Using eSIMs with devices that only have a physical SIM slot via a 9eSIM SIM car

Thanks for mentioning the provider.

It apparently can be done: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twFC0A_m0KI

Supposedly the people doing this at scale (for grey imports?) even de-solder the eSIM module and resell it, but I have my doubts about that part of the story.

> My mental model for old fashioned physical SIMs is that they would roam on the network you're visiting.

No, that's never really been the case. It's technically possible (and called "local breakout"), but for various reasons I also don't fully understand, it's usually not done that way.

One is legal liability for user actions; another is accessibility of services at home, such as banking apps, that are probably more comfortable with a familiar IP.

Note cloud provisioning does require an active data esim profile on the card already

Many providers actually let you use Wi-Fi calling without any VPN, i.e. they don't arbitrarily restrict the set of allowed IPs that can connect to their Internet gateway.

> If I have troubles receiving SMSs from Germany to German number while in US, would wifi calling icrease the chances of receiving the said SMSs?

Probably not, unless your provider supports inbound and outbound SMS via ISM. If you have an iPhone, you can check whether yours does in Settings -> About -> Tap the name of your carrier. (If it lists "Voice and SMS", you might be good; if it's only "voice" or nothing at all, SMS will go over the visited network.)

In my experience, wi-fi calling works as if on the home network, regardless of IP location/endpoint. So this would work similarly with an eSIM.

> If I have troubles receiving SMSs from Germany to German number while in US, would wifi calling icrease the chances of receiving the said SMSs?

I'm not up to date on the state of messaging infrastructure but it used to be the case that some providers would offer non-standard methods for sending messages over their network to intermediary providers. Rather than sending an SMS to a number, a business would ask the intermediary to send a message and the intermediary would use the non-standard method provided by the network provider. The non-standard methods work fine if you're connected to the network directly but if you're overseas that will not be the case and so you can't receive these non-standard messages. Don't quote me on any of that, though.

Alternatively, use a global eSIM purely for data access, then use your phone as a SIP client (or use something like Google Voice) for PSTN access, eschewing the mobile network entirely.

Yes, see: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42768735

Are there even roaming costs at all when calling over wifi? Would make sense to me if there weren't, since you're not using the mobile infrastructure you would be paying for.

Then again I could also easily see telcos charging roaming anyway, just because they can.

i think it meant the rims for the punch outs were the best for keeping a nano sim in the reader stable (which presumably took one of the larger formats).

>Either needing their data-stealing app

that's only needed on non-rooted Android, due to security restrictions imposed by android. OP even mentions using an open source tool (lpac) with his esim adapter.

I have a 5ber.esim that appears to be exactly that.

Thank you! I came to the comments to find the most open version of this. Unfortunately, the JMP eSIM's order form is broken so I cannot purchase their device (it never asks for city/state and then the order form errors out with "City or state/province not specified")

You can't transfer eSIMs between devices. iPhones support "transfers" but in reality it involves the carrier reissuing it. You'd have to transfer the physical device, which is going to be a pain.

I really don't see the connection between an eSIM and your SIM not working abroad here.

All an eSIM does is replace a physical one with a "digital" one. You'd still be using your carrier in these places. For your sim to work, your carrier would need to have agreements in place with providers in the country you're in. And then they'd charge you an extortionate amount of money to making any calls or use any data.

Another factor for international travel is whether you phone has the right bands to get signal. My carrier claims to have international roaming, but I look up what bands my model phone has and what the country I'm going to uses and I pretty much would not get signal anyway.

Recently I tried to reinstall an eSIM on my Android phone while overseas but was told by my carrier that the eSIM can only be activated while connected to antennas located in the carrier's country, i.e. it can't be activated overseas, despite my plan supporting call roaming and both countries being in the EU.

I don't know whether this is carrier-specific or the same for all carriers.

You may find yourself in that situation if you have a device that only supports SIMs, and you can't use any of the cheap travel esim providers with it. For travel, you would replace your local SIM with the 9eSIM, and be able to switch providers depending on destination. The difference can be huge in some countries, where a local provider's travel plan can be 30 to 50 USD, while a equivalent on an ESIM provider is just $4.

I live in such a country and have parents with older phones who can't use esims, so the value is obvious to me. :)

I can't speak to anyone else, but I have a phone about a year too old for e-sims to have been commonplace, but I still need to travel, and services like airalo (global sims to go) are basically e-sim only -- so my secondary sim slot is a reprogrammable eSIM.

One announce with eSIM is that you can’t move them freely, despite being advertised as equivalent. Depending on the provider it can get quite complicated (physical visit in store, fees) to move to another device.

quote from TFA "Since I want to use the SIM with the integrated WWAN modem of a laptop running Linux, I was keen to see if I could get this all to work using Linux and Free software."

Chinese iPhone has no eSIM support (they have dual SIM instead), IoT stuff like alarms tend to use SIM slots, LTE/5G routers tend to use SIM, etc.

Until eSIM provisioning for embedded devices is sorted out and popularized there will be plenty of reasons to adapt to a regular SIM.

I got a second hand mobile router with SIM support, but very good hardware for 50$. I ordered a Esim adapter SIM for $20 and just switch to the cheapest network wherever I am.

Easily saved $300 to a comparable device with Esim support.

Well, one nice thing is that a device like this allows you to use the services that are trying to lock you with an eSIM in the same way that you use a normal consumer friendly SIM.