I share your frustrations. The hope with this move is for the carriers to support eSIM on all their plans. Somebody has to put a foot down, and I'm glad that we have a company like Apple that is willing to take that risk. These carriers are too fat and lazy. In my country, Samsung tried persuading the top carriers to support eSIM in accordance to the foldable launch, but it went to deaf ears. Hopefully with Apple taking a stance, there will be better eSIM support globally.
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Other After three years, I won't buy an iPhone 14 due to the SIM tray...
- Thread starter NLLV
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Curious what’s in the space of the sim tray. Canadian units will still have it. So what does the US phone has that we don’t?
I can only imagine. There was a time when Sprint first got the iPhone 4. The Sprint model of that phone had no SIM slot. But it DID have some sort of chip there that did the same sort of thing as a SIM - only it was locked to Sprint.
I can’t imagine they will. The rep I spoke to didn’t mention this. I would also like to think that Apple would have thought long and hard about this, knowing that there are people that switch out their SIM cards — and the point is convenience, not inconvenience and expense.
This no sim tray is my no headphone jack moment. I now know how enraged people felt about the removal of the headphone jack.
Yeah I just got the memo late into the game. I just read that the USA iPhones won’t have physical SIM card capabilities. Bad move as far as I’m concerned, since the places I travel to internationally only supply eSim primarily to their pay monthly customers and not to pay as you go ( prepaid ) customers. This in itself will greatly reduce my choices.
If Apple wanted to truly force carriers to implement eSim tech they should have removed the physical SIM card option globally across the board. Now they’ve just alienated international users.
Well chiefly, qualifying for a post paid plan in a country where you are not a legal resident is the issue. I would have to assume most carriers globally have qualifications the same as they do in the USA.
In my case (Philippines), I need to show I am working, have sufficient income, and proof of residence.
Being a tourist, how do I accomplish that? Also, is it an instant decision? I do not even know, and cannot fathom spending an entire day or even several hours dealing with that.
As for point #3, no they do not. Not all countries have the same bands, so some phones simply do not get the same 5g reception in the USA vs what you can get with a phone made for the US market.
Canada, for instance has no rollout of mmWave, but as has been mentioned, that is largely a gimmick.
I am not sure of Tmobile 5gUC works on the same frequency as verizon mmWave, but the networks just between Canada and USA are different.
AFAIK it is not. They lack some 5g that US phones have, because the network in Canada is not built out or as fast.
Apple should have made this change a global one if they truly wanted to force Carrie’s hands. . Now they’ve just alienated international users.
Forgot to mention / ask. Will the USA models be DSDS for both eSim or not. Meaning only one can be active at any given time ?
mmWave, but I don't think that takes additional space as previous iPhones have mmWave AND SIM tray.
sooner or later, they will. Apple is simply pcking their battles from the lowest hanging fruit first, the US, where all carriers have eSIM support already. I can see Apple expanding that decision to some European countries or Japan next. All in all, in 3 years, all US iPhones will be eSIM only. Apple pretty much set the deadline for carriers around the world to offer eSIM support.
I’m sure they will succeed at this. But in the meantime USA iPhone owners will be greatly impacted with little to no choices when wanting “local SIM cards “ when overseas.
Well, I have no symphaty since the US has had the best prices of Apple products.
Us having to pay 30% markup now feels a bit better. 😂
Well, I have no symphaty since the US has had the best prices of Apple products.
As of May 2022
Which networks offer eSIMs?
eSIMs in the UK are available from numerous networks. We explain exactly what an eSIM does and the pros and cons associated with eSIMs.
And I had a Three UK voice and data pSim that got me averaging 800mpbs on 5G on my USA iPhone 13 PM in the UK for approx £15 a month.
That's what we can hope for, that Apple doing this will force carriers to adopt eSIM. But wireless service is a highly regulated market, and thus the players (telcos) are usually fat and lazy as they don't have to compete much.
My hope with Apple first, Samsung will be brave enough to follow suit. Samsung has more marketshare worldwide, so together with Apple, they might be a more formidable force in forcing these fat lazy carriers to adopt eSIM. There's a deadline, as in 3 years, all US iPhones will eSIM only. If I were the marketing team of existing carriers that offer prepaid/tourist eSIM, I would advertise the hell out of it promoting support for US iPhone users.
I don’t understand how Apple can force carriers in said countries to eSim which they still sell models of the iPhone 14 with a physical sim tray 😂 I bet they won’t be in any rush
Business travellers, tourists, expats, foreign workers, etc. We live in a global world now that a decision in one country can affect others. For example: Once all US iPhones go eSIM only, if you're a carrier in a country that rely on foreign tourists for main revenue, you might want to support eSIM so you can keep selling your service to US visitors. And the pressure will only get bigger once Apple do the same in more countries.
The earliest deadline is pretty much 3 years from now, when we would expect all US iPhones will be eSIM only. I can see some European countries and/or Japan follow suit in iPhone 15 or 16. Carriers in countries like Singapore better wake up now and be prepared.
I see your point. However he should have removed the psim tray on all if not more than just the USA market to speed up the process.
Seems to me if everyone is traveling internationally so much you can just buy your phone internationally just to make your point to Apple. Also in the past when they only sold locked phones, a few months after release they would sell an unlocked phone that had all bands so it would work in places like China. That may happen again.
Off topic slightly but prepaid AT&T users you can natively convert to esim via the cellular settings in your device settings.