Will there be any iPhone's that support traditional SIM's in the United States

Question

Level 1

11 points

Will there be any iPhone's that support traditional SIM's in the United States

I absolutely hate eSIM's. It takes us back to the old days of cellular service and ESN's that we had to register with the carrier to activate the phone. I was helping a friend two days ago migrate from an iPhone XR to an iPhone 14 and it was a nightmare. What would have been an easy SIM swap in the past took over an hour before I threw up my hands. My friend has service with Metro. He wanted to activate it through customer service so we called. Came to find out it would cost $25 to do it over the phone. So we decided to go the online route. I put his IMEI number in and was told his plan did not support this device. Tried again, same message. Decided to call customer support again and found out that the SIM swap is prohibited for grandfathered plans (obviously not an issue with a physical SIM card). His old plan is $25/month per line and a current plan is $36/month line. They agreed to a temporary plan change to allow the swap to go through but since we were on the old phone we had to pause the process to get some final instructions. I pressed "Continue" and the Metro eSIM website failed on an SSL error. Retried the process again and it still failed. I tried reentering the IMEI and then got a message saying there were website issues and to try later. Then we got a message that the account was reverted back to the grandfathered plan so we could not longer make the attempt. It was one hour later and I told him to go to a store and have them deal with it.

I have an iPhone 6S Plus that I want to replace but I will not purchase any device that uses an eSIM. So I am stuck with either getting an older refurbished unit or waiting to see if Apple offers the option to buy a SIM device in the United States again. I hated the days of the ESN and this experience proves that the carrier can again decide if they want your device on the network or not. The SIM card was the ultimate freedom to choose the device you wanted and use it provided it had the bands and air interface support.

Posted on Nov 30, 2023 7:32 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Niel

Community+ 2026

Level 10

744,973 points

Nov 30, 2023 7:38 AM in response to n2jtx

Apple currently offers iPhone 13 and third generation iPhone SE units in the USA that support a physical SIM card, but won't for newer models.

(247798)

Reply

Answer 2

n2jtx Author

Level 1

11 points

Nov 30, 2023 9:07 AM in response to IdrisSeabright

Maybe it is MVNO's because the owner of my firm has two daughters that now have iPhone 15's (they migrated from older SIM based iPhone's). He spent an eternity trying to them activated with Altice's Optimum Mobile but I was not in on that process at the time and only found out about it after relating this issue to him (he has an iPhone 13).

But again it is a case where I have to now involve the carrier in something that I did not have to before and that is a loss of customer control. I can understand why the EU governing body is still mandating SIM's as they were the ones that insisted on them in the first place as a pro-consumer initiative. Looks like I will dig around for an iPhone 13 and go that route. Maybe in a dozen years the eSIM system will sort itself out but I am not encouraged by the step back of having to register my device with the carrier rather than just dealing with the card. This was the way it was for Verizon and Sprint with the CDMA 2000 system (AT&T and T-Mobile were GSM with SIM cards). You could only activate a device on their network that they approved. It is a system ripe for abuse.

Reply

Answer 3

100clicks

Level 4

1,281 points

Nov 30, 2023 7:45 AM in response to n2jtx

There are eSims where you don't need to call the carrier you just get a QR code from your Sim plan app and it doesn't need to be activated because it supports Quick Transfer, so probably you should be selective on the Carriers.

Reply

Answer 4

Nov 30, 2023 8:09 AM in response to n2jtx

I suspect part of the problem here was Metro PCS. They are what is called a "mobile virtual network operator." That means they don't have their own network. Instead, they use the networks of one or more of the big three. This introduces another layer into the whole process. Also, budget MVNOs are not known for great customer service. And, they like to nickel and dime you on things the big carriers often include.

I recently moved from an iPhone 11 Pro with a SIM to an iPhone 15 Pro with an eSIM. The process was almost seamless. There was no contacting the carrier involved. So, I think maybe you shouldn't assume, based on one bad experience that the whole process is flawed.

Reply

Answer 5

n2jtx Author

Level 1

11 points

Dec 1, 2023 5:42 AM in response to 100clicks

Agreed! That would be ideal. I should not have to get permission from my carrier to switch phones which is what you have to do now with eSIM's and which they can easily muck up if they want to. Once I have an eSIM number, equivalent to the physical SIM number (ICCID), that should be the number to deal with and I should be able to move it virtually from device to device. The fact that the eSIM process is basically the same as going into the store and getting a new physical SIM card every time you change phones pretty much trashes the SIM concept of account and device independence. As I mentioned earlier, it is no different than the bad old days of having to register your ESN with Verizon or Sprint in order for them to activate your new phone. They could always say no if they did not like your device (Verizon was particularly egregious in that regard under the claim of "protecting their network").

The experience I just went through I do not want to repeat again for any device I own.

Reply

Answer 6

100clicks

Level 4

1,281 points

Nov 30, 2023 11:11 AM in response to n2jtx

In my opinion the eSim would work if it was sold like the physical Sim. You buy your pack where the eSim is a QR code, and that is what it should be, a QR code, and you use the same for every phone anytime you want to swap

Reply

Will there be any iPhone's that support traditional SIM's in the United States

Similar questions