The future of cellular sim cards - how will it affect RV life?

[Neal]

I saw a tech article today about killing off the sim cards in favor of eSims. It's probably going to happen and I was thinking how this might affect RVers of the future? Hopefully services such as Starlink and competitors which are beginning to form will be the Internet of the future and hopefully cell service will die off too. Not sure how that will work indoors but it has to happen as this infrastructure is like the phone lines of yesteryear. I think sim cards would be available on request and not be phased out anytime soon but this will be interesting to watch. While my iPhone 12 Pro Max has eSim capability I don't use it. Still the ole nano sim stuck in it. Will be interesting to see devices such as Pepwaves transition from sim to eSim.

 

[ehochuli85]

As you've seen, Neal, I seldom know what I'm talking about . . . (I know that's supposed to read "I seldom know that about which I speak", but who talks that way??) . . . but I'll chime in anyway.

We travel full-time, so wifi is really important to us; not just for email, which most parks provide, but for streaming TV. We therefore travel with three different devices to cover all our bases, although I'm watching the Starlink discussion very intently. One of those devices is a non-sim device that has Verizon, ATT, and T-Mobile, and it automatically switches to the carrier with the strongest signal. It works pretty well, and as I said - no sim card. It's with an outfit called OTR Mobile - https://otrmobile.com/. The device cost me $260, and I pay $105 a month for 300 gb of service a month, no throttling. I'm still testing it out, though, because when T-Mobile is the strongest in the area, sometimes I get faster speeds on my stand-alone T-Mobile hot spot than I do on this OTR device.

 

[redbaron]

esims can be created and moved just like a normal sim. In the end, it is actually much eaiser.

Your device must support an eSim in order to move it, but as more devices start supporting the eSim, the tools will become easier.

A lot of the IoT modems support eSim already. I have successfuly moved my FirstNet eSim from an Iphone to an IoT modem and maintained data connectivity.

 

["EZ"]

Glad I have you Geeks to call on when this stuff is over my head. LOL. Good grief!! Can't they just leave anything alone??

 

[marc2912]

As you've seen, Neal, I seldom know what I'm talking about . . . (I know that's supposed to read "I seldom know that about which I speak", but who talks that way??) . . . but I'll chime in anyway.

We travel full-time, so wifi is really important to us; not just for email, which most parks provide, but for streaming TV. We therefore travel with three different devices to cover all our bases, although I'm watching the Starlink discussion very intently. One of those devices is a non-sim device that has Verizon, ATT, and T-Mobile, and it automatically switches to the carrier with the strongest signal. It works pretty well, and as I said - no sim card. It's with an outfit called OTR Mobile - https://otrmobile.com/. The device cost me $260, and I pay $105 a month for 300 gb of service a month, no throttling. I'm still testing it out, though, because when T-Mobile is the strongest in the area, sometimes I get faster speeds on my stand-alone T-Mobile hot spot than I do on this OTR device.

I really wish their devices supported 5G. Buying a new device that's 4G only is really one of the things holding me back.