I guess if you want to think that way. But I think this is the kind of situation where the right answer is the simplest: it saves space inside the phone and this is their way of bullying the industry in that direction.
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Other The world isn’t ready for eSIM only phones…
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I thought they were close enough / enough overlap? And if not, then isn’t SIM/eSIM a moot point?
Airalo is data only. I don't know about speed. I had assumed it used at least 4G where it is available but that was just an assumption.Airalow is data only and slow right ?Some need proper 5G speeds and local numbers , this is the only option I could find for travelers to the UK.
Only Travel eSIM With Voice And Data | eSIM.Net
Buy eSIMs. Unlimited data, voice and SMS for just £20 per month. 30-day rolling O2 or Vodafone plans with 5G and WiFi Calling from the only UK-based online eSIM store.www.esim.net
It's good news that at least one UK MVNO offers a 30 day rolling contract eSIM. That at least breaks the duck and makes me more optimistic that others will follow. I do worry about the price though. I hope that premium pricing to get an eSIM doesn't become a thing here in the UK. For context that cheapest eSIM.net package gives 6GB data monthly plus unlimited UK calls and texts for £13 a month whereas I pay just under £5 a month for 3GB/month (of which I use at most 1GB) plus unlimited UK calls & texts and 100 minutes per month of international calls. £10 a month gets 6GB of data plus 500 international minutes per month so much better value than the one eSIM option available in the UK right now. I suppose that as more competition comes into the eSIM 30 day rolling market in the UK from the likes of Lebara, Giffgaff, Smarty, Tesco etc the prices presumably will revert to the current physical SIM levels and eSIM.net will adjust its pricing accordingly. I suppose I can't blame eSIM.net for reaping extra profit for now as a reward for being the first to market in the UK.
As far as I can tell an eSIM UK PAYG package still doesn't exist though. Then again I get the impression that PAYG in the UK is dying out. It's certainly become less attractive. As a light user I used the Three 123 plan for a while, 1p per Mb of data, 2p per text and 3p per minute of voice calls. I was such a light user that I usually only topped up about £20 per year! Then Three put up the prices massively (about a 10 or 15 fold increase I seem to remember!) so that even on my low usage it became cheaper to switch to the Lebara plan I have now.
It will work but you will lose out on mmWave and certain bands if you buy in EU. Also the massive warranty issue when you get back to the US. Apple has always gone above and beyond on warranty in my experience, but strictly speaking, you’re not covered.
This. + getting rid of all that plastic to make SIM Cards. I absolutely do not think the carriers wanted this at all. It makes things harder for them and they know there are other options such as Airalo & Ubigi for most travelers. High data folks are a different story or if you really need a local number but those numbers are negligible in Apple's eyes for the moment (I know, it sucks). But I think Apple was willing to sacrifice some sales for their future plans or worldwide eSIM.
Thanks.
Technically those eSIM.net plans are 30 day rolling rather than pure PAYG but close enough and would do the job for international travellers. The big difference that I see is that for someone travelling to the same country multiple times a year a true PAYG might be better since there are no monthly charges which means you can keep your same local UK number for as long as you continue to visit although if you don't visit the UK for 6 consecutive months you risk the number being deactivated unless you can borrow someone else's phone (with a SIM slot!) so that you can send a text using the UK number to keep the account active. With that eSIM.net offering presumably an international visitor only staying for a week or 3 would cancel after the first 30 days and on the next visit would need to get a new contract and hence a new number. Keeping the same number would mean keeping the contract active all year which at £13 a month is £156 a year and that just doesn't make sense because I am pretty sure that there are some conventional 12 month eSIM contracts that are cheaper.
Yeah, this is why I've had my Three account for so long. I'll have to give it up now. I don't travel to the UK as much anymore (used to be 5-8 times a year) but I loved that I just needed to use it every couple months if I wasn't going to be there and I could just keep it going. But no one calls me on that number anyway since we all have iPhone and use FaceTime audio or just iMessage so eSIM.net is just fine for travelers. To me, rolling is just auto-pay. But you're still paying in advance which is the gist of pay as you go. That's how Mint Mobile, US Mobile etc all work. Pre-Paid & PAYG are basically the same thing.
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Good thing Apple didn’t assume the world was— only the US. Gives the rest of the world some time to prepare for the inevitable omission from global SKUs of future iPhones!
It's why I'm holding onto my iPhone SE (the original!!) as a travel phone. So reliable in that regard. My ATT international plan costs $10 per day. In Uganda I can get about 20 GB on a monthly plan for $10 on my AirTel SIM, plus a local phone number.
Not sure why this is such a difficult topic. Apparently your options are few, but you still have options.
Keep a iPhone 13 or older for sim purposes. Look into eSIM providers that apparently don’t offer voice?, or buy a international iPhone 14.
Keep a iPhone 13 or older for sim purposes. Look into eSIM providers that apparently don’t offer voice?, or buy a international iPhone 14.
do you also charge via wireless when you are very low on battery and needed a quick charge?
Agree.
While I also agree with the concerns of those who are on plans with carriers that are behind on this, I definitely think eSIM could be much better for consumers a couple years down the line.
