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Apple Moves the iPhone Away From Physical SIMs (arstechnica.com)
The new iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max will use eSIM technology to allow users to use two phone lines on a single device. You could have a work or personal number, or an American and Canadian number if you travel across the border frequently. The reprogrammable SIM card is "soldered onto the iPhone's motherboard directly," and measures just 6 millimeters by 5 millimeters," reports Ars Technica, citing GSMArena.com. From the report: These handsets will have a new "dual SIM dual standby" option, one of which will be a nano SIM. In other words, they will have two distinct phone numbers. (Chinese models will have two SIM slots instead of the eSIM option.) Since their debut in 1991, traditional, physical SIM cards have decreased dramatically in size. eSIMs have already been around for nearly a year, since they were introduced into the Apple Watch and Google Pixel 2, among other devices.
This doesn't add up. I bought a phone from AT&T and once it was paid for, I went to AT&T and they walked me through the unlocking process.
I planned a trip to the UK and a friend mailed me an activated prepaid Asda SIM. When the pilot announced we were landing in 30 minutes, I ejected my AT&T SIM and inserted the Asda SIM.
Once we landed, I immediately had voice and data service on Asda's network.
The only carrier involvement was the unlocking process.
My most recent iPhone I bought unlocked from Apple directly. I don't even think I went to AT&T, I just moved my SIM to the new phone and it worked.
I think the parent poster's concern is legitimate -- this is easy and only involves a tiny card now. eSIM switching sounds way more complicated. I can't just pop into a shop and buy a prepaid SIM when I land unless there's some method of reprogramming my SIM on the phone with some code from a package and both the phone and the local network are smart enough to do this over the air without costing me a million dollars in roaming fees, finding a landline, using a laptop, etc.
My experience with carriers makes me believe they will do everything in their power to make this complicated and diffcult.