8 ms·

That I can just take the SIM out and put it in a different phone? what's the migration process for eSIMs?

tshaddox 3y ago
You need the carrier to offer eSIM, of course, but then you can just store a bunch of eSIMs on your iPhone and switch which one is active in the Settings app.
- spockz 3y ago
  I think the GP question was how to migrate your eSIM to another phone. You can transfer the sim but it needs to be activated on the other phone. I have even seen reactivation charges of €5.
  - W4RH4WK55 3y ago
    Yes, about how to move it to another phone, especially when my current phone just died. Maybe I dropped it and now the display no longer works.
    - otterley 3y ago
      Ask your carrier to send you a replacement. They can be delivered by QR code.
      - rhn_mk1 3y ago
        That's the problem. Now your carrier is a single point of failure, and the typical person has zero leverage over the carrier.
        otterley 3y ago
        Leverage? This is a standard customer service process.
        rhn_mk1 3y ago
        And when that process fails, what recourse does the average Joe have? Especially when you can't afford to have much downtime between phones.
        otterley 3y ago
        I think you’re unnecessarily worried about this. If you don’t trust your carrier to get this process right, perhaps it’s worth choosing a different carrier.
        rhn_mk1 3y ago
        Do you know a carrier which you have any leverage against? I don't. Better get a physical SIM. Oh, you do? It's still a single point of failure. Customer support servers down? Should have gotten a physical SIM. Unbeatable servers? Good luck swapping eSIMs when you want to sell/throw away your phone abroad, out of range of internet. Should have gotten a phyical one. Never out of range? Wonder what you do when your phone breaks and you have no one to babysit you through the process. Should have gotten physical. Etc. That's what an additional sigle point of failure means: less control over your own infrastructure.
        otterley 3y ago
        If this actually happens to people in real life, let’s talk about it. All indications are that this problem isn’t a serious one yet. New technologies often improve things in some way while introducing concerns and potential drawbacks in other ways. The question is whether, on balance, the new way is worth the risk. My experience so far is that it is — it’s very convenient to be able to use a service like Airalo to order prepaid eSIMs for data service in foreign countries in advance. It makes traveling a joy now, and my wife is irritated a whole lot less by the prepaid SIM hunt I used to go on when traveling abroad. Plus no more tools or risking losing your SIM tray (or the SIM itself) when you swap it out on an airplane tray table.
        3y ago
      - ec109685 3y ago
        To the sibling reply to this, how is a physical sim any worse in this regard?
      - shinycode 3y ago
        My carrier is currently not doing eSIM. Also some low cost carriers can’t be contacted in any other way than a chat. Which is a problem in many real world situations if you need an eSIM asap. Sometimes there is no one in the chat available at all.
        otterley 3y ago
        If your carrier doesn’t support eSIM, then this discussion doesn’t apply to you. Carriers aren’t going to make eSIM available until they have the support structure available to make it useful to customers.
  - tshaddox 3y ago
    I’ve heard of that but never ran into it myself. Isn’t that also the case for some carriers with physical SIMs too?
    - spockz 3y ago
      I guess eSIM is still a luxury for now so they want to milk it. I have only ever heard of first time activation of a sim. Vodafone in NL requires an activation via their app, or phone, before first use. But I think that is normal. The last time I got a physical sim it was in 2013 and I have transferred the same sim across multiple phones since.
geocar 3y ago
Better: it’s a menu option. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT212780 https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT212780 eSIMs also have the advantage of an activation card can be sent instantly from almost anywhere (it’s a QR code) which is great if your phone (and physical sim) are lost or damaged.
- Xylakant 3y ago
  > Some carriers support SIM transfers from your previous iPhone to your new iPhone without needing to contact them “Some” is true afaik. It’s at the providers discretion. AFAIK it’s also only possible if you’re moving from iPhone to iPhone, not if you’re moving to an Android. I’m not certain moving back and forth between multiple phones is easily supported. I like e-sims in general, but this is a downside for some use cases.
- supertrope 3y ago
  In theory eSIM allows for self service without going to a store or waiting for shipping. In practice you might be on hold with your phone company for an hour. Some USA MVNOs don’t support eSIM.
  - Xylakant 3y ago
    As the person managing phone contracts in our company, I really like that part of eSIMs. I can mail a phone or have the employee purchase one and then mail my providers support and I‘m all set. About one hour later, the phone will have connectivity. If you‘re using an MDM solution that supports it, you can even manage the assigned eSIMs there. Now, we‘re on a business contract and we have a responsive team on the other side, so the comfort of this hinges on the provider obviously.
  - geocar 3y ago
    Sounds terrible. Here in socialist Europe it is exactly as easy as I just made it sound.
    - black3r 3y ago
JD557 3y ago
Unfortunately, I don't think this is always true for physical SIMs. I recently bought a temporary SIM in the US during my holidays (StraightTalk) and was surprised that you can only use the physical SIM after you register online with you IMEI. I haven't checked, but I imagine that after that the card would only work with that IMEI. Fortunately, I don't think this is a practice in Europe.
- EvanAnderson 3y ago
  To be fair, though, Straight Talk is absolutely hot garbage. I had a fiasco trying to activate two physical SIMs and port numbers to them back in January. Their provisioning system chokes and dies on phones with both eSIM and physical SIM capability (like the factory-unlocked iPhone SE 3rd gen models I was trying to activate). I spent hours on the phone holding and talking to reps, getting disconnected and calling back to start all over again. It was a nightmare.
  - JD557 3y ago
    I'm quite happy to read this, because my experience was also awful - they didn't accept the IMEI of 3 phones I tried and their app is full of ads (not to mention that I kept receiving scam calls). I really hope that it's because they are awful and this is not the typical American mobile phone experience.
otterley 3y ago
The migration process is, you ask your carrier for a new eSIM. They send you one via QR code. That's pretty much it.
- jl6 3y ago
  eSIM is a potentially smoother setup process if the alternative is getting a card through the mail, but physical SIM switching is better than having to contact your carrier.
- Hamuko 3y ago
  And then your carrier bills you 3€ for it, because they can. They can also just disable the iPhone-to-iPhone eSIM transfer functionality. Ask me how I know. eSIMs are incredibly user-hostile because they switch the ownership of a SIM card from the customer to the provider, so you're completely at their mercy if you need to transfer over your SIM card from one device to another. And Apple facilitates this.
- onion2k 3y ago
  Dealing with the carrier is usually the worst part of owning a phone. Asking for a new esim is likely to send you down a path of navigating a process where they try to sell you an upgrade, or they send you a QR code that doesn't work, or a million other possible problems.
  - vladvasiliu 3y ago
    > Dealing with the carrier is usually the worst part of owning a phone. It's probably intentional. I was reading an article in the French press the other day [0] on the subject. Some head of something or other in the industry said they were weary of mostly Apple, Samsung, and Google starting to like playing the providers and removing the actual carriers from the users' psyche. "The SIM card is the last physical link between the carrier and the client". I've also checked my carrier's site for getting an esim. Apparently I'd have to pay the same amount to get one as for a physical one (minus delivery costs). But at least, contrary to some other commenters' situation, they seem to allow you to move it from phone to phone as long as you hold on to your qr code. They, of course, don't offer the option of storing it in the "secure" client area. [0] https://www.lefigaro.fr/secteur/high-tech/avec-l-esim-la-carte-sim-bientot-en-voie-de-disparition-20230420 https://www.lefigaro.fr/secteur/high-tech/avec-l-esim-la-car...