The tiny plastic card is in a sense arbitrary as everything inside a smartphone is 100% digital.
With eSIM, you'd ideally just scan a QR code to load up the right carrier/plan info and be connected instantly.
Whether or not you're making use of the plan you signed up to pay for any amount of months or years shouldn't, in theory at least, make it so that you can't just delete it from your iPhone and use another carrier, or keep it and just load up a second eSIM and switch to that plan when traveling or for whatever purpose.
What does worry me to some extent is that
Might be an effort to incentivize more Americans to go with 14 despite the whole eSIM thing and to keep them from buying one from a country where iPhones 14 still have sim trays.
Example: The $999 14 Pro is about $1500 this year where I live. Not worth it for the sim tray! The $1599 1tb 14 pro max is $2240.
iPhone prices outside the U.S. were already several hundred dollars more in most countries before iPhone 14 launch, due to local taxes etc. But Apple itself jacked prices up on iPhones with what equates to a few hundred dollars additionally this year to save U.S. buyers from the burden.
Might be an effort to incentivize more Americans to go with 14 despite the whole eSIM thing and to keep them from buying one from a country where iPhones 14 still have sim trays.
Example: The $999 14 Pro is about $1500 this year where I live. Not worth it for the sim tray! The $1599 1tb 14 pro max is $2240.
When I am out and I get the auto power saving with 20% battery, I pop my belking MagSafe on the phone.
Whenever I am out with my work bag and my phone is empty, and the MagSafe powerbank, is still have an anker 20.000 powerbank in my bag.
In an absolute emergency I also have cables in my workbag.
But I never let it come that far.
I have an 12 mini (you know with the worst battery ever according to majority) battery health is down to 85%, but I don’t have any problems with that.
Wireless charging exists and it’s good enough, in the coming years it will be perfected.
Airalo provides at least "full speed" LTE in all their destinations. I've not experienced 5G myself but can confirm I got wicked fast speeds on LTE... certainly more than fast enough to do anything I would possibly need on my phone including iOS updates. But let me unpack "speed":Airalow is data only and slow right ?Some need proper 5G speeds and local numbers , this is the only option I could find for travelers to the UK.
Only Travel eSIM With Voice And Data | eSIM.Net
Buy eSIMs. Unlimited data, voice and SMS for just £20 per month. 30-day rolling O2 or Vodafone plans with 5G and WiFi Calling from the only UK-based online eSIM store.
- Throughput: Airalo in my experience has provided unthrottled full speed LTE. Fastest I got in Italy & Germany was over 300mbps. Average between 50mbps - 100mbps
- Latency: Latency is where airalo isn't as good as a local sim. In Europe, I averaged around 75ms pings on airalo. Which is pretty damn good, but not as good as a local. In contrast, at&t and t-mobile roaming averaged around 300ms pings as all traffic from them is routed through a US APN, whereas airalo was routing through someplace in Europe.
All in all, for MY needs whilst traveling I don't need 5G type speeds if I can regularly get 100mbps speeds over LTE. Ironically this speed is WAY better than any hotel premium wifi I paid for, or any other wifi I could find in Europe. Between my cheap-ass relatives in germany's crap wifi and the crappy hotel wifi (even premium) I got the impression ALL the wifi in Germany, Italy and Austria sucks balls. Hell I was even on the guest network of the world's largest Chemical company in Germany (BASF) at their Ludwigshafen headquarters, and it topped out at a measly 10mbps. I ended up using my eSim data nearly exclusively.
The speed difference certainly wouldn't justify the hassle of hunting down a local physical sim and wasting precious time on my work or leisure trip for that purpose. Your mileage may vary.
Fair point “Me Lord” 😝, but I’ll be requiring a “local” number so will be using the services of eSim dot net that will offer that. Least I have one option for now. All good.
I've managed to get eSims for data when I landed in Turkey, Singapore and Malaysia. My iPhone was locked when landing so the eSim did not work, I think it will only work if all iPhones are unlocked.
1. Download Mint Mobile app on your new iPhone 14 Pro
2. Go to Account
3. Scroll down, tap on "Order replacement SIM"
4. Select "Get an eSIM"
5. Select "This is my new device"
6. Confirm whatever
And you're done. That simple.
Here in the UK the Three network in the UK offered eSIMs but later withdrew support - much to my annoyance as I missed the opportunity to combine work and home phones into one handset.
It may have changed but I also investigated eSIM for an O2 contract about a year ago and was told to go to a local O2 shop to physically pick up a QR code - only to find my local shop was 'out of stock' (or, more likely, didn't have a clue).
I think without Apple forcing the pace eSIM would never get off the ground as the carriers here have been hopeless at adopting the tech. Of course that may be self-serving as the physical SIM works to stop casual network switching.
It may have changed but I also investigated eSIM for an O2 contract about a year ago and was told to go to a local O2 shop to physically pick up a QR code - only to find my local shop was 'out of stock' (or, more likely, didn't have a clue).
I think without Apple forcing the pace eSIM would never get off the ground as the carriers here have been hopeless at adopting the tech. Of course that may be self-serving as the physical SIM works to stop casual network switching.