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Canadian carrier Rogers will embrace the future and introduce eSIMs this year
- Canadian carrier Rogers confirms it will introduce eSIM in 2018
- Odds are Rogers will start selling the Apple Watch Series 3, which features eSIM
- eSIM, or embedded SIM, does away with the physical card
Given everything that happened in 2017, we understand why something like embedded SIM (eSIM) for smartphones fell a bit under the radar. Regardless, we’re pretty excited about the technology, and now that Canadian carrier Rogers confirmed it will introduce eSIMs this year, we’re one step closer toward widespread adoption.
The news first broke on Twitter, where the carrier’s customer service staff confirmed that Rogers “plans to support eSIM this year, and we will update our customers as we get closer to that time.” Rogers then confirmed the news to MobileSyrup, though the carrier didn’t say much else.
We have plans to support eSIM this year, and we will update our customers as we get closer to that time. ^mh— RogersHelps (@RogersHelps) January 1, 2018
We assume the announcement means that Rogers will soon start selling the Apple Watch Series 3, since it uses eSIM for its LTE service. The announcement also means that Rogers is a bit late to the party — fellow Canadian carriers Bell and Telus announced eSIM support and started selling Apple’s smartwatch last year.
For those not familiar with the technology, eSIMs do away with the physical SIM cards predominantly found in smartphones and, instead, are embedded into the devices themselves. Not only do eSIMs allow you to theoretically switch carriers with a software app menu and a few screen taps, but also allow international travelers to not have to pick up an extra SIM card.
eSIMs are also useful for devices that have small footprints, such as smartwatches, and eliminate the need for SIM tray slots, which I find irritating to deal with most of the time.
As of now, the only US carrier that supports the new technology is Project Fi, though Google said it will share what it learns during the process to encourage eSIM adoption across carriers and device manufacturers.
We’re pretty excited about eSIM. After all, not only did we name it one of the top three smartphone innovations of 2017, but also said we would love to see wider eSIM adoption in 2018. Whether that will actually happen is anyone’s guess, but the possibility of a SIM card-less future is an enticing one.