Nice to see another feature getting removed to make phones slimmer which is necessary because of uhh… 'Cuz the uh… You know that thing that uh…
Article: I switched to eSIM in 2025, and I am full of regret
Submitted 7 hours ago by OldQWERTYbastard@lemmy.world to technology@lemmy.world
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/12/i-switched-to-esim-in-2025-and-i-am-full-of-regret/
Comments
ArfArfWoof@europe.pub 3 hours ago
PostaL@lemmy.world 2 hours ago
ArfArfWoof@europe.pub 2 hours ago
Yeah but how do make money? Is the few cents saved per unit worth it? Like I know that saving 1€ over a million units is 1M€ saved but still.
jaybone@lemmy.zip 1 hour ago
Because we have to force “features” that no one asked for.
ArfArfWoof@europe.pub 1 hour ago
Right but you gotta make money somehow. The 3,5mm jack was removed to sell wireless headphones. The SD card slot is gone to force you to buy a phone with more soldered storage. Why this? Can’t be data collection, they have it all already.
Evil_Shrubbery@thelemmy.club 2 hours ago
When a mobile carrier needs to verify your identity for an account change, they all do the same thing: send a text message. And what happens if you don’t have a working SIM? That’s right—nothing. Without access to my account or phone number, I was stuck with no way to download a new eSIM. The only course of action was to go to a physical store to download an electronic SIM card. What should have been 30 seconds of fiddling with a piece of plastic turned into an hour standing around a retail storefront.
AwesomeLowlander@sh.itjust.works 6 hours ago
This is a problem for somebody reviewing phones, but how much of a problem is it actually for the average user who will change phones once every few years? And will probably be doing so at a phone store where they can support it.
Zoldyck@lemmy.world 5 hours ago
I haven’t been to a phone store in 15 years
Wigglesworth@retrolemmy.com 4 hours ago
for the average user
points at Lineage boot logo
not you
phutatorius@lemmy.zip 3 hours ago
Those of us who swap SIMs when travelling are also affected. I travel outside my country several times a year and must say that eSIMs sound like a good idea until you actually deal with them. Spending vacation time debugging an eSIM is an annoying distraction.
AwesomeLowlander@sh.itjust.works 2 hours ago
Can’t your phone store multiple esims? I thought that was actually one of the selling points of the stuff.
jellygoose@lemmy.ca 2 hours ago
This never happens
stoy@lemmy.zip 4 hours ago
It is also a problem for us IT guys, when we need to migrate users from one phone to another it is super annoying to deal with eSIMs
dogdeanafternoon@lemmy.ca 1 minute ago
That’s odd, I just swapped phones. Old phone was eSIM, it literally couldn’t have been easier.
73QjabParc34Vebq@piefed.blahaj.zone 6 hours ago
I think it’s just highlighted by someone doing it regularly, it’ll happen the same % of times when someone else does it, maybe more since they don’t know the process.
I also don’t know how many people change phones in a store, I never have, but I’m not average. And even then, maybe a carrier store can help you, but I doubt the generic shop or branded supermarket can offer much support for an issue with a carrier.
BlackEco@lemmy.blackeco.com 5 hours ago
I wonder how much of a problem it is when you lost the phone that had your eSIM. If the registration flow requires SMS authentication, how are your supposed to register your eSIM on your brand new phone?
AwesomeLowlander@sh.itjust.works 5 hours ago
The carrier can bypass that authentication, so basically the same process as if you had lost your physical sim. Show up at the shop in person with id.
AA5B@lemmy.world 1 hour ago
I don’t blame the technology here but the implementation or the scenario
- the article makes it clear they understand it’s an uncommon scenario to have to switch number so many times
- wtf is the amcarrier doing requiring text 2fa to get a newborn eSIM? Thats just dumb
- Apparently android needs some work?
I have the opposite anecdote: eSIM has been more reliable than physical SIM. It just works on my iPhone. I like never having to goto a physical store. When i got my new phone this fall it transferred the eSIM so smoothly I barely noticed. It just worked.
Meanwhile from previous phones it always seemed about half the time I got a bad SIM and had to goto my providers physical store to get a new one. What a pain!
AbidanYre@lemmy.world 4 hours ago
It’s like everyone forgot what a pain in the ass it used to be when Verizon was cdma and didn’t use sim cards.
BootLoop@sh.itjust.works 29 minutes ago
I don’t have Verizon in my country. Not sure who this ‘everyone’ is and what they’re forgetting.
mjr@infosec.pub 3 hours ago
Or much of the world never had a similar malfunctioning telco.
73QjabParc34Vebq@piefed.blahaj.zone 6 hours ago
And for people that don’t want proprietary carrier apps on there phone? Don’t have WiFi, so you can’t download the virtual sim? On a OS that isn’t Google or Apple?
frongt@lemmy.zip 18 minutes ago
You don’t need a carrier app. The phone OS asks the carrier network for activation and pulls the esim. I’ve done this several times in lineageos and grapheneos.
horse@feddit.org 4 hours ago
I think I’d be fine if I had to use eSIM (when I get a new phone every few years, I touch the SIM exactly once to move it to the new phone and then forget it even exists until the next phone).
