As someone who has worked in the telco industry for over 30 years now, I like eSIMs as a _secondary_ method of using services but avoid them as much as possible for any of my critical numbers — simply because I want to be able to move my SIM to another phone in an emergency without needing to visit a store.
In an age where phone authentication is still absolutely critical (banking and all sorts of online services still rely on texting you six-digit codes instead of relying on TOTP air stronger non-phone-number-dependent methods), being without my phone number for a day or more when I’m stuck in the middle of nowhere is completely untenable.
Also, eSIM implementations range from ultra-smooth to hilariously bad. There are still providers (I’m looking at you, Vodafone Portugal) that absolutely require you to buy, unwrap and scan a physical piece of paper with a QR code printed on it, like an animal, _because they actually keep inventory_ of those printed pieces of paper.
Yes, it’s as if the Industrial Revolution was still getting started at telcos.
Anyway, the above is why I will always get devices with physical SIM slots for as long as I possibly can—-and when I can’t, I will likely incur the expense of getting a secondary phone where I can reactivate my critical numbers myself without visiting a store.
They’re great for IoT devices and Internet access, but a liability if you still require receiving texts at a given number for anything important as if your phone dies, you’re SOL—-and nobody in the industry cares about that, or about ensuring travelers can re-activate eSIMs in foreign countries where their provider simply doesn’t exist.
In an age where phone authentication is still absolutely critical (banking and all sorts of online services still rely on texting you six-digit codes instead of relying on TOTP air stronger non-phone-number-dependent methods), being without my phone number for a day or more when I’m stuck in the middle of nowhere is completely untenable.
Also, eSIM implementations range from ultra-smooth to hilariously bad. There are still providers (I’m looking at you, Vodafone Portugal) that absolutely require you to buy, unwrap and scan a physical piece of paper with a QR code printed on it, like an animal, _because they actually keep inventory_ of those printed pieces of paper.
Yes, it’s as if the Industrial Revolution was still getting started at telcos.
Anyway, the above is why I will always get devices with physical SIM slots for as long as I possibly can—-and when I can’t, I will likely incur the expense of getting a secondary phone where I can reactivate my critical numbers myself without visiting a store.
They’re great for IoT devices and Internet access, but a liability if you still require receiving texts at a given number for anything important as if your phone dies, you’re SOL—-and nobody in the industry cares about that, or about ensuring travelers can re-activate eSIMs in foreign countries where their provider simply doesn’t exist.