I’m pretty much done with my introduction series on eSIM Remote Service Provisioing now but there is one important topic still missing that should be mentioned shortly: Downloading virtual SIM cards into an eSIM is not only interesting for consumer devices such as smartphones, tablets, watches, etc. but equally, if not even more, to embedded … Continue reading Embedded-SIM Intro – Part 8 – Consumer vs. M2M
It is obviously a must that any SIM card works in any cellular mobile device. By and large that works pretty smooth today. There is rigorous testing in place and I only know a few cases where SIM cards and devices did not harmonize and software updates were required to fix the issue. In the … Continue reading Embedded-SIM Intro – Part 7 – Interoperability
Wow, this is already part 6 of my introduction series on embedded SIM cards and it’s not going to be the last, there are still a few topics left. Today, a few words about what are referred to as ‘companion’ devices.
For device manufacturers one of the main advantages of an embedded SIM is that it requires much less space than the slot required for a removable SIM, even when it is a nano-SIM (4FF). But just how big are eSIMs that are soldered on the circuit board? Many pictures on the web seem to be … Continue reading Embedded-SIM Intro – Part 5 – eUICC Size
After introducing the eSIM (eUICC) Remote Service Provisioning (RSP) concepts in the previous 3 posts of this series it’s now time to have a look at the security implementation. Security is obviously of paramount importance in the process as the virtual SIM that is downloaded contains the identity (IMSI) of the user and the secret … Continue reading Embedded-SIM Intro – Part 4 – eUICC Provisioning Security
In the previous two parts of this series I’ve taken a look at how the eSIM and downloading virtual SIM cards into devices compares to using physical SIM cards today. Now that the general concept is clear, let’s name some of the components involved which will help a lot when reading the standards documents GSMA … Continue reading Embedded-SIM Intro – Part 3 – Acronyms
In the previous part of this series I gave a quick introduction to the difference between today’s handling model of a physical SIM that the user can insert in any device and embedded-SIMs to which subscription information can be downloaded. In part 2 I’ll now give a high level overview of how this download process … Continue reading Embedded-SIM Intro – Part 2 – SIM vs. eSIM User Scenarios
One thing that has been surprisingly absent on this blog so far was a discussion on how embedded-SIM cards work. Call me a traditionalist, as for me, the SIM card in its current form has been the greatest invention since sliced bread and so I saw no reason to change the concept. This is because … Continue reading Embedded-SIM Intro – Part 1 – High Level Model
I’ve been following the development of the eSIM on this blog for 6 years now and in recent years, I’ve been downloading and testing eSIMs to see how the process actually works. However, all of that was for learning and educational purposes only. But now, finally, I’ve used an eSIM ‘for real’ to get me … Continue reading Switching To eSIM in Slight Distress