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At the current time, when you buy a new smartphone, you usually have to put a SIM card inside it in order for it to function. However, in the not too distant future, the traditional SIM card may not be the standard anymore as Apple and Samsung want to reinvent the SIM card. The two tech companies are trying to push the e-SIM as the new standard.
This change comes from the industry’s biggest players, Samsung and Apple, who are currently working alongside GSMA to replace the SIM cards with something that will be called the e-SIM. GSMA is an association that represents the entire mobile telecommunications industry.
The main benefit of the new e-SIM card is that it will allow people to switch between carriers with ease. In contrast, the normal SIM cards lock users onto a network, and don’t offer them the possibility to choose from other options.
The new e-SIM cards would become standardized among mobile phone manufacturers and would come built in the devices, which will create a something that’s referred to as “common architecture”.
Fundamentally, these e-SIM cards will be able to offer a lot more flexibility, and will allow users to switch to a new plan or between existing ones virtually instantly. According to a new report, some carriers have announced their support of the new e-SIM card already, including Vodafone, Telefonica, Orange, Hutchison Whampoa, Etisalat, Deutsche Telekom and AT&T.
At the current time, the two tech giants Samsung and Apple are continuing to work on finalizing the technical aspects linked to the new e-SIM cards. However, we shouldn’t expect smartphones to take advantage of this new technology very soon, because it could take more than a year or a couple of years before such mobile phones make their way on the market.
It’s worth mentioning that the Ipad Air 2 from Apple already makes use of a custom SIM developed by the company which allows its users to switch between mobile carriers seamlessly. The new report said that e-SIM cards won’t replace the SIM developed by Apple and built in the iPad Air 2. The difference between the two types of SIM cards is that the Apple SIM can be removed from the device and the e-SIM won’t be removable.
That being said, the GSMA is quite confident that this new technology will be adopted eventually by the telecommunications industry when it will launch sometime next year.
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