Forget Physical Phone SIMs; e-SIMs Are Here — And In Four Years, India Could Lead The World’s Markets

Two circulars of the Department of Telecommunications concerning the sale and distribution of phone SIM cards kick in this week, starting 1 December.

They contain new regulations affecting both individual users of SIMs and mobile telecom service providers and their retailers.

How do they affect you and me, ordinary mobile phone users?

For starters, the process of obtaining a new SIM for an existing number — in the event you have lost your phone, say, or the SIM is damaged — is going to be as laborious as obtaining a SIM for a new connection.

You would need to go over again with a "KYC" or 'know your customer' process, which will include the need to produce an ID like an Aadhaar card, plus any other demographic document the retail outlet demands.

You can, as before, have up to nine SIMs against one ID, but chances are, this limit will be strictly enforced now.

And unless your mohalla recharge shop, which used to conveniently stock and sell SIMs, has gone through a new verification process, it is about to go out of business or face a Rs 10 lakh fine.

And, for good measure, every such seller of SIMs will have to obtain a new corporate identity number or a GST (goods and services tax) registration.

These measures are based on security and threat perceptions — and the need to fight the scourge of fake-SIM scams.

All good, but technology is a moving goal post, and the language of the notifications implies that they address physical SIMs.

We are already in a world where phones are gradually moving from SIM cards to virtual SIMs or e-SIMs, where "e" stands for embedded: the SIM function is found in a small chip embedded on the motherboard of the mobile phone, and not on a physical SIM.

Since Qualcomm introduced it in the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this year, one also encounters another term — i-SIM or integrated SIM.

The i-SIM is a variant of the e-SIM where, instead of a physical chip on the motherboard (which, by the way, occupies less than a tenth of the space of the smallest physical SIM today, the NanoSIM), the functionality is baked into the processor software of the phone and occupies no space at all.

e-SIM or i-SIM is a production detail and does not concern the user, for whom all that's important is: Does my phone have built-in functionality for a SIM, without my having to insert one?

As far back as 2019, Motorola went full e-SIM and did not provide a SIM tray. But this idea proved ahead of its time, and the company restored the tray in later models.

Apple’s iPhone Max Pro in some geographies last year came without a SIM tray, nudging users to start using e-SIMs. Motorola and Samsung’s premier models also enable e-SIMs, as does the Google Pixel phone.

What's The Benefit?

The big advantage is that one can store data for multiple SIMs electronically on a single e-SIM.

No, you can’t use them simultaneously, but there are distinct gains:

In my more active journalistic days, I used to visit Singapore five or six times in some years for media events, and maintained a Singapore SIM from local providers, Singtel or StarHub.

I could insert the card in the second SIM slot of my phone as soon as I landed there, and use it for contacting local agencies — like for hailing a call taxi.

If I had an e-SIM then, all I would have needed to do was to store both India and Singapore numbers on the same e-SIM and switch at ease.

Right now, the frequent traveller is the biggest beneficiary of e-SIMs. At the India Mobile Congress in Delhi last month, a company called Sensorise launched a travel e-SIM with 1,000 customisable plans for using it over 190 countries. It can be set up in half a minute and was priced at $10 or approximately Rs 850.

Domestic users can gain from e-SIMs, too: I have two SIMs in my phone in India today — from different providers — and this allows me to use one if the other has a poor network in any place.

An e-SIM would come in handy here and allow me to migrate to another carrier without switching physical SIMs.

Market Size

A Juniper Research study earlier this year found that the value of the global e-SIM market will increase from $4.7 billion in 2023 to $16.3 billion by 2027.

In India, e-SIMs are not very popular yet, but Juniper suggests India could be the biggest global market for e-SIMs by 2027.

Today, all leading mobile providers — Airtel, Jio, and Vi — offer customers the e-SIM option. Vi offers it only to postpaid accounts.

The biggest advantage will be apparent: If your handset is e-SIM-enabled,  the rest of the process of switching to an embedded or integrated SIM can be done online from the comfort of your phone. Activation, too, will be a cinch.

Worldwide, some 300 operators offer e-SIMs. In five to 10 years from now,  physical SIMs could be history in most geographies.

No physical SIM means releasing valuable real estate inside the phone and reducing power usage. This is clearly the unstoppable way of the future.