Lots of eSIM companies popping up and Smarty is still lagging behind?

[DarthStroyer]

I recently returned to Giffgaff after being on an EE contract for a few years. I would have chosen Smarty if it supported eSIM, but there appears to be no effort whatsoever to adopt the new technology. I keep checking back because I do think Smarty reception is superior in my area, but I'm done with SIM cards now, they just end up in landfills when you switch.

A lot of start ups now offering roaming eSIMs and even Revolut getting in on the game. If they can do it, why can't Smarty?

Why are you dragging your heels on this, Smarty? 

[JJP2RidesAgain]

This is the Smarty community forum, we are Smarty customers, we do not work for Smarty, so asking “why are you dragging your heels on this Smarty ?” is obviously misplaced within this forum. 

If you care to search, there are already lots of threads around Smarty and eSIM on this forum.

The fact is, Smarty do not currently offer eSIM, but again, as customers people on this forum, have no involvement in any business decisions of Smarty as a company, as to why they are not currently offering eSIM. 

By the way, Smarty run on Three, its parent company. If the three signal is stronger in your area, then ID Mobile, owned by high street electrical retailer, Curry’s, and piggy backing on Three, do offer eSIM.

Myself and others prefer to use Smarty rather than pay Smarty’s uncompetitive prices. 

SIM card going to landfill every decade or so ? You can always use SIM cards as guitar plectrums. Must be other uses too. 😉

[JJP2RidesAgain]

This is the Smarty community forum, we are Smarty customers, we do not work for Smarty, so asking “why are you dragging your heels on this Smarty ?” is obviously misplaced within this forum. 

If you care to search, there are already lots of threads around Smarty and eSIM on this forum.

The fact is, Smarty do not currently offer eSIM, but again, as customers, people on this forum, have no involvement in any business decisions of Smarty as a company, as to why they are not currently offering eSIM. 

By the way, Smarty run on Three, its parent company. If the three signal is stronger in your area, then ID Mobile, owned by high street electrical retailer, Curry’s, and piggy backing on Three, do offer eSIM.

Myself and others prefer to use Smarty rather than pay GiffGaff’s uncompetitive prices. 

SIM card going to landfill every decade or so ? You can always use SIM cards as guitar plectrums. Must be other uses too. 😉

SECOND VERSION edited for punctuation 

[MSF]

@DarthStroyer 

A. We are community forum members like you. You are not writing to smarty directly.

B. A quick search will show that this topic comes up on average once a week. The fact that smarty have not gone over to offering e-sim indicates that they for some reason do not consider it a good commercial move.

C. Many customers cannot make use of an Esim as they will not have a suitable hone.

D. Filling landfill sites with physical sims? Really? This is insignificant compared to all the other non recyclable rubbish around.

E. If your phone accepts an e-sim, then they are great for roaming outside the EU. I have used them and they are convenient.

F. As @JJP2RidesAgain  says, why not see if Three can offer you an e-sim if reception is good in your area?

[DarthStroyer]

@JJP2RidesAgain thanks for your reply, I was unaware that Smarty staff do not see feedback on these forums. I'll not bother posting again in that case, seems like these forums are only for a certain kind of person. 

Like you, I find Smarty (and Giffgaff) to be good value, hence my desire to see them offer eSIM. Also, smart watches only work with eSIM.

@MSFI'll make this quick since a famous quote from Mark Twain springs to mind. 

A. Okay.

B. I'm aware it's been brought up, because I did a "quick search". I decided to bring it up again.

C. Good job I didn't suggest that Smarty switch to eSIM only then! 

D. Thousands of SIM cards are binned every day. But maybe you're right and we should only worry about the worst things going to landfill, and not about anything else.

E. They're also great for not roaming. I have also used them and I agree they are convenient, hence this post.

F. If you knew what @JJP2RidesAgain wrote, why did you feel the need to just repeat all his points in your own comment? Kind of ironic that you're complaining about me repeating other posts about eSIMs 😉

[MSF]

@DarthStroyer  As far as your reply to my point F is concerned, I think I am vindicated by your reply to my point B.

Point D. I would hazard a guess that old phones being sent to landfill constitutes a greater pollution issue than old SIM cards.

I feel that members may often feel more confident in a reply when more than one person agrees on the content - I hope that @JJP2RidesAgain  would concur on that.

As for your comment that "seems like these forums are only for a certain kind of person", you are correct. They are for people who have an issue and hope to find others who are prepared to voluntarily spend a little time giving a reply either from the basis of prior knowledge, experience or research.

[JJP2RidesAgain]

Where to start @MSF @DarthStroyer ?

I will say that it’s becoming ever more apparent that Smarty Mobile’s value for money pricing is its Achilles heel - it’s a value for money mobile phone service, yet people buy the smarty MOBILE sim without any intention of using it in a mobile phone. “Smarty” now seems to be the byword for “cheap home broadband”, and then we see all the brickbats that Smarty is crap at running a laptop, PS4, YouTube, Spotify etc simultaneously ! 

Then of course, we get the people roaming abroad, who, more often than not, after using our help to change the APN in their devices, complain that the speeds on “X” network in France, Netherlands, Morocco, Turkey etc is too slow, seemingly not aware that they can manually select networks within their devices, in the hope of obtaining a faster connection, but also that Smarty isn’t responsible for, nor does it control, networks in other countries. 

People are indeed not aware that this is the Smarty community forum, and that we are just customers, so don’t have access to other customers account details, are not party to Smarty’s business decisions, etc. 

I do believe the old adage of “two heads is better than one” applies on this forum, or actually three, as you @Chalkychap and I seem to answer the vast majority of posts, so much so that Smarty Mobile should put us on the payroll 😉

As for eSIMs, you know @MSF that I am a big proponent of them, from my time here as @JJP2 , I still use eSIMs extensively, having eSIMs in my phone from networks in Czech Republic, Poland and the USA, plus Airalo travel eSIM. I did hope, that with the advent of iOS 17.4, and later, which allows users to self convert physical SIMs to eSIMs within 5 minutes, Smarty would follow the lead of voxi and enable this, but so far at least, they haven’t, so Smarty continues to not offer eSIMs, which you, I and others can’t change and are not party to the reasons for this. As I said to @DarthStroyer the curry’s owned “ID Mobile” do offer eSIM now, and having looked yesterday, they have competitive tariffs and allow an EU roaming allowance of 30 GB. Their international call costs can  be a third of Smarty’s too - 19p per minute to call the USA on Smarty, 6p per minute on ID Mobile, which still can’t beat Voxi’s 1p per minute of course. ID Mobile also piggy back on Three. 

I have no idea of the costs of fellow Hutchinson Company, high street personal care / pharmacy company, Superdrug, and their “Superdrug Mobile” and whether they offer eSIM. 

Maybe Smarty Mobile and others are planning on skipping eSIMs in favour of the coming iSIMs (Integrated SIMs) ?

Like an eSIM / embedded SIM, an integrated SIM brings the same flexibility in terms of connectivity management. You can remotely change it and manage the connectivity for the connected device – an evolution in terms of form factor and performance over the eSIM – but the core value and the benefit of the eSIM will remain.

Won’t that be fun @MSF  People asking here when Smarty are going to unveil iSIMS ? 😎

Must admit, having looked at the offerings from ID Mobile, it is tempting to switch, given that they do offer such good value for money and 30 GB roaming allowance (I pay Smarty £8 for 50 GB on a 15 month special offer, ID Mobile offer 100 GB for £10)….That said, my life may not be the same without this forum and my “SFA” meetings”, Smarty Forumholics Anonymous 😂