Other The world isn’t ready for eSIM only phones…

[Novius89]

It would drive me nuts if I had to worry about power on my iPhone all the time.

I don’t pay any attention to my batteries.

I have this stuff with me because at work/college I use an iPad and Apple Pencil and MacBook and they tend to be empty after a long day. If we decide to do something after college it’s nice to charge everything

 

[deeddawg]

Excellent point. I'm not in the US but on reflection I think you are correct. In the UK I use a local SA SIM when I travel to South Africa so when the UK models no longer have a physical SIM I will be concerned not only with my main UK plan but also about what I will do about my PAYG SIM that I use in South Africa.

Worldwide carriers really do have a lot of work to do potentially in the next 12 months. For travellers I imagine that the use of PAYG plans is by far the majority and in the UK it is the lack of eSIM options for PAYG that is most apparent right now. I don't think any PAYG connection is available via eSIM in either the UK or South Africa which are the two countries I care about. That really does need to change pretty much everywhere to empower international travellers again.

Check out https://www.mobilitypass.com/sim/en/esim?country=South Africa&type=PAYG

No direct experience with them but it seems eSIM is supported?

Edit: Actually, on that list, how many are MVNOs (Mobile Virtual Network Operators)? In the UK that is another dead zone for eSIMs. various MVNOs such as Lebara, GiffGaff, Smarty and others advertise widely and I think have quite sizeable user communities but as far as I am aware none right now offers eSIM which would be an issue for me since I use Lebara. Maybe the MVNO market in the US is a bit ahead of the UK in this respect?

In the US the pretty much every carrier except AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon are MVNO's riding on one of the three listed carrier networks. (edit - US Cellular is a regional carrier I believe, not an MVNO)

 

[rambo47]

People lost their minds when Apple dropped floppy discs from laptops.
People screamed when Apple removed the port for wired headphones.
It was a crisis when Apple started making phones with non-removable batteries.
Now its physical SIM cards. This too shall pass.

 

[deeddawg]

The lack of a headphone jack or charging brick doesn’t prevent you from accessing services that require two factor authentication. For example, if your phone’s touchscreen is unresponsive or your battery fails (let’s not act like this is a “rare” case) how will you access online banking services? You will be without a phone number until you get another eSIM enabled phone and then contact your carrier for an eSIM or find a physical sim phone and then head over to your carrier for a physical sim. Either way you’re out of a phone number until then. I’m sure Apple has thought of this scenario and may already have a solution in the works (i.e. iCloud eSIM 🤷🏻‍♂️).

It's not really a good idea to use your phone number for 2FA... Better to use alternate methods, including potentially a Google Voice number if the provider insists on SMS.

why you shouldn't use phone number for 2fa at DuckDuckGo

duckduckgo.com

 

[hsnsky]

It's not really a good idea to use your phone number for 2FA... Better to use alternate methods, including potentially a Google Voice number if the provider insists on SMS.

why you shouldn't use phone number for 2fa at DuckDuckGo

duckduckgo.com

Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) using an authenticator app can be a more secure option than 2FA but unfortunately not every service supports it. I'm looking at you Wells Fargo.

 

[Dovahkiing]

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.

Nice

Not to be too off topic - and I'm sure this applies to many MVNO's generally, not just Mint - but coming from one of the major carriers, I am consistently surprised by the fact that Mint (or again, probably any MVNO) is like 90% the product for less than 50% the price.

 

[deeddawg]

Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) using an authenticator app can be a more secure option than 2FA but unfortunately not every service supports it. I'm looking at you Wells Fargo.

It'd be nice if WF would do MFA. Chase is nice in they push a confirmation prompt via your phone app when using website.

You might consider sourcing a new google voice (or other VOIP) number to use for WF 2FA and nowhere else. That would at least add a layer of obfuscation and guard against SIM swap attacks.