I still like having a physical SIM though and haven’t converted it, even though I could. I like the idea that, if my phone dies, I can easily switch it into a new phone (even someone else’s). I don’t think I’ve ever done that, at least not since the days of dumb phones with limited/expensive plans, but I like to know I could. The only downside is that I have to enter the SIM PIN if I restart my phone.
DiagonalHorse@lemmy.ml 2 hours ago
I’ve actually just had my eSIM decision backfire on me.
I switched months ago and hadn’t had an issue until I got ready to go to an airport last week. I figured I’d be able to switch off the eSIM and switch on Airplane Mode so my phone could essentially be an offline iPod, but when I landed and tried turning it back on it didn’t work. I then found people discussing the same issue on their phones (GrapheneOS + Pixel 7) and really regretted messing with it.
My carrier’s account login hilariously requires an SMS 2FA to the phone number that’s been yeeted from existence and since I’ve been staying with in-laws this Christmas I’m not willing to sit on hold for however many hours to recover my account till I get home.
exu@feditown.com 6 hours ago
The worst thing is how a normal SIM now costs 60$ with most providers here
frongt@lemmy.zip 16 minutes ago
Where is “here” T-Mobile just gave me one for free a few weeks ago. And that was with me bringing an unlocked phone for activation on their network too.
Kirp123@lemmy.world 5 hours ago
Really? In Europe you can get one for free from some providers. And the vast majority offer one for under 15 dollars. And if you pay for it, it already comes with some preloaded data and calls so you can start using it right away.
sauerkrautsaul@lemmus.org 3 hours ago
cell (mobile) service is just way, way more expensive in the states. no justifiable reason, just cause they can and all do.
I pay €8 monthly for unlimited everything except international calls (its my work phone) and I think €20 for the other one.
I was just in the US for christmas and wanted data etc but my phone doesnt support eSim and the cheapest sim only plan was at&t and it was $40, it had a data cap of some kind and required a $15 activation fee. I used a lot of wifi during this trip.
my wife’s phone can do eSim so she had unlimited everything for €25 or something for the ten days I believe, with Holafly.
In a past life I worked at the biggest telecoms company in the states and we’d be encouraged to sell people $89.99 a month and that still had a limit to “minutes”. We also learned that the towers emit radiation 24 hours a day, and modulating said radiation costs the company essentially nothing at all, so the “minutes” thing is just pure profit
jaxxed@lemmy.world 2 hours ago
In the EU, SIMs are often free or less than €5
Korhaka@sopuli.xyz 4 hours ago
Every SIM I have seen is free or close to it, unless you are buying it as part of a bundle where the SIM is usually free and its the stuff bundled with it, like data, that costs money.
PerhapsSomethingElse@discuss.tchncs.de 5 hours ago
gomo.ie 12.99 for life, everything unlimited. Physical or eSIM.
mjr@infosec.pub 3 hours ago
It says €14.99/month for life. And why is eircom now an Irish branch of a Jersey company? Tax dodging?
rizlah@lemmy.world 6 hours ago
what’s worse: none of my trusty backup phones support eSIM. so when my eSIM phone dies, i’m pretty much fucked until i buy a new one. :/
Meron35@lemmy.world 5 hours ago
You can buy an eSim adapter online for ~$15 off sites such as AliExpress.
Such adapters are open source, and can support up to holding and swapping between 20 eSim cards, which makes phones with physical sim cards strictly dominate those without them.
rizlah@lemmy.world 3 hours ago
i see, TIL.
on the other hand, this doesn’t solve the hassle when my primary phone dies and I’m unable to log in to my carrier’s self care to generate the new eSIM QR code.
unless… it’s somehow possible to do that beforehand – “preload” the new eSIM in the backup phone and activate it only when the main phone dies.
mjr@infosec.pub 3 hours ago
You can buy an eSim adapter online for ~$15 off sites such as AliExpress.
And does it share with Chinese intelligence only, or the NSA too? 😉
Wigglesworth@retrolemmy.com 4 hours ago
…why’d you buy it, then?
rizlah@lemmy.world 4 hours ago
i didn’t realize it was eSIM only until i had it at home. and i didn’t think much of it until a few days later.
Deceptichum@quokk.au 5 hours ago
I’ve had an eSIM for years. Zero issues, quite happy with it.
warm@kbin.earth 1 hour ago
eSIM sounds good on paper, but the implementation is horrible. You should be able to easily back them up. Also I expected to be able to have many many eSIMs rather than be limited to one or two.
Munkisquisher@lemmy.nz 6 hours ago
My phone (Xperia 1mk6) doesn’t support esims in the international version. But I have a physical sim I can load esims onto. Best of both worlds.
Bleys@lemmy.world 2 hours ago
For me the main benefit of eSIMs is they allow multiple numbers on a single phone which is super handy.
Reading the article though, and I think the described problem is entirely the fault of the carrier and not the design of eSIMs. The carrier should have allowed alternative verification methods (email, online account, in-person at store) other than just sending a text to the disabled number.