topic Re: eSIM for PAYG in SIM cards & Porting

eSIM for PAYG

Kirigaya_Kazuto — Thu, 08 Sep 2022 09:51:28 GMT

With the new iPhone 14 going SIM tray less in the U.S (the UK thankfully keeps the SIM tray) does this change the stance of carriers, like EE, Vodafone, o2 and Three. The fact they don't support eSIMS on PAYG, what does the community think to that?

Personally I think it's ridiculous that PAYG isn't supported as eSIMS have now been around for 4/5 years now! Granted we will still need plastic sims for older phones that do not support eSIM, but phones that ONLY support eSIM seem to be coming fast, usually when Apple do something, the Android market follows

Re: eSIM for PAYG

Christopher_G — Thu, 08 Sep 2022 11:59:59 GMT

Hi @Kirigaya_Kazuto

Welcome to the community.

If anything changes we'll update our website and help pages.

Chris

Re: eSIM for PAYG

Chris_B — Thu, 08 Sep 2022 12:24:59 GMT

@Kirigaya_Kazuto At present that’s not applicable to UK iPhones so nothing to worry about just yet.

Re: eSIM for PAYG

JJay — Thu, 08 Sep 2022 13:42:21 GMT

I agree. When Apple decide something they do move fast. I think US esim only iPhone 14 is kinda warning to rest of world, telling them hurry up get esim sorted out! Most network here don’t offer PAYG esim and I use EE PAYG bundle and unfortunately I am stuck with physical sim at moment. I agree is getting ridiculous that they taking so long and so slow update system use modern tech.

I hope EE (and rest of UK network) finally move esim option for all and not leave any out.

Re: eSIM for PAYG

vasisht — Tue, 20 Sep 2022 14:20:05 GMT

Agreed. I live in the US and have a UK number for travel purposes. My choices are to cancel my EE account or not upgrade to any future iPhone.

Re: eSIM for PAYG

Kirigaya_Kazuto — Tue, 20 Sep 2022 14:30:45 GMT

I just don't understand the barriers, surely it's cheaper than printing a SIM that has to be in 3 different sizes and shipping the SIM card in the post to the customer? to do an eSIM (even if they need to send it in the post) it's less waste and less to go wrong too (in terms of the SIM becoming faulty)

Re: eSIM for PAYG

SgtPinback — Wed, 21 Sep 2022 18:42:51 GMT

My wife and I in the same situation as you vasisht. We're not going to go Pay Monthly, so it puts us in the situation of either moving away from EE or not upgrading.

The challenging thing, though, is that I'm not aware of *any* UK providers yet who support voice+data eSIMs on PAYG... there are plenty of data-only eSIMS but none I can find that give you a voice phone number.

Hopefully this will get sorted out as eSIM becomes more common, but it's a big hassle now...

Re: eSIM for PAYG

vasisht — Thu, 01 Dec 2022 15:43:42 GMT

Agree - and there's no real reason for it other than corporate refusal to listen to the wants of its customers. There's no technological barrier here.