You need the carrier to offer eSIM, of course, but then you can just store a bunch of eSIMs on your iPhone and switch which one is active in the Settings app.

spockz 3y ago
I think the GP question was how to migrate your eSIM to another phone. You can transfer the sim but it needs to be activated on the other phone. I have even seen reactivation charges of €5.
- W4RH4WK55 3y ago
  Yes, about how to move it to another phone, especially when my current phone just died. Maybe I dropped it and now the display no longer works.
  - otterley 3y ago
    Ask your carrier to send you a replacement. They can be delivered by QR code.
    - rhn_mk1 3y ago
      That's the problem. Now your carrier is a single point of failure, and the typical person has zero leverage over the carrier.
      - otterley 3y ago
        Leverage? This is a standard customer service process.
        rhn_mk1 3y ago
        And when that process fails, what recourse does the average Joe have? Especially when you can't afford to have much downtime between phones.
        otterley 3y ago
        I think you’re unnecessarily worried about this. If you don’t trust your carrier to get this process right, perhaps it’s worth choosing a different carrier.
        rhn_mk1 3y ago
        Do you know a carrier which you have any leverage against? I don't. Better get a physical SIM. Oh, you do? It's still a single point of failure. Customer support servers down? Should have gotten a physical SIM. Unbeatable servers? Good luck swapping eSIMs when you want to sell/throw away your phone abroad, out of range of internet. Should have gotten a phyical one. Never out of range? Wonder what you do when your phone breaks and you have no one to babysit you through the process. Should have gotten physical. Etc. That's what an additional sigle point of failure means: less control over your own infrastructure.
        otterley 3y ago
        If this actually happens to people in real life, let’s talk about it. All indications are that this problem isn’t a serious one yet. New technologies often improve things in some way while introducing concerns and potential drawbacks in other ways. The question is whether, on balance, the new way is worth the risk. My experience so far is that it is — it’s very convenient to be able to use a service like Airalo to order prepaid eSIMs for data service in foreign countries in advance. It makes traveling a joy now, and my wife is irritated a whole lot less by the prepaid SIM hunt I used to go on when traveling abroad. Plus no more tools or risking losing your SIM tray (or the SIM itself) when you swap it out on an airplane tray table.
        3y ago
    - ec109685 3y ago
      To the sibling reply to this, how is a physical sim any worse in this regard?
    - shinycode 3y ago
      My carrier is currently not doing eSIM. Also some low cost carriers can’t be contacted in any other way than a chat. Which is a problem in many real world situations if you need an eSIM asap. Sometimes there is no one in the chat available at all.
      - otterley 3y ago
        If your carrier doesn’t support eSIM, then this discussion doesn’t apply to you. Carriers aren’t going to make eSIM available until they have the support structure available to make it useful to customers.
- tshaddox 3y ago
  I’ve heard of that but never ran into it myself. Isn’t that also the case for some carriers with physical SIMs too?
  - spockz 3y ago
    I guess eSIM is still a luxury for now so they want to milk it. I have only ever heard of first time activation of a sim. Vodafone in NL requires an activation via their app, or phone, before first use. But I think that is normal. The last time I got a physical sim it was in 2013 and I have transferred the same sim across multiple phones since.

