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Sounds like they're solving a problem very few people (couple of frequent travellers) have. Is swapping a SIM such a big deal? You can already move your number

Sounds like they're solving a problem very few people (couple of frequent travellers) have. Is swapping a SIM such a big deal? You can already move your number to a different carrier. More, I think that swapping a card is actually pretty good UI. It unambiguously shows that you're making a big change. Unlike a toggle in the menu. It's easy to understand and hard to exploit. OTOH, why not. Having an option of frictionless carrier hopping may have some unforeseen (at least by me) upsides.

mtrimpe 13y ago
The current steps to switch provider are: 1. Order your card online 2. Wait 2-3 days for your SIM, sometimes a week if you're unlucky 3. Keep using your old SIM as long as it's registered to your current number. 4. On the day where it's supposed to stop working carry both SIMs until you notice your number is ported. 5. Switch the SIMs and you're on your new number I'm pretty sure that if that process is reduced to just step 1 that it will be good for competition.
nemoniac 13y ago
> Sounds like they're solving a problem very few people (couple of frequent travellers) have. Is swapping a SIM such a big deal? It's a small country so you could say it's a problem that a majority of Dutch people have. At a guess, I'd say there's no point in the Netherlands more than 100 miles from the border.
a3_nm 13y ago
Say I am at a spot where I do not have signal from the carrier I am subscribed to, but I can have signal from another one. Why should there be any friction in buying individual minutes/megabytes from that other carrier? This is obviously impossible when SIMs are tied to a specific carrier, but in fact, why shouldn't mobile phones offer the option to pick any available carrier depending on which one is proposing the best rates? Also, about swapping cards: dual SIM telephones are fairly popular, which illustrates that many people are using more than one SIM and do not like to have to switch (because they want, e.g., to be able to receive their texts on both). This is just a temporary solution, the right one would be to have one SIM but tied to multiple providers.
ithkuil 13y ago
perhaps the regulators themselves represent a majority of that minority (for example having to travel in another country which is the seat of some part of the European burocracy).

mtrimpe 13y ago

The current steps to switch provider are: 1. Order your card online 2. Wait 2-3 days for your SIM, sometimes a week if you're unlucky 3. Keep using your old SIM as long as it's registered to your current number. 4. On the day where it's supposed to stop working carry both SIMs until you notice your number is ported. 5. Switch the SIMs and you're on your new number I'm pretty sure that if that process is reduced to just step 1 that it will be good for competition.

nemoniac 13y ago

> Sounds like they're solving a problem very few people (couple of frequent travellers) have. Is swapping a SIM such a big deal? It's a small country so you could say it's a problem that a majority of Dutch people have. At a guess, I'd say there's no point in the Netherlands more than 100 miles from the border.

a3_nm 13y ago

Say I am at a spot where I do not have signal from the carrier I am subscribed to, but I can have signal from another one. Why should there be any friction in buying individual minutes/megabytes from that other carrier? This is obviously impossible when SIMs are tied to a specific carrier, but in fact, why shouldn't mobile phones offer the option to pick any available carrier depending on which one is proposing the best rates? Also, about swapping cards: dual SIM telephones are fairly popular, which illustrates that many people are using more than one SIM and do not like to have to switch (because they want, e.g., to be able to receive their texts on both). This is just a temporary solution, the right one would be to have one SIM but tied to multiple providers.

ithkuil 13y ago

perhaps the regulators themselves represent a majority of that minority (for example having to travel in another country which is the seat of some part of the European burocracy).