CRW

Home Wiki

Forced eSIMs

View on consumerrights.wiki ↗

Work in progress
This article has been flagged for additional work. Treat its claims as provisional.
Stub
This article is a stub. The wiki community is still building it out.
Citations needed
Some claims in this article have not been independently sourced.
Contents12
  1. Hardware
  2. Understanding modern sim card & eSIM (embedded SIM) hardware.
  3. iPhone
  4. Future speculation
  5. Samsung Galaxy
  6. Google Pixel
  7. Mobile carriers & Networks
  8. United states Mobile phone networks
  9. European Union's mobile phone networks[citation needed]
  10. Canadian mobile phone networks[10]
  11. China's Mobile phone networks
  12. References

❗Article Status Notice: This Article is a stub

This article is underdeveloped, and needs additional work to meet the wiki's Content Guidelines and be in line with our Mission Statement for comprehensive coverage of consumer protection issues. Learn more ▼

Issues may include:

  • This article needs to be expanded to provide meaningful information
  • This article requires additional verifiable evidence to demonstrate systemic impact
  • More documentation is needed to establish how this reflects broader consumer protection concerns
  • The connection between individual incidents and company-wide practices needs to be better established
  • The article is simply too short, and lacks sufficient content

How you can help:

  • Add documented examples with verifiable sources
  • Provide evidence of similar incidents affecting other consumers
  • Include relevant company policies or communications that demonstrate systemic practices
  • Link to credible reporting that covers these issues
  • Flesh out the article with relevant information

This notice will be removed once the article is sufficiently developed. Once you believe the article is ready to have its notice removed, please visit the Moderator's noticeboard, or the Discord (join here) and post to the #appeals channel, or mention its status on the article's talk page.

Hardware

Understanding modern sim card & eSIM (embedded SIM) hardware.

The current global modern standard by market adoption for SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) cards are Nano-SIM form factor, Universal integrated circuit card (UICC) SOC's (system on a chip) cards.[1] This is the smaller SIM card you started seeing in every handset from every major phone manufacturer beginning with hardware releases after 2012.[2] Just like your phone, computer, or any other device, these cards have their own CPU, RAM, ROM and Digital I/O.[3] eUICC (embedded UICC), also known as e-SIM cards, are a form of highly re-programmable SIM typically as BGA IC chips soldered directly to the phone's logic board during manufacturing.

iPhone

Apple introduced eUICC chips & eSIM support alongside the release of the iPhone 12 series in 2020[4][5] and has continued this feature to date.[6] With the launch of the US model of the iPhone 14 series, iPhones dropped hardware support of user replaceable UICC Nano-SIM cards.[7][8] According to Apple, "iPhone 14 models and later that are eSIM only can activate without a Wi-Fi network."[8] In all other Apple model varieties that came out prior to mid 2025 - International and China - Nano-SIM remained supported outside the United States; by the 14 series, 15 series and 16 series. The 17 series drops Nano-SIM support in 11 additional countries: Bahrain, Canada, Guam, Japan, Kuwait, Mexico, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the U.S. Virgin Islands [9][10]. All versions of the 17 Air iPhone model, in all countries, only support eSIM[9]. (Most recent edit as of writing 2/23/2026)

This transition raised further concerns about potentials for abuse if unregulated, including Vendor lock in, planned obsolescence, and Anti competitive behavior in the form of used market restrictions.[11][12]

As a workaround, on most newer iPhones, the Chinese dual SIM reader and dual SIM tray can be manually installed by the user or a repair technician who is not part of Apple's official repair program. This likely voids the warranty in most regions, but allows non-China iPhones to use two SIM cards.[13]

Future speculation

-NOTE- The sources below are not to this wiki's overall standards of credibility and will likely be changed to first party sources from the manufacturer later once more reliable information is available. This section was written before the iPhone 17 came out.

  • iPhone 17 Air:

According to unofficial preliminary specifications for the iPhone 17 Air, support for Nano-SIM will be entirely dropped for the model across the world.[14][15][16][17] This is based on rumors and speculations, however the physical size of the device has been disclosed as "5.5mm" by Ming-Chi Kuo (a medium tech trade blogger described as "TF International Securities analyst who shares observations and predictions of tech industry trends"), which would make Nano-SIM support a significant enough engineering challenge, as it's widely considered unviable and/or unlikely.[18]

End note -

The industry transition to Integrated SIM (iSIM) will be indistinguishable from EUICC e-SIMs to the end user. However with iSIM, it would be embedded directly into the phone's SoC or CPU die.[19] This will irreversibly link data identifiers like SIM ID history with the device's IMEI and hardware IDs, even through highly technical means such as micro-soldering.[20]

This transition would raise further concerns about potentials for abuse if unregulated, including Vendor lock in, planned obsolescence, and Anti competitive behavior, in the form of used market restrictions.[11][12]

Samsung Galaxy

Samsung introduced e-SIM support in 2020 with the Galaxy S20 series of phones and continues nano-SIM support to the current day as of writing (with 2025's S25 series of Galaxy phones.)[21]

Google Pixel

Google Pixel 10 series no longer support nano-SIM in the US[22][23][24].

