14 DAY TRIAL // When you purchase a smartphone today, you typically have to insert a SIM card in order to get it up and running. But in the near future, traditional SIM cards might no longer be the standard.
This change is apparently being pushed by two of the tech industry’s most important players, Apple and Samsung, who are working with the GSMA (the association that represents the mobile telecom industry) on replacements for SIM cards which are going to be called e-SIM, as reported by the Financial Times.
The main advantage of the e-SIM is that it allows users to seemingly switch between mobile networks. By contrast, the traditional SIM card locks a user to a network, depriving him of alternate opportunities.
These e-SIM cards would be standardized among smartphone makers and would come embedded into their devices, which in turn will create a so-called “common architecture.”
Your Samsung Galaxy S7 might come with an e-SIM card
Basically, e-SIM cards will offer more flexibility, allowing mobile users to jump on board with a new plan or switch between plans almost instantly.
According to the aforementioned report, some mobile carriers have already announced their support for the new e-SIM initiative, including AT&T, Deutsche Telekom, Etisalat, Hutchison Whampoa, Orange, Telefonica, and Vodafone.
At the moment, Apple and Samsung are still working to finalize the technical aspects related to these e-SIM cards. Even so, we shouldn’t expect to see handsets taking advantage of these new e-SIM cards any time soon, as it would take at least one year before such devices make their way into the real world.
We should note that Apple’s iPad Air 2 is already the beneficiary of a custom Apple SIM card that allows users to seamlessly switch between mobile carriers for data service.
The report mentions that the new e-SIM cards won’t replace Apple’s built-in SIM card that lives inside the iPad Air 2.
However, the GSMA is pretty confident that this new architecture will eventually end up being adopted by the telecom industry when it launches next year.