What is eSIM and when will it be supported in Egypt?
The term eSIM or embedded electronic chip, is a term that you hear a little every year but you don't know what it means or how we will be affected by something like it soon.
With Apple's launch of the iPhone 14, it decided that the phone would have an embedded electronic chip only in America specifically, while the rest of the world will be released with a regular chip, but the whole idea is what does eSIM mean? What are the most prominent phones that support this feature? And when will it be available in Egypt and news of its availability in Egypt. Let's take a tour in this article about eSIM and everything known about it.
Evolution of mobile phone chip from SIM to eSIM
To make any calls or send any messages via your mobile phone, you need to have a chip inside it that helps the phone connect to the network towers and carries the number information and data related to it so that you can use the phone in its primary task, which is phone calls. The first SIM started in 1991 and was somewhat large in size, with dimensions of 85.6 x 53.98 x 0.78 mm, which is a somewhat large size. Then it developed into the mini SIM shape, which is the first type we dealt with in Egypt. It appeared in 1996 with dimensions of 25 x 15 x 0.76 mm.
Then the Micro SIM appeared, which was used in prominent phones such as the Galaxy Note 3. It appeared in 2003 with dimensions of 15 x 12 x 0.76 mm and remained widespread for a long time until 2012 came with the Nano SIM, which is what all phones use now with dimensions of 12.3 x 8.8 x 0.67 mm. In 2016, we reached the current design that will be used for the eSIM, the design that was presented by Apple and we are adopting it now.
The emergence of eSIM
Since 2010, the GSMA or Global System for Mobile Association - a body consisting of several companies or an alliance of several companies specializing in mobile phones and communications - has been discussing the possibility of providing the possibility of placing the SIM card for phones in the form of software in phones, and Motorola and Apple were the companies with the best designs in this matter, but they differed.
Motorola believed that we should not use these designs in consumer products, and Apple believed the opposite, that these designs would be suitable for consumers and should be issued in their devices. The first designs for this technology were presented by Apple and published in 2016 in March, and in November 2016 the second version was issued, which was also issued in the Samsung Gear S2 watch, which supported 3G and was the first device to come with an internal eSIM chip.
Apple introduced the first device with an internal chip in 2017, which is the Apple Watch Series 3, followed by the first mobile phone with this chip, which is the iPhone Xs and iPhone XR with it, and of course the iPhone Xs Max with them in 2018 in September specifically. Google, for its part, launched the first phone with an electronic chip in 2017 with the Google Pixel 2, but it was only available for use with Google Fi services and was not available to any other service provider. In 2018, in the Pixel 3, this chip was available to any other service provider. Samsung itself introduced this chip for the first time in its phones in 2020 with the Galaxy S20 phones.
What is the idea of eSIM?
The idea behind using this chip is to reduce the number of phone ports so that the SIM card is inside the phone itself, and with the company you can set the chip to work on the same number and work as if it were a regular SIM card that you inserted into the phone. The advantages and disadvantages of this matter are that if you perform a factory reset you will need to re-register the SIM card again, and if you change your phone you will struggle to transfer the SIM card from the old phone to the new one.
The advantage of it is that the SIM card is internal, which reduces the number of slots in the phone , which helps increase the phone's ability to resist water and dust more, and the eSIM is less susceptible to damage or harm than the regular SIM card, which makes it a better choice for use.
Top eSIM Supporting Companies
- Vodafone (outside Egypt for now)
- AT&T
- Verizon
- H2O
- Jio
- T-Mobile
- Batelco
- Etisalat (in UAE so far)
- Rakuten
- Oragne (outside Egypt yet)
- Ooredoo
- Jawwal
- Virgin
- of
- waiting
- You can view all the supporting companies and countries from the Apple website here
Top eSIM Supported Phones
- All Apple phones starting from iPhone Xs
- All Samsung flagship phones starting from Galaxy S20
- All Google phones starting from Pixel 2
- Huawei P40, Huawei P40 Pro, Huawei Mate 40 Pro
When will eSIM be available in Egypt?
So far, official news has emerged about only two companies ready for this process, the first company is Vodafone and the second company is Etisalat, there is no news about We or Orange officially, but there are statements coming out from the National Telecommunications Regulatory Authority that we are putting the final touches on this matter and that the four companies are ready to support this technology already and it will launch soon, in fact we expected that companies would support this technology soon after Apple announced the release of the iPhone 14 with an electronic chip only in the United States of America, so companies must support this feature soon before we find iPhones all over the world without any chips.