topic Re: Looks like Telefonica are planning to phase out the plug in SIM in Off-Topic

Looks like Telefonica are planning to phase out the plug in SIM

Anonymous — Wed, 31 Oct 2018 14:52:36 GMT

This seems a bit of a backward step in my opinion for phones at least.

What are your thoughts?

Re: Looks like Telefonica are planning to phase out the plug in SIM

MI5 — Wed, 31 Oct 2018 15:02:46 GMT

Prevents you from easily switching between phones I guess so they probably perceive it as a benefit to O2....

Re: Looks like Telefonica are planning to phase out the plug in SIM

ewanrw — Wed, 31 Oct 2018 15:17:36 GMT

Handset manufacturers, and particulalry Apple have been pushing for eSIM support for years, so makes sense to me.

Also, if you follow the Apple route, you can have multiple providers linked to your eSIM, so even easier to flick between different networks.

ewan

Re: Looks like Telefonica are planning to phase out the plug in SIM

Anonymous — Wed, 31 Oct 2018 15:30:00 GMT

I somehow don't think it's going to work in the customer's favour and if a SIM is faulty that means a repair so the customer is inconvenienced.

Apple seem to constantly want to bite the hand that feeds (making repair difficult or impossible) and the silly Nano SIM size which is what we have now.

Re: Looks like Telefonica are planning to phase out the plug in SIM

viridis — Wed, 31 Oct 2018 15:55:31 GMT

Wouldn't surprise me,
They'll probably delay 5G rollout until iPhones have it too.

Re: Looks like Telefonica are planning to phase out the plug in SIM

welshsteve76 — Wed, 31 Oct 2018 16:27:16 GMT

A excuse to charge more if you ask me. They will charge more stating excuses such as the specialist support required when it doesn't work. If a SIM stops working currently they just send you a new one or you get a new one from a store and then port your number over.

Take digital music for example. It is now more expensive to buy a digital album than physical one, even though digital music has next to nothing as far as overheads whereas with a physical album it needs to be produced, packaged and shipped etc.

Re: Looks like Telefonica are planning to phase out the plug in SIM

viridis — Wed, 31 Oct 2018 16:31:30 GMT

Exactly that, and digital has less quality than physical formats. But hey, digital age right...

Re: Looks like Telefonica are planning to phase out the plug in SIM

sheepdog — Wed, 31 Oct 2018 16:57:22 GMT

Completely unconvinced by the video that its of any benefit to a phone user especially those who swap phones at will. Its only benefit is to the network provider in saving costs at the expense of user choice with the added bonus of being able to cut off non-payers rather quickly.

Though yes, it has a few advantages:

Locked payg phones: switch on and its done. If you have a set of them for example a family, it would not be too hard to have a combine them in a single account to designate call plans/costs and money etc which taken logically, actually removes the need for CS.
Easier for corporates to provision company devices.
IOT devices where space is at a premium and easier to activate/deactive at a distance

I really don't get the argument that manufacturers need the space in a phone by not having a sim slot. In the case of Apple, it hasn't stopped them dropping the headphone socket completely and producing larger phones. Yet we have this bizarre situation of having phones with pretty poor battery life, large screens and now some having more cameras than needed! Its not as if they are using screws either as its heading towards the use of glue to save even more space/weight.

Re: Looks like Telefonica are planning to phase out the plug in SIM

Anonymous — Wed, 31 Oct 2018 17:43:46 GMT

@welshsteve76 wrote:
A excuse to charge more if you ask me. They will charge more stating excuses such as the specialist support required when it doesn't work. If a SIM stops working currently they just send you a new one or you get a new one from a store and then port your number over.

Take digital music for example. It is now more expensive to buy a digital album than physical one, even though digital music has next to nothing as far as overheads whereas with a physical album it needs to be produced, packaged and shipped etc.

@welshsteve76

Not quite true Steve as the files are stored somewhere to make them available for sale and then there's the front end to host which even if it sits on AWS or Azure the retailer gets charged for.

Apple run a lot of their own servers too.

Re: Looks like Telefonica are planning to phase out the plug in SIM

Cleoriff — Wed, 31 Oct 2018 17:47:24 GMT

Without going into any great detail it appears to be a retrograde step to me. It seems phones will be more costly and the inconvenience to customers will be an annoying factor.

Though of course they won't be interest in any of that!

Re: Looks like Telefonica are planning to phase out the plug in SIM

viridis — Wed, 31 Oct 2018 18:40:23 GMT

I remember having a payt on Vodafone's back in 1998 that didnt have a sim, then they started on about how sim cards would mean more freedom and taking your number wherever you go.
Now the opposite is being touted as a positive thing?

Re: Looks like Telefonica are planning to phase out the plug in SIM

MI5 — Wed, 31 Oct 2018 18:46:05 GMT

Had a few of those analogue phones back in the day and I think you had a new number every time you changed phones.....?

Re: Looks like Telefonica are planning to phase out the plug in SIM

Anonymous — Thu, 01 Nov 2018 14:06:23 GMT

Yep, my folks had one of the old Ericsson TACS phones on Cellnet just for emergencies (as it costed 50p a min then!) and I beleive the number was hardcoded into the phone.

The SIM itself was introduced primarily as a security device with the convenience being a by-product.

I think the fact that some of the stuff that is currently fixed during manufacture will be able to be updated Over The Air (albeit it via a secure channel as SIM operations are now) I do think it presents a bit of a pointless risk from a phone user's point of view.

I can also see a lot of problems occuring with provisioning that just don't exist with the current model which could take a lot of time to diagnose and correct.

It's enough of an inconvenience when a number port goes awry.