this post was submitted on 08 Apr 2024

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More and more people are ditching carrier roaming in favor of travel eSIMs (www.androidauthority.com)

submitted 7 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago

I'm using Roamless because the eSim is pretty cool, automatically swaps to whatever country I'm in, rates are near local prices, and the best part is it's pay as you go and your balance doesn't expire. There's plenty of other good services too, but they charge for a certain period of time while still being limited data. Some are unlimited which are pretty cool though, but haven't seen another service that's able to swap between countries like Roamless though.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Size of card aside, the notion of getting local provider sims or pay-as-you-go SIMs while traveling has been a thing in Europe for at least 20 years.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I have never used an eSIM, but I'd like to know about them. Can anyone explain what are some reasons to use it?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

I was in Japan 1 week ago. I couldn't get roaming to work with my carrier mint (which may not have been there fault, it's a long story) but I needed data or I would have no way to navigate Tokyo. I paid $25 for 14 days of unlimited 4G data in all of Japan, I downloaded an esim, boom now I have data on my phone again. Easy.

I did all of this on free airport WiFi.

And once u have a sim on ur phone u can switch which sims you have active at a givin time, which had no value to me, but could be useful for other, especially someone who may travel frequently.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I pay more than that as my regular rate.

The City pays me an $80/month cell stipend for a work phone and the only reason it even covers my work phone is because I had an old backup phone I was able to activate.

If it weren't a public job I'd just use it towards my regular phone bill, but I don't want my personal phone to be subject to Open Records.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Yeah I pay $20 a month with mint. They're a killer provider, u get a lot for almost nothing.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

I used to have to go buy physical sims and use a wifi hotspot when I needed internet in the places that weren't covered under EU roaming because the roaming rates were so insane. Now I spend a small fraction of that amount on an esim that lasts just the duration of my trip and gives me just how much I need, and I don't even have to visit a shop. I just do it from my phone. Massive improvement.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago (1 children)

There is better: eSIM that let you buy cheap data anywhere in the world.

Revolut offers one, also ubigi which is even cheaper.

This way you don't even need to find out which operator to use in which country.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Not sure how this is different. I don't really find out which carrier I'm using in each country, I use an app which lists all the countries and the offers available. I choose one and install it on my phone. Usually it's a limited time eSIM just for the duration of my trip.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

What app is that?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

Airalo

[–] [email protected] 10 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Is there a FOSS implementation of esim any where? AFAIK all privacy/security rom need to download a proprietary component to use esim, and such component need to run as root (as of now).

I wonder if this is another HDMI situation where implementing a FOSS version would violate some NDA of some sort.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

Well, this is a bit tricky to answer:

The e-sim in a phone is a separate chip with proprietary firmware. The chances of a FOSS version of this HW are nearly nonexistent. It would require developing your own silicon and putting it into your own phones. Chances of FOSS FW for this proprietary HW are also very small, because it is difficult and there is not much reason to do so.
Currently, registering an e-sim requires a proprietary app (usually google). There is no FOSS alternative. Work on one is slow and there are some IP issues.
Using an e-sim does not require a proprietary app. So you can remove google services or remove their access to the e-sim HW once you have it registered. GrapheneOS uses this.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

Huh, TIL, an esim is literally a sim soldered into the board.

Now I wonder, could something like the Pinephone FOSS modem firmware register a sim and resolve point 2?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

I am not an expert but I don't think a modem has anything to do with registering the e-sim.

Even if it did, the hard part is probably getting the e-sim data/keys to be registered, not the uploading it to the e-sim chip itself.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago

free trial tmobile (esim)

[–] [email protected] 25 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (4 children)

Since way back in the 90s, everytime I stayed somewhere for longer than a week (or I really really needed mobile data) I would simply buy a local pay-as-you-go SIM for it.

This has been made even simpler to do with the advent of dual SIM phones were you can have a SIM for calls with your personal phone number and a different SIM for data.

Further, here in the EU ever since they passed some legislation some years ago, mobile operators can't charge extra for roaming within the EU so none of that is even needed anymore if you're just travelling withing the EU.

What exactly is the great advantage of eSIMs if you have a dual SIM phone?!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

What exactly is the great advantage of eSIMs if you have a dual SIM phone?!

They are slowly phasing our sim card slots, my phone only has one sim card slot + eSIM. Without the eSIM, I'd be force to change or buy a new phone.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago

That's like saying that the advantage of DRM in media files is that consumers are forced to use it.

The only advantage for consumers I see for eSIMs is that they can be bought online and digitally delivered, so mild convenience, which is nice, but not quite as amazing or filling a great necessity as the OP tries to make it sound like.

Beyond that, well it creates new business models and is probably cheaper for mobile phone makers, which are advantages for others, but not for consumers since the barriers to entry in the mobile arena that make it prone to cartels aren't in the provision of SIMs, they're in things like radio spectrum licensing so eSIMs aren't going to cause a price revolution in that market.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 7 months ago

What exactly is the great advantage of eSIMs if you have a dual SIM phone?!

eSim means you don’t have to go to a store to get a physical SIM. You can use a ‘SIM store’ app to get an eSIM for wherever you are.

Another minor advantage is that you don’t need a SIM PIN as the SIM is a physical part of the phone. So you only need to enter one code when you restart your phone.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 7 months ago (1 children)

In some countries it’s not easy like walking in to a store and getting a prepaid card. You need to have an ID and a local address, probably to prevent bad events which use sims cards. A travel sim could be easier but more expensive.

eSIM is much easier and can be activated using an app.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago

Yeah, I wanted to do this in Iceland a number of years back, and they needed a local bank account in order to open one.

My Icelandic father-in-law helpfully offered to put it on his own bank account, saying he'd just cancel it at the end of the month. This was acceptable. Gave him like £10 to pay for it.

Went back two years later. You'll never guess what he'd forgotten to do...

[–] [email protected] 8 points 7 months ago (1 children)

What exactly is the great advantage of eSIMs if you have a dual SIM phone?!

If the phone supports a normal and eSIM at the same time, they are equivalent. Because in many countries, dual SIM phones are (and will be) harder to get than single SIM ones, so having eSIM at least allows that.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

You can have as many esims as you want too, so you can have 10 numbers or data packages if you want. Just open the app, buy one, install it and it's ready to go, no need to deal with phone companies.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

Do they all connect to their phone networks at the same time? I doubt that...

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

I've never noticed that they disconnected if I had them enabled. But I've never had more than a couple active at a time.

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