geocar 3y ago

Better: it’s a menu option. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT212780 https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT212780 eSIMs also have the advantage of an activation card can be sent instantly from almost anywhere (it’s a QR code) which is great if your phone (and physical sim) are lost or damaged.

Xylakant 3y ago
> Some carriers support SIM transfers from your previous iPhone to your new iPhone without needing to contact them “Some” is true afaik. It’s at the providers discretion. AFAIK it’s also only possible if you’re moving from iPhone to iPhone, not if you’re moving to an Android. I’m not certain moving back and forth between multiple phones is easily supported. I like e-sims in general, but this is a downside for some use cases.
supertrope 3y ago
In theory eSIM allows for self service without going to a store or waiting for shipping. In practice you might be on hold with your phone company for an hour. Some USA MVNOs don’t support eSIM.
- Xylakant 3y ago
  As the person managing phone contracts in our company, I really like that part of eSIMs. I can mail a phone or have the employee purchase one and then mail my providers support and I‘m all set. About one hour later, the phone will have connectivity. If you‘re using an MDM solution that supports it, you can even manage the assigned eSIMs there. Now, we‘re on a business contract and we have a responsive team on the other side, so the comfort of this hinges on the provider obviously.
- geocar 3y ago
  Sounds terrible. Here in socialist Europe it is exactly as easy as I just made it sound.
  - black3r 3y ago

JD557 3y ago

Unfortunately, I don't think this is always true for physical SIMs. I recently bought a temporary SIM in the US during my holidays (StraightTalk) and was surprised that you can only use the physical SIM after you register online with you IMEI. I haven't checked, but I imagine that after that the card would only work with that IMEI. Fortunately, I don't think this is a practice in Europe.

EvanAnderson 3y ago
To be fair, though, Straight Talk is absolutely hot garbage. I had a fiasco trying to activate two physical SIMs and port numbers to them back in January. Their provisioning system chokes and dies on phones with both eSIM and physical SIM capability (like the factory-unlocked iPhone SE 3rd gen models I was trying to activate). I spent hours on the phone holding and talking to reps, getting disconnected and calling back to start all over again. It was a nightmare.
- JD557 3y ago
  I'm quite happy to read this, because my experience was also awful - they didn't accept the IMEI of 3 phones I tried and their app is full of ads (not to mention that I kept receiving scam calls). I really hope that it's because they are awful and this is not the typical American mobile phone experience.

otterley 3y ago

The migration process is, you ask your carrier for a new eSIM. They send you one via QR code. That's pretty much it.

jl6 3y ago
eSIM is a potentially smoother setup process if the alternative is getting a card through the mail, but physical SIM switching is better than having to contact your carrier.
Hamuko 3y ago
And then your carrier bills you 3€ for it, because they can. They can also just disable the iPhone-to-iPhone eSIM transfer functionality. Ask me how I know. eSIMs are incredibly user-hostile because they switch the ownership of a SIM card from the customer to the provider, so you're completely at their mercy if you need to transfer over your SIM card from one device to another. And Apple facilitates this.
onion2k 3y ago
Dealing with the carrier is usually the worst part of owning a phone. Asking for a new esim is likely to send you down a path of navigating a process where they try to sell you an upgrade, or they send you a QR code that doesn't work, or a million other possible problems.
- vladvasiliu 3y ago
  > Dealing with the carrier is usually the worst part of owning a phone. It's probably intentional. I was reading an article in the French press the other day [0] on the subject. Some head of something or other in the industry said they were weary of mostly Apple, Samsung, and Google starting to like playing the providers and removing the actual carriers from the users' psyche. "The SIM card is the last physical link between the carrier and the client". I've also checked my carrier's site for getting an esim. Apparently I'd have to pay the same amount to get one as for a physical one (minus delivery costs). But at least, contrary to some other commenters' situation, they seem to allow you to move it from phone to phone as long as you hold on to your qr code. They, of course, don't offer the option of storing it in the "secure" client area. [0] https://www.lefigaro.fr/secteur/high-tech/avec-l-esim-la-carte-sim-bientot-en-voie-de-disparition-20230420 https://www.lefigaro.fr/secteur/high-tech/avec-l-esim-la-car...