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fish09276

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 26, 2011
82
46
Back when iPhones used physical Sims, I was able to switch back-and-forth between my bigger phone and a smaller phone so I could put it in my pocket and then when I came home, I switch the Sim card to the bigger phone. And now I have a 14 Pro Max and also one 13 mini that I like to use sometimes when I go out but Verizon frowns upon switching eSIM‘s and every time I try to switch back-and-forth it doesn’t work and Verizon takes two hours to activate the phone. Apparently they’re trying to discourage frequent eSIM switching but I think Apple is losing money when people would like to buy two phones and switch back-and-forth like the old days. What do you think?
 

techiegirl

macrumors 65816
Sep 7, 2007
1,242
297
I used 2 phones with T-Mobile and haven’t had any issues swapping e-sims. At one point, I was switching once a week.
 

gdjsnyder

macrumors 6502a
Apr 19, 2010
670
235
Swoyersville, PA
I had a 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max for the past year that I switched at least monthly. I also have Verizon and never had an issue. What issues are you running into or is it just taking a while to activate? I’ve spoken to Verizon employees about switching back and forth before and it didn’t seem like it was something that would ever be discouraged.
 

fish09276

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 26, 2011
82
46
I had a 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max for the past year that I switched at least monthly. I also have Verizon and never had an issue. What issues are you running into or is it just taking a while to activate? I’ve spoken to Verizon employees about switching back and forth before and it didn’t seem like it was something that would ever be discouraged.
Well, trust me if you get a phone to try out and you switch your eSIM on Verizon and then decide you don’t like the phone three days later and want to switch back to your original and move the eSIM back it won’t work and you’ll have to call Verizon and get an agent if you’re able and it will take at least an hour to straighten out and reactivate the original. The eSIM will switch easy enough between phones, but it deactivate the phone as soon as it switches back over. I’m not talking about monthly. I’m talking about maybe three or four days in my post noted that frequent switching so monthly may not be such a hassle.
 

JDP1970

macrumors regular
Sep 18, 2014
138
67
I feel your pain. In theory eSIM is a great idea and should be simple. Unfortunately, phone companies are implementing it in a way that they see fit. Be thankful that you can do this by calling an agent; in other countries, with some phone companies it involves a trip to one of their service centres. Great if you’re overseas.

There’s no global standard with eSIM and it’s wrong that Apple have enforced this on you in the US. Apple may have the power to force phone companies to adopt eSIM however, it would seem that the implementation methods are completely at the discretion of the service provider.
 
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