eSim, talk to me

[Tyre Smoke]

I understand an eSim is downloaded to your phone and away you go.

But how much hassle is it to swap phones? Obviously at the moment I can just remove my nano sim and put it into another device and away I go. How does an eSim work?

[rab.s]

I swapped E-sim to E-sim a few months back.
Process was go in to phone shop me ask for a new E-sim pack.
Go to mobile co website, log in to account and request sim swap.
Put in serial number from new sim.
Confirm via text message that you want to swap sim on old sim.
2 mins later (although it says up to 24 hours) old sim disconnected.
Scanned new E-sim barcode on new phone and was up and running.

Other than going to the phone shop to collect the new E-sim pack, done in 15 mins.

[megaphone]

EE posted a QR code to me, I scanned it to set up. I have a dual sim phone so esim was necessary for the second number.

[Paft Dunk]

Having read into it myself I concluded that EE had it sorted and you could move your esim yourself via QR codes and email. O2 however you needed to get something sent to you in the post. Would they post me a spare one for use in the future if my phone was damaged? Nope! So 24 hr phone replacement, then a bit of hassle to get esim up and running if lost or you purchased a new phone (on o2).

If this has changed, let me know!

On the plus side. It frees up physical slot for a local sim when travelling for cheap / fast data from local networks.

[s1962a]

Pretty hassle free on Vodafone as well, even when I upgraded my phone.

[deckster]

rab.s said:

Other than going to the phone shop to collect the new E-sim pack, done in 15 mins.

Forgive me for being dense here. But what is the point of an e-sim if you need to physically go to a shop to get a new one?

[Tyre Smoke]

I was thinking that.

There is no shop near me. I guess they would have to post or email it out to me. Email being far less hassle that the wait on the post.

[rab.s]

deckster said:

Forgive me for being dense here. But what is the point of an e-sim if you need to physically go to a shop to get a new one?

For me, it frees up the physical SIM for my work SIM. I now only need to carry one phone.

I agree, if implemented properly by the mobile phone companies it would be a doddle. The technology is there to assign E-sims via an app. As usual, telephone companies are making it much harder than needed.
Don’t get me started on three, who rolled out E-sims, but only available to collect in a handful of stores. Then abandoned the concept and left users with no way of getting a replacement E-sim. Abandoned them for 02, who seem to have a workable solution.

[AJB88]

Is it just iPhones that use Esim?

[GuyW]

AJB88 said:

Is it just iPhones that use Esim?

No, several Android handsets as well. Outside China I can see physical SIMs disppearing in the not too distant future.

[Tyre Smoke]

The Motorola Razr (the new one) only uses eSim. The new Samsungs seem to only have room for one physical sim meaning a dual sim has to be an eSim. Hence my original post.

[AJB88]

Ah yeh just checked my phone (Pixel 5) supports esim, my network (Three) supports it but they aren't issuing them at the moment.

[JiggyJaggy]

I understand from getting an e-sim on an existing monthly contract that in essence you have a secondary number within the same physical handset? One being the original physical sim and the new one being an e-sim?

Can anyone take a pic or explain how you "switch" between the two numbers etc? How is everyone finding it?

Ideally I am trying to mitigate the need to carry a secondary phone....

[megaphone]

Here's my thread from a while back when I asked. Are you on an iPhone?

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

[JiggyJaggy]

Yes I am on an iP13 Pro