical device at all and eventually that will be the case everywhere.

I’m not questioning whether or not eSIM technology is good or bad. I’m saying the use of it is bad for consumers. How do you think Apple having control of my cellular plan choices and forcing themselves into the transaction as a middle man is their right? It is no different than iTunes, the App Store, and Apple Pay. Apple gets a cut of all these sales / purchases. Think of the eSIM as a sort of carrier service store. Carriers pay Apple to make their service / plans available on the embeded eSIM. This is how it works today on the iPad eSIM today. Apple isn’t pushing this tech for free. The fact that carriers are fighting this makes perfect sense. They will have to give control and money to device manufacturers in order to reach consumers.