The SIM is the device that carries all the subscription details of your specific mobile connection. It is a small plastic card with a storage chip incorporated where even more is stored like text messages, address book, rates and such. But first and foremost it is the physical representation of your mobile network subscription.
The SIM technology has been around for about 20 years and has proven itself as a reliable solution.
Still it lacks one major characteristic, it limits flexibility to switch between different subscriptions.
Perhaps this is not a real issue for end-users i.e. consumers but professional users can experience this lack of flexibility as annoying.
When you have multiple subscriptions, which also implies that you will have multiple SIM’s in your possession, it is impossible to switch quickly between these subscriptions (= change operator network). Especially where the SIM connection(s) is the only internet connection this can be quite problematic.
That is where the eSIM technology will help us.
The eSIM is a ‘software SIM‘. Without going too deep in the technology specifics this solution enables switching between mobile networks without opening devices, swapping SIM cards. Let aside the fact that alternative SIM cards are often not instant available.
Believe it or not the most practical shortcomings have happened to customers. Guys with big hands and thick fingers lost SIM cards while trying to insert these in devices. Or standing on a raster floor tile inside a ship where the SIM card fell ‘through’ the floor to lower decks. We can open a book with stories here.
The SIM card device has evolved and new SIM technology standards have been introduced which enable not just to store data but also programs. This in turn will enable to switch properly between subscriptions. The effect will be that the profile of the device will change immediately.
The reason to do so depends entirely on the demands of the user.
– Is there a network outage? Then it is good to be able to switch to another alternative available network.
– Is the current network in use charging a high tariff? Just switch to an alternative lower charging network.
This all is easier said than done. On one side it requires dedicated software to manipulate the SIM which is often remote mounted inside equipment. At the other side there is the mobile network operator that must enable its operations to support this technology where they also know there is a chance for them to earn less than with traditional subscriptions. See the conflicting interests here.
Then, as well, all this ‘profile manipulation’ has to be performed in an extreme secure way. Both the devices as the used tools cannot be comprimised, adding a couple of extra layers of difficulty on top of the ‘eSIM concept’. However this all has been solved. So both commercial as technological this all had some challenges, now the ball is on the side of the customers.
The market is slowly moving into the direction of eSIM technology. Patience seems to be the word here.