As vacation season looms, now is as good a time as ever to bite the
bullet and become familiar with a smartphone feature that many of us have
ignored for years: the eSIM, the digital version of the SIM card that carries
your phone number.
اضافة اعلان
Among many benefits, eSIM technology is a boon for travelers,
and pretty soon, we will all be using it because the physical SIM card will be
no more. Let me explain.
Last year, Apple eliminated the SIM card tray from the iPhone 14
to free up space. That means the SIM card, which acts as a key that connects
your phone with cellular networks, is being phased out for Apple phones.
Where Apple leads, others typically follow, so you can expect
handset makers like Samsung and Google to also go all-in on eSIM — a digitized
SIM card embedded into the phone’s computer chip that you can activate with any
cellular network’s service plan.
“Whether we like it or not, it’s coming,” Roger Entner, a
telecom expert and founder of the research firm Recon Analytics, said about
eSIM technology.
But this move is not really all about Apple. The Federal Communications
Commission also favors eSIM technology, because it makes it easier for people
to switch to a different carrier by using software instead of going to a store
for a physical SIM card. And the technology has security benefits: If your
phone is stolen, thieves cannot remove an eSIM to hijack your phone number and
commit identity theft as they could with a physical SIM card.
Most importantly, the experience of using eSIM data plans for
travel has greatly improved. About five years ago, eSIM data plans for
international roaming were overpriced, and cell service was sometimes
unreliable. But in the past year, I have tested a few eSIM services when I left
the country and found them to be cost-effective and zippy.
As is always the case with new technology, there are downsides.
Activating a data plan on a foreign network with an eSIM is not as
straightforward as sticking a different SIM card into your phone. The process
is especially challenging for those who are less familiar with technology,
putting the onus on more tech-savvy companions to help them make the switch.
There are also privacy concerns. Many eSIM service providers
offer apps that collect your data for tracking purposes.
You can use my experience as a template for navigating the
inevitable transition to eSIM. Recently, I tried eSIM data plans when traveling
with several members of my family and acted as their tech sherpa through the
switch.
Step 1: Pick an eSIMThe main reason to use eSIM services for travel is to save
money. The big US carriers, like AT&T and Verizon, offer international
roaming options, including $10 day passes for using your phone in foreign
countries. The costs quickly add up for a two-week trip with family.
In contrast, an eSIM data package that can be used for the
entirety of your trip costs a few dollars. The tricky part is choosing an eSIM
service provider because there are many, and most are unfamiliar brands like
Airalo, GigSky and Flexiroam. (Apple provides a list of eSIM service providers
on its website.)
For a recent weeklong trip to Montreal, I researched travel
blogs and picked Nomad, which offered 1GB of data that could be used for seven
days in Canada for $7. I had the option to activate the plan with Nomad’s app
or by following setup instructions on the company’s website. The app had high
reviews in the App Store, so I clicked the download button.
Step 2: Activate the eSIM ServiceA nice thing about eSIM is that you can buy a plan and set up
the service on your phone well in advance of a trip, then activate it when you
arrive at your destination. After you buy a plan, the eSIM service provider
sends you a list of instructions.
The Nomad app showed a list of steps. In the iPhone’s settings app,
I clicked on the cellular menu, clicked “Add eSIM” and typed in an activation
code. As I crossed the border into Canada, I went back into the cellular
settings, selected the Nomad phone line and toggled on the option for “Turn on
this line.”
“That’s why you should always opt out of any tracking. You shouldn’t sell yourself for pennies on a dollar.”
(If you still use a physical SIM card for your domestic phone
line, you need not remove it. In the phone’s cellular settings, you just switch
off the service for your primary line to avoid roaming charges.)
After I picked this eSIM plan, I shared the Nomad app with my
wife and brother-in-law, who each followed the instructions to set it up by
themselves. I didn’t know how to advise my mother-in-law, who never downloads
apps, how to set up the plan, so I did it for her.
Herein lies the real problem: Less tech-inclined folks are
probably not going to know how to use eSIM services. When my mother-in-law went
on a trip to Hong Kong alone and I wasn’t nearby to set up the service for her,
I told her to pay for AT&T’s international roaming plan and find a store
later to buy a SIM card from a Hong Kong phone carrier.
Terry Guo, a chief product officer of LotusFlare, the company
that developed Nomad, agreed that the main demographic of travelers using eSIM
service plans comprised younger, more tech-savvy people.
“We are doing a lot of work in the app to make this simpler,” he
said.
Optional (but important) Step: Protect your privacyAnother downside to eSIM services is privacy-related. All the
eSIM service providers I researched in Apple’s App Store said in their app
descriptions that they did some tracking of users across different apps and
websites.
Toni Toikka, the CEO of Alekstra, a company that helps
businesses reduce their wireless bills, underlined the importance of
safeguarding personal information from eSIM providers. He said many of these
companies, known as mobile virtual network operators, had struggled to generate
profit.
“One way they think they’ll make money is selling your
information,” Toikka said. “That’s why you should always opt out of any
tracking. You shouldn’t sell yourself for pennies on a dollar.”
Guo said that the Nomad app contained Google’s analytics
technology to see how people were using the app and that people who logged into
the app with their Facebook accounts could also be tracked by Facebook.
A simple workaround to data collection is to avoid logging in to
an app with third-party sites like Facebook and Google. Apple users can also
click “Ask app not to track” when opening an eSIM app for the first time.
Android users do not have the option to ask apps not to track
them, so their best option is to buy the eSIM plan from the company’s website
and set up the service without downloading the app.
Bottom lineOverall, the pros of eSIM outweigh the cons. Traveling with a
smartphone with SIM cards wasn’t relaxing because you needed to carry a pin to
eject the card tray; plus, you had to make sure not to lose the tiny SIM card.
When returning from a trip using eSIM services, all you have to
do is go back into the phone’s settings app and switch your domestic phone line
back on. That simplicity and peace of mind make eSIM worth the hassle.
Read more Technology
Jordan News
.jpg)
.jpg)
