Just wanted to let others know that esim.me cards work nicely with SFOS - few months ago I migrated back to SFOS from Android and I was using an esim there and I wanted to find some sophisticated solution instead of having my esim changed for boring old sim.
You will need an Android device to load your esim profile to the esim.me sim but after that you can use it in your SFOS device no problem.
I ordered the OMNI 15 because back then the wording was a little bit ambiguous and I was worried that I could only use it in the Android phone I configured it in, but now it seems they cleared it up by stating “Manage on a single device, USE on ANY device with a SIM card slot” so it seems you might go for the cheapest option (though it seems they purposely lock up the possibility of using multiple esim.me cards unless you buy the OMNI variant so if you plan on using 2 of their cards you still need the OMNI).
Great so instead of just using sim and plug in right away into the device you want to use, you need to fiddle with two phones just to get the basic functionality. So what was easy peasy now became overcomplicated.
On esim.me I read, that you can store several profiles on that card.
Does that provide (dual/multiple) SIM functionality, or do you have to switch current profile via Android, and hence only one profile is usable on Sailfish OS?
You have to switch them using the Android app, so no, not really usable as a multiple sim functionality. Someone more knowledgeable could probably hack it to write the data directly to the eSIM.me card, it uses some standard protocol.
Can you clarify that either:
a) You have android on your SFOS, and the app doesn’t work
b) You don’t have android on sfos, so you couldn’t try the app
Does the s/w work in sfos android to change/add esim?
Can the phone use two carriers esims in one 5ber at the same time, or does it just use one active esim per 5ber?
yes. it’s just a regular sim, that has variable “outside” profile
PS there’s a project that seems to allow to change esims on it from a PC with a generic sim card reader (5$ on aliexpress), but I haven’t checked it out yet
The app doesn’t and cannot work, it needs the APIs that make it possible to write data to the SIM card and Sailfish OS simply does not implement them for the Android subsystem.
I’m of the opinion that it can work if someone writes an app to do it, but I don’t know the specifics.
Edit: This is an article with the technical stuff about how it works, though someone more knowledgeable than me would have to implement it.
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.
