Beau Giles Posts

September 21, 2019

The state of eSIM in Australia

There’s a lot to love about Dual SIM phones – whether you’re a frequent traveller heading rural or overseas, have a personal and work/business number, or a super savvy shopper looking for the best deal on mobile data.

The iPhone XS, launched last year, was one of the first devices to offer support for eSIM, or ’embedded SIM’ – a simple alternative to the good old plastic SIM. And if you have an iPhone in Australia, it’s the only way to get your dual SIM groove on (combining a plastic SIM together with an eSIM) – as we don’t have a model with two SIM card slots (unlike say the Huawei P30)

A handful of eSIM supporting devices are available in Australia, from the iPhone XR, XS and XS Max, to the iPhone 11, 11 Pro and 11 Pro Max, as well as the Google Pixel 3a.

In tablet land, there’s the Microsoft Surface Pro (2017, 5th Generation with LTE), HP Spectre Folio, and the iPad Pro 2018 (11″, 3rd Generation 12.9″), iPad Air 2019 (3rd Generation) & iPad mini 2019 (5th Generation)

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September 20, 2019

Three’s a crowd – Telstra launches eSIM support

August 13, 2019

Vodafone launches eSIM support

Vodafone has become the second telco in Australia to officially offer eSIM support for smartphones, following on from Optus’s launch back in April.

Need a quick refresher on what an eSIM is? Basically, it’s an alternative to the plastic SIM, and in the case of the iPhone XS, Xs Max and Xr, means you can use both an eSIM and plastic SIM at the same time and get your dual SIM on.

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April 3, 2019

Optus launches eSIM support

Optus has quietly launched eSIM support at the end of March, becoming Australia’s first telco to market – starting with iPhone Xs and Xr customers.

While Telstra is still dabbling in their Windows 10 specific eSIM offer, Optus is offering the full experience – if you happen to have an iPhone and a postpaid plan, you can swap your plastic SIM to an eSIM and take advantage of all the Dual SIM goodness that’s available.

What is eSIM? It’s an alternative to the plastic SIM, and in the case of the iPhone XS, Xs Max and Xr, means you can use both an eSIM and plastic SIM at the same time.

eSIM in the iPhone allows you to use two phone numbers on the same phone at the same time; one using the physical SIM slot and one using the eSIM. This means you can make and receive calls from two different mobile numbers without the need to switch between SIMs / phones. 

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March 9, 2019

Telstra launches eSIM support

Telstra this week has launched eSIM support, making them the first carrier to support eSIM devices other than wearables (eg, the Apple Watch and Samsung Galaxy Watch, which only support ‘number sharing’ plans and not separate accounts).

While this is ‘officially’ only supported on Windows 10 devices with a built in eSIM (such as the 2017 Microsoft Surface Pro, or a handful of HP Spectre models), as the eSIM is just another standard (like ye olde plastic SIM), most other devices that support eSIMs can make use of this.

Current devices that support eSIMs range from Windows 10 devices (as above), through to Apple’s iPhone XS, XS Max and XR, the Apple iPad Pro (2017) and Google’s Pixel 3/XL.

Telstra currently offers two eSIM specific plans; the ‘Telstra Mobile Data Connect’ plan on prepaid (which will give you 30GB for free to kick things off, which expires 30 days from activation), and the ‘Mobile Data Plan 10GB’ on postpaid (offering 10GB for $10/month).

On Windows 10, you make use of the ‘Mobile Plans‘ app to officially sign up for these eSIM plans, where Telstra appears as an option alongside Ubigi and GigSky. Things are pretty easy, as you’d expect (being ‘officially supported’) – it’s pretty much as easy as hitting ‘Get connected‘ and following the steps. But it turns out, the Mobile Plans app is merely just a browser window, and if you find a link in the Mobile Plans app, you can drag it into another browser like Chrome or Edge. And that’s how you can work out how to make eSIMs happen on other devices. 😉

Here is how you can activate and ‘provision’ an eSIM device on the Telstra Mobile Data Connect prepaid plan, and then add it on an Apple iPad or iPhone.

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