What is an e-SIM card?

A SIM card is required to be able to call, send text messages and use the internet without WiFi on a smartphone. That is a plastic card with a chip on it. This card ensures that a connection is made to the network of a specific provider. For example, a KPN customer calls via the KPN network and a Vodafone customer calls via the Vodafone network. A unique telephone number is linked to the SIM card, which is your telephone number. Are you getting a new phone? Then you remove the SIM card from the old device and put it in the new one. If you change provider, you will receive a whole new SIM card.

In addition to phones with the well-known physical SIM card, more and more phones are also coming onto the market that support e-SIM. The ‘e’ here comes from the word embedded (English for embedded). E-sim means as much as an embedded SIM card. It’s a tiny chip built into the phone. This means that no plastic SIM card is needed anymore. Contact details and numbers are stored digitally. Are you buying a new phone or switching to another provider? Then download the data from the old e-SIM card onto the new one.

An e-SIM card has a number of advantages:

• The digital card is rewritable: if you switch subscriptions or switch to another provider, the new data is simply downloaded to your phone.
• The digital card makes it easier to use two mobile numbers from one phone. This is useful, for example, if you want to use a local SIM card while on holiday. Or for people who want to call both business and private from the same phone.
• An e-SIM card takes up less space, in the smartphone itself. This leaves more space for manufacturers for the battery, for example, and they can make their phones a little less heavy.
• An e-SIM does not have to be sent by post. In addition, no plastic is needed for an e-SIM. As a result, the digital card is more durable and you can get started with a new phone faster.

But an e-SIM card does not only have advantages. So reported RTL News rather that phones with an e-SIM are an easier target for hackers. The owner of a phone with an e-SIM can download the digital card from his account with a provider. The sim will remain on that account. But if a hacker can figure out the password for that account, he can easily take over the user’s 06 number. He can then commit fraud.

On the other hand, stealing a phone with e-SIM may be less attractive to thieves. They have less money on a phone in which they cannot place another SIM card themselves.

At the moment (June 2021) only KPN, Simyo, T-Mobile and Vodafone offer e-sim in the Netherlands. The digital SIM card is also only offered on a limited number of devices. This mainly concerns the latest models. Think of the iPhone 11 and 12, the Google Pixel 3 and 4a and the Samsung Galaxy S20. The Consumers’ Association holds in these lists for iOS and android which devices support e-SIM.