Mobile carriers & Networks

United states Mobile phone networks

A fairly recent behavior of major mobile carriers (AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, etc.) is that they may sometimes supply devices with a digital SIM card, or eSIM card without the option of a traditional Nano-SIM alternative.[citation needed]

European Union's mobile phone networks[citation needed]

eUICC/eSIM tech is basically not yet widely adopted in this market *

Canadian mobile phone networks[10]

eUICC/eSIM tech is not yet fully adopted in this market . Some carriers do not fully support eSIM and some require an additional fee.

China's Mobile phone networks

eUICC/eSIM tech is basically not yet widely adopted in this market *

References

  1. ↑ "SIM Card Developments". Wikipedia. Archived from the original on 17 Feb 2026. Retrieved 16 Apr 2025.
  2. ↑ "Nano-SIM". Wikipedia. Archived from the original on 28 Jan 2026. Retrieved 16 Apr 2025.
  3. ↑ "Universal integrated circuit card". Wikipedia. Archived from the original on 29 Dec 2025. Retrieved 16 Apr 2025.
  4. ↑ "Apple iPhone 12". GSM Arena. Archived from the original on 28 Jan 2026. Retrieved 16 Apr 2025.
  5. ↑ "iPhone 12". Apple. Archived from the original on 28 Jul 2025. Retrieved 16 Apr 2025.
  6. ↑ "iPhones with eSIM support". GSM Arena. Archived from the original on 5 Apr 2025. Retrieved 16 Apr 2025.
  7. ↑ "Apple iPhone 14". GSM Arena. Archived from the original on 28 Jan 2026. Retrieved 16 Apr 2025.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 "About eSIM on iPhone". Apple. Archived from the original on 9 Feb 2026. Retrieved 16 Apr 2025.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 "iPhone 17 and iPhone 17 Pro Models Are eSIM-Only in These Countries". MacRumors. 9 Sep 2025. Archived from the original on 30 Dec 2025. Retrieved 23 Feb 2026.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 "Apple iPhone 17 won't accept SIM cards in Canada". BlogTo. Archived from the original on 23 Sep 2025. Retrieved 23 Feb 2026.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 "Control is yours". Apple. Archived from the original on 28 Jan 2026. Retrieved 16 Apr 2025.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 "Planned obsolescence". Wikipedia. Archived from the original on 28 Jan 2026. Retrieved 16 Apr 2025.
  13. ↑ @PhoneRepairGuru (2023-06-02). "We Put China's Dual Sim Mod In This iPhone." YouTube. Retrieved 2025-04-17.
  14. ↑ "Apple iPhone 17 Air". GSM Arena. Archived from the original on 30 Jan 2026. Retrieved 16 Apr 2025.
  15. ↑ "Find wireless carriers and worldwide service providers that offer eSIM service on iPhone". Apple. Archived from the original on 24 Jan 2026. Retrieved 16 Apr 2025.
  16. ↑ "SIM Tray". Mac Rumors. Archived from the original on 18 Feb 2026. Retrieved 16 Apr 2025.
  17. ↑ Ma, Wayne; Liu, Qianer. "Apple's Thin iPhone Has No Physical SIMs—That Could Dampen China Sales". www.theinformation.com. Archived from the original on 7 Feb 2026. Retrieved 16 Apr 2025.
  18. ↑ Kuo, Ming-Chi (10 Jan 2025). "Apple在2025年可能將面臨更為嚴峻的挑戰，須謹慎面對市場先前過度樂觀導致的潛在下行風險". Medium. Archived from the original on 4 Oct 2025. Retrieved 16 Apr 2025.
  19. ↑ "eSIM". Wikipedia. Archived from the original on 28 Jan 2026. Retrieved 16 Apr 2025.
  20. ↑ Liu, Haoyu; Patras, Paul; Leith, Douglas J. (18 Jan 2023). "On the data privacy practices of Android OEMs". National Library of Medicine. Archived from the original on 8 Jul 2025. Retrieved 16 Apr 2025.
  21. ↑ "Samsung phones with eSIM support". GSM Arena. Archived from the original on 20 Feb 2026. Retrieved 16 Apr 2025.
  22. ↑ Schenck, Stephen (22 Aug 2025). "Google abandoning physical SIM cards on the Pixel 10 is an abject loss for consumers". Android Authority. Archived from the original on 26 Aug 2025. Retrieved 27 Aug 2025.
  23. ↑ Schoon, Ben (20 Aug 2025). "Pixel 10, 10 Pro, and 10 Pro XL remove support for physical SIM cards in the US". 9to5Google. Archived from the original on 20 Aug 2025. Retrieved 27 Aug 2025.
  24. ↑ Richard, Isaiah (22 Aug 2025). "Google Pixel 10 Now eSIM Exclusive, Ditches Physical SIM Cards But Makes Transfers Easier". Techtimes. Archived from the original on 23 Aug 2025. Retrieved 27 Aug 2025.