What are eSIMs for phones and how they work

In smartphones, space is increasingly important, and to make room for new components we'll soon have to say goodbye to classic SIM cards and embrace eSIMs

In the smartphones of the future, space will be everything. The quest for more space for batteries, screens and sensors will, by necessity, claim victims. That's why Apple has decided to sacrifice the 3.5-millimeter headphone jack, but soon even the SIM card could be replaced with eSIMs.

Today's phones have state-of-the-art features, so much so that they don't fear comparison to some computers. But to make them as efficient as they are, engineers and designers have had to "cut" some components over time. Especially to make room for batteries that can withstand increasingly specialized and powerful applications. According to many experts, soon even the classic SIM will be replaced to prevent their slots from taking up too much space. In its place we will see eSIMs also called SoftSIMs. In practice, a microchip printed on the logic board of the smartphone, or any other electronic device with connectivity to the cellular network.

What are the eSIM

In practice, instead of the classic card, which over time if you notice has become increasingly smaller, we will have a microscopic device capable of containing all the data stored until now within the circuits of the classic plastic card. To be honest, eSIMs are not a real novelty. Similar devices are already in use on smartphones and tablets, only they don't cover the function of replacing a SIM but are used to save data useful for the use of the phone. No problem with the ICCID code, the one that uniquely identifies the SIM and is used when switching from one operator to another, this can also be included in SoftSIMs, or eSIMs as you like.

ESIM Advantages

In addition to the obvious recovery of space that will be used by developers and manufacturers to create new functions, it is clear that eSIMs also bring advantages to users. The consumer in fact with this system will shorten the time needed in the change of operator, as it will no longer have to replace the physical plastic card. It will be enough to call the customer service to move their data on the new user. In this way you will also avoid losing phone numbers saved on the SIM and not transferred before the change of operator. Not to mention the problems when changing smartphones. Often the card of the old phone is not compatible with the new one (depending on the size, Normal, Micro or Nano). And you have to go to our operator to request a new one. Operation that in addition to time also costs money. With eSIMs, these steps will be cancelled.

How to register a virtual SIM

At the moment, the real problem with eSIMs is that manufacturers do not have a single standard for their use. This means that at the moment creating your own virtual card might be more complicated than using a classic SIM. Apple is one of the few companies that has presented a clear plan in this regard for users. To register an eSim just go to Settings and then access the Mobile section. At this point we'll have to wait a few moments and an information tab will appear where we can select one of the phone operators available in the area where we are. It will be possible to choose between the various rates and promotions available at that moment and sign the contract with the operator you prefer. At the moment this solution is only possible on iOS. Given the importance of the topic, however, it can not be excluded that soon many other manufacturers will explain their plans on virtual SIM.