When I traveled across the world last year it took me 5 minutes to sign up for a temporary cell plan in the country I was visiting, then install the eSIM from my phone’s web browser. I didn’t have to plan ahead and wait for them to mail me a SIM card so I could juggle around SIMs while abroad. I much prefer that over a physical SIM card.
For reference, this was in Japan. From my experience, there weren’t SIM card vendors until you get through customs. That could be a 2 hour long process from landing to entering the country before you can get a SIM and communicate with family or your travel arrangements at your destination. It also won’t be doing you any favors if you need to pull up documentation on your phone to provide to the customs agent, like your return ticket.
I can buy an eSIM and install it before leaving my home and verify it works instantly. It’s just a better experience than the alternative.
I just bought up a few prepaids and popped them into my phone when I wanted to use them. Also we shared them between people. Not sure how sharing works on eSIMs
Maybe in somewhere free like the EU or SEA. In the US, most phones bought from a carrier (and most sales are that way, some exclusively so) are locked so that no other SIM (e or physical) can be used.
That’s your problem as a consumer accepting that. This thread makes me depressed, with the amount of people happy to allow shitty US consumer hostile practices to become more common globally.
That’s the special condition we get in the US, though - there is little or no effective choice across the spectrum. Without regulation, corporations will become asymptotic to maximum financial extraction techniques. There are few real choices at the consumer level and the barriers to entry are such that a single consumer - or even an uncoordinated (read: without a national, staffed organization) - cannot circumvent the system.
Cell phone use was a US thing that spread there before any other country. Five fold the amount of mobile phone users than the next closest country. They were also invented in the US.
The way of buying a cell phone and paying too much for the monthly pan, but getting the phone for free kicked off in the 90s and has never managed to go away because yeah, the cell companies are assholes, but also because consumers got used to getting phones this way. The bs part is that you plan isn’t any cheaper, even if you own your phone outright.
But for most people in the US there’s little use for switching carriers while using your same phone, so sim stuff isn’t all that important. Most don’t vacation outside of the country.
It’s just to give more control to the carriers. They say it’s a feature for travel but realistically how many people and how many countries does that actually apply to? Some places require ID to buy a SIM card, many places don’t even offer plans travelers would want to use (who wants to pay $80 for 1 month of unlimited data instead of $5 for 1GB for a week?), and there’s also the question of how many travelers are there vs locals? Are the travelers the majority of users? The majority of profit? Why don’t the travelers’ local phone companies have travel plans to gouge the travelers themselves?
Anyway all this is to say this is just carrier lock in, it’s the return of CDMA.
Maybe it’s just bad luck, but the last time I tried to swap a physical SIM, I inserted the removal tool in the hole, and then the mechanism somehow broke. So I cannot swap my SIM from my current phone to any other phone, unless I have eSim. Unfortunately, my current phone does not have eSim.
physical sims can be swapped regardless of OS or whatever arbitrary limitation they impose on us.
i still dont get why esims are a thing besides imposing more control over us
When I traveled across the world last year it took me 5 minutes to sign up for a temporary cell plan in the country I was visiting, then install the eSIM from my phone’s web browser. I didn’t have to plan ahead and wait for them to mail me a SIM card so I could juggle around SIMs while abroad. I much prefer that over a physical SIM card.
im glad you had a good experience in the random country you were in.
but have you ever dealt with most carriers? also who waits for sim cards in the mail instead of just buying one?
For reference, this was in Japan. From my experience, there weren’t SIM card vendors until you get through customs. That could be a 2 hour long process from landing to entering the country before you can get a SIM and communicate with family or your travel arrangements at your destination. It also won’t be doing you any favors if you need to pull up documentation on your phone to provide to the customs agent, like your return ticket.
I can buy an eSIM and install it before leaving my home and verify it works instantly. It’s just a better experience than the alternative.
Cellphone carriers that have no brick and mortar? But are also significantly cheaper for basically the same service
I just bought up a few prepaids and popped them into my phone when I wanted to use them. Also we shared them between people. Not sure how sharing works on eSIMs
Maybe in somewhere free like the EU or SEA. In the US, most phones bought from a carrier (and most sales are that way, some exclusively so) are locked so that no other SIM (e or physical) can be used.
That’s your problem as a consumer accepting that. This thread makes me depressed, with the amount of people happy to allow shitty US consumer hostile practices to become more common globally.
That’s the special condition we get in the US, though - there is little or no effective choice across the spectrum. Without regulation, corporations will become asymptotic to maximum financial extraction techniques. There are few real choices at the consumer level and the barriers to entry are such that a single consumer - or even an uncoordinated (read: without a national, staffed organization) - cannot circumvent the system.
Cell phone use was a US thing that spread there before any other country. Five fold the amount of mobile phone users than the next closest country. They were also invented in the US.
The way of buying a cell phone and paying too much for the monthly pan, but getting the phone for free kicked off in the 90s and has never managed to go away because yeah, the cell companies are assholes, but also because consumers got used to getting phones this way. The bs part is that you plan isn’t any cheaper, even if you own your phone outright.
But for most people in the US there’s little use for switching carriers while using your same phone, so sim stuff isn’t all that important. Most don’t vacation outside of the country.
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It’s just to give more control to the carriers. They say it’s a feature for travel but realistically how many people and how many countries does that actually apply to? Some places require ID to buy a SIM card, many places don’t even offer plans travelers would want to use (who wants to pay $80 for 1 month of unlimited data instead of $5 for 1GB for a week?), and there’s also the question of how many travelers are there vs locals? Are the travelers the majority of users? The majority of profit? Why don’t the travelers’ local phone companies have travel plans to gouge the travelers themselves?
Anyway all this is to say this is just carrier lock in, it’s the return of CDMA.
Maybe it’s just bad luck, but the last time I tried to swap a physical SIM, I inserted the removal tool in the hole, and then the mechanism somehow broke. So I cannot swap my SIM from my current phone to any other phone, unless I have eSim. Unfortunately, my current phone does not have eSim.