Why can't the eSIM technology with many benefits be rolled out on mobile phones?

2065438+In September 2007, Apple released Apple Watch Series 3, which added cellular function to Apple Watch and immediately led the trend of smart watch cellular. Unfortunately, at that time, eSIM technology failed to land in China as scheduled, and cellular users could not use this core selling point that supported the price difference of nearly 1,000 yuan. Even Apple finally had to open the "unconditional refund" of the cellular version of the watch after half a year of listing. In the subsequent release of Apple Watch Series 4, Apple actively communicated and coordinated with relevant departments before the product went on the market, which officially kicked off the cellular version of Apple Watch in China.

However, some time ago, a news about eSIM once again attracted the attention of many users: On July 5, Beijing Mobile officially launched the dual terminal service of eSIM No.1, supporting cellular network devices such as Apple Watch to open the dual terminal service of eSIM No.1..

In this regard, many mobile users who belong to Beijing said that they "finally waited for this day", but many friends living in Guangdong were surprised-does Beijing Mobile still support eSIM? But from another point of view, even for the eSIM- 1 dual terminals for specific wearable devices, the relevant operators have spent so long to prepare. So how many years do we have to wait until the eSIM of the mobile phone?

Let's talk about why we need eSIM, or what eSIM can bring us. In fact, this question was answered by Apple at the 20 18 iPhone conference: As the first brand in the global mobile phone industry to fully support eSIM, Apple explained the core concept of eSIM to mass consumers from many aspects. ESIM, also known as embedded SIM card, is essentially a SIM card directly embedded in the motherboard, which is itself a part of the motherboard.

We know that SIM is actually a very small memory chip. The reason why the mobile phone can surf the Internet after inserting the card is because the mobile phone has read the configuration file in the SIM card. Since the physical SIM card is only a physical carrier of the configuration file, which needs to be read by the mobile phone eventually, why don't we directly send the corresponding configuration file to the mobile phone through the network (or other digital means)? Isn't this the elimination of SIM cards that only make "one-time USB flash drives"?

Yes, the purpose of eSIM is to replace the inefficient traditional SIM card and its related structure. Although the size of mobile phone SIM card has been reduced from standard card to 12.3 8.8mm after many iterations, as an information carrier, the size of nanoSIM card is still not proportional to its internal chip.

Moreover, the physical SIM card means that the mobile phone needs to prepare corresponding structures to plug in and out the SIM card, such as the card cage inside the mobile phone and the card reading circuit. Although the size of the SIM card is very small, counting the cage, shielding cover and card withdrawing mechanism, the SIM card still occupies a lot of weight in the space of the mobile phone. Moreover, physical SIM cards often have poor contact after long-term use or multiple plugging and unplugging. In terms of service life, the durability of physical SIM card is far less than that of eSIM.

However, the emergence of eSIM not only makes the use of SIM cards more convenient, but also improves the security of mobile phones. As you may remember, someone stole the SIM card after the mobile phone was stolen last year, causing property losses. For this problem, eSIM can be prevented from the root, and it can't be taken out or put into other mobile phones without a physical card limit. The mechanism of eSIM digital authorization can also directly revoke the authorization through the operator's background, so that eSIM cannot be stolen by criminals.

The emergence of eSIM also makes multi-card management more convenient. As long as we log on to the website of the corresponding operator, we can directly open or close the corresponding SIM card and service, and we can directly use the local network without shutting down the card, which will be more convenient when traveling or traveling.

Because there are so many benefits of eSIM, many operators around the world have launched eSIM services. Why can't we use the eSIM of advanced countries in the construction of mobile communication? For the topic of not opening mobile phone eSIM in China, online discussions generally believe that eSIM makes it easier to change cards and harms the interests of operators like CallKit, so it is resisted by operators.

However, if we look at this problem from a deeper level, we can easily find that eSIM is not directly related to the so-called "operator interests". First of all, it is never a dispensable SIM that binds users and operators, but your unique mobile phone number, which binds many services and is difficult to replace. In the year of 202 1, almost all accounts need to be bound with mobile phone numbers, no one will change a brand-new mobile phone number because of the convenience of eSIM card handling.

In particular, the three major domestic operators have officially opened the port number transfer service many years ago, but a few users have still handled the port number transfer service today. Not to mention that opening up eSIM will affect the interests of operators. We should know that many users now have the habit of using supplementary cards such as "flow cards". If there is a situation of "damaging the interests of operators", it has nothing to do with whether the SIM card carrier is a physical card or an e SIM.

In my opinion, the fundamental reason why domestic mobile phone eSIM can't land may come from two aspects: the operator's own reasons and the relevant regulations of mobile network.

Let's take a look at the benefits of using eSIM first. First of all, the promotion of eSIM means that operators can save the cost of making physical SIM cards, especially short-term travel SIM cards for overseas users. On the other hand, the large-scale promotion of eSIM shows that operators need to increase the training of front-line shop assistants. In the long run, additional training will bring higher training costs to operators. It is difficult for operators to support this practice, which will not bring direct benefits to operators, but will greatly increase operating costs.

Then under the relevant policies, operators can't let go of their hands and feet to allow users to use eSIM for the time being. The first is communication security. As far as the opening process of most overseas eSIM services is concerned, whether opening a new number or activating an old number, the user name and password are the main verification means in the whole process of writing the number, and the identity of the applicant is not verified. Even if eSIM joins real-name verification and on-site verification after landing in China, it is difficult for operators to guarantee whether mobile phones with related services have been maliciously tampered with.

In the case that the card opening business chain cannot be absolutely safe and controllable, eSIM business will become a huge gap in China's communication real-name registration system. Under the joint control of card breaking and cracking down on telecom fraud, neither operators nor mobile phone brands want to be the "first person" of eSIM, which is why operators only open wearable devices-one card and two terminals.

Technically, eSIM is not complicated. In our daily life, many devices adopt eSIM networking scheme, such as the embedded eSIM scheme used in bicycles that can be seen everywhere now. Since there is no question of principle in technology. Considering that all operators have already opened the process of online purchase and online activation of mobile phone cards, it is proved that from the perspective of security, operators are fully capable of opening mobile phone eSIM services in a safe and controllable situation. Even if the operators are still worried about the card opening service of mobile phone cards, it is completely feasible to open the eSIM service to a limited extent and allow users to convert their existing numbers into eSIM.

Judging from the development of mobile phone eSIM, the biggest difficulty in promoting eSIM should be that domestic operators do not need to switch to eSIM, and users do not have the demand for eSIM mobile phones. If related brands want to promote the development of eSIM, it is better to start with their own hardware and increase the publicity of eSIM, so that users can understand what convenience the switch to eSIM can bring to users and promote the development of eSIM from the demand side. Considering that many domestic mobile phone brands are also developing their own businesses in virtual operator, the promotion of eSIM can reduce the operating costs of virtual operator.

After all, after the mobile phone eSIM is officially listed in China, we no longer have to worry about the problem of "putting a mobile phone card or an SD card in the second card slot".

-