Two built-in eSIM capable (and single physical SIM) devices will be usable with Sailfish OS pretty soon:
Xperia 10 IV SIM+uSD+eSIM (XQ-CC54)
Xperia 10 V SIM+uSD+eSIM (XQ-DC54)
Does anyone know what are the plans of Jollyboys about the implementation of eSIM within Sailfish OS?
Let’s take the simplest use case - when traveling outside EU in far-away lands, usually the cheapest and fastest way to get local data and voice services is to use eSIM. And that would need support from Sailfish OS, e.g. to point all those services to eSIM.
Of course one can always use service like esim.me or 5ber, but that needs an Android device for initial configuration (since the eSIM is physically removable, this approach has privacy benefits). Since said two devices have single physical SIM slot, then these “removable eSIM-card” services are somewhat less usable for them.
I have asked for eSIM support in one of the community meetings, a few weeks back; it needs quite a bit of work on SFOS side. The main reason for my question is that I am using a dual SIM 10 III now and if eSIM is not supported, I need to source the asian version of 10 IV/V in order to have 2 physical SIMs. Given the recent announcements I will wait for the release to clarify if versions 10V XQ-DC72 or 10IV XQ-CC72 are supported. If not I will need to stick to my 10 III for the mid-term future.
Don’t want to sound pessimistic here, reading the pull request comments, it seems that this turns off the 2nd SIM slot because the eSIM is not supported with a reminder to turn it back on when it will be. This effectively disables the 2nd SIM and acknowledges the fact the eSIM needs more work. It doesn’t specify when / if the 2nd SIM will be enabled.
Community member @b100dian posted this article in IRC which could be helpful for eSIM support under sfos. Let’s hope that eSIM support will get some traction in the near future
The physical esim sounds like the best of both worlds. I could easily see myself transferring my carrier sim into a physical esim that I could also load other travel sims into.
Great if someone with a physical esim could try this software.
I have a dual sim xperia 10ii (physical + esim) and it looks like support is already there, Sailfish at least recognises the phone is dual sim capable (Sailfish 4.5). Settings shows two sim slots, see screenshot.
I think the mentioned software is more of a front end to lpac, which would have to be ported to SFOS first: GitHub - estkme-group/lpac: C-based eUICC LPA
If I understand lpac correctly, it can be used from the command line, so a front end would not be strictly necessary.
Given the fact the new C2 reference device apparently does not support eSIM I doubt Jolla will be much motivated to implement this. I think it will have to come from the community.
Not really planned but some preparation things have been done. eSIM is somethimg that we need eventually support.
As we speak, there are more urgent items to finalize. Support for eSIM is something that we roadmap for Sailfish 5 series but not for the first release.
