This is a problem for somebody reviewing phones, but how much of a problem is it actually for the average user who will change phones once every few years? And will probably be doing so at a phone store where they can support it.
If eventually, that is every phone, then grab a hotspot and get tethering.
I did have a chuckle at the thought of having a cellphone for your (modded) cellphone… but then I thought about it: “meh, yeah… it’s not a bad idea. I’d do it.”
In most countries, getting a phone in a store is something done only by people happy to pay lots extra for a little human help, surely? The average user now signs up online and gets a phone in the mailbox.
If I asked my mom for her SIM card, she’d ask for her purse so she could attempt to find a credit card that doesn’t exist.
She has no idea how a phone works in any capacity. I’m not being insulting about it, I am informing you of blatant and honest truth.
My cousins, people my age are a hard maybe, I know two family members who went in-store recently. They treat their phones like cars. They use them and that’s as deep as it goes.
That’s not so informative without any idea of your age and thereby the ages of your examples.
Many of them could still follow the assembly/card insertion instruction sheet with pictures that comes in the mail from the phone company, even without knowing which part is called a SIM.
And maybe your area’s phone stores aren’t as notorious for overcharging as the UK’s.
I’m not teaching a class, here, bud. If you need me to tell you that running LineageOS isn’t somehow a skill equivalent to walking into a store, then we have some serious cultural differences between the US and EU regarding average luddite phone ownership.
The stores don’t charge for helping you, no. It’s the same cost for service instore as out, at least in my experience. For all I know Tmobile started charging ‘install fees’ for putting sim cards in.
Those of us who swap SIMs when travelling are also affected. I travel outside my country several times a year and must say that eSIMs sound like a good idea until you actually deal with them. Spending vacation time debugging an eSIM is an annoying distraction.
It’s a software implementation though, so if you have a rooted phone or use another Android OS, you have limited options in apps that implement eSim for you.
OpenEUICC is a good one, but sometimes requires magisk modules to work.
I remember it took me half a day of fiddling to get my eSim working under Lineage.
People forget that your phone supporting “feature X” means that even though it has all the hardware to do X, it still needs to software, which might not be part of the devicetree.
For example paying for items with your phone’s NFC does not happen because of NFC capability. There are no open source solutions to Google Pay. It’s an agreement brokered between Google and Banks that allow the bankcard to be “cloned” and used via NFC, not the NFC doing any cloning of your actual bankcard
I wonder how much of a problem it is when you lost the phone that had your eSIM. If the registration flow requires SMS authentication, how are your supposed to register your eSIM on your brand new phone?
you are supposed to be able to have multiple, 1 or 2 of which can be active, and switch between them whenever you want.
but afaik that’s only possible on rooted phones with openeuicc or another app like it, because by default only google’s own app is allowed to handle esim configuration, and that has limitations in what it allows.
Kind of like the jack. They say removing it does this or that but all it really did was save the corporation a couple cents and was overall a downgrade and removal of functionality for the average person.
This is a problem for somebody reviewing phones, but how much of a problem is it actually for the average user who will change phones once every few years? And will probably be doing so at a phone store where they can support it.
I haven’t been to a phone store in 15 years
points at Lineage boot logo
not you
Speaking of Lineage…
I wonder, how long will it be before you’re not “allowed” to install esims on phones with custom firmware?
Either due to the esim application not installing/running on modified firmware, or the phone will just not allow it.
If that stops Lineage from being practical on that phone, then fuck that phone in particular.
If eventually, that is every phone, then grab a hotspot and get tethering.
We are well on our way. The EU is holding the manufacturer liable if a cellphone radio is “modded”, thus manufacturers are blocking the ability to unlock bootloaders.
I did have a chuckle at the thought of having a cellphone for your (modded) cellphone… but then I thought about it: “meh, yeah… it’s not a bad idea. I’d do it.”
In most countries, getting a phone in a store is something done only by people happy to pay lots extra for a little human help, surely? The average user now signs up online and gets a phone in the mailbox.
If I asked my mom for her SIM card, she’d ask for her purse so she could attempt to find a credit card that doesn’t exist.
She has no idea how a phone works in any capacity. I’m not being insulting about it, I am informing you of blatant and honest truth.
My cousins, people my age are a hard maybe, I know two family members who went in-store recently. They treat their phones like cars. They use them and that’s as deep as it goes.
That’s not so informative without any idea of your age and thereby the ages of your examples.
Many of them could still follow the assembly/card insertion instruction sheet with pictures that comes in the mail from the phone company, even without knowing which part is called a SIM.
And maybe your area’s phone stores aren’t as notorious for overcharging as the UK’s.
I’m not teaching a class, here, bud. If you need me to tell you that running LineageOS isn’t somehow a skill equivalent to walking into a store, then we have some serious cultural differences between the US and EU regarding average luddite phone ownership.
The stores don’t charge for helping you, no. It’s the same cost for service instore as out, at least in my experience. For all I know Tmobile started charging ‘install fees’ for putting sim cards in.
America, age 37, nerd-coded
Those of us who swap SIMs when travelling are also affected. I travel outside my country several times a year and must say that eSIMs sound like a good idea until you actually deal with them. Spending vacation time debugging an eSIM is an annoying distraction.
Can’t your phone store multiple esims? I thought that was actually one of the selling points of the stuff.
It’s a software implementation though, so if you have a rooted phone or use another Android OS, you have limited options in apps that implement eSim for you.
OpenEUICC is a good one, but sometimes requires magisk modules to work.
I remember it took me half a day of fiddling to get my eSim working under Lineage.
People forget that your phone supporting “feature X” means that even though it has all the hardware to do X, it still needs to software, which might not be part of the devicetree.
For example paying for items with your phone’s NFC does not happen because of NFC capability. There are no open source solutions to Google Pay. It’s an agreement brokered between Google and Banks that allow the bankcard to be “cloned” and used via NFC, not the NFC doing any cloning of your actual bankcard
This never happens
I wonder how much of a problem it is when you lost the phone that had your eSIM. If the registration flow requires SMS authentication, how are your supposed to register your eSIM on your brand new phone?
The carrier can bypass that authentication, so basically the same process as if you had lost your physical sim. Show up at the shop in person with id.
…how is that an improvement over physical SIM then ;D
you are supposed to be able to have multiple, 1 or 2 of which can be active, and switch between them whenever you want.
but afaik that’s only possible on rooted phones with openeuicc or another app like it, because by default only google’s own app is allowed to handle esim configuration, and that has limitations in what it allows.
AFAIK, the only ‘improvement’ is that it takes up less physical space.
Kind of like the jack. They say removing it does this or that but all it really did was save the corporation a couple cents and was overall a downgrade and removal of functionality for the average person.