eSIM cards, an explanation.

Interesting article.

It's probably the way of the future but really it's a few years out as being more useful with the possible exception of people who frequently go back and forth between the same two carrier coverage areas...and dual sim cards do that just fine already.

If you are going to be going through a wide variety of coverage areas (say visiting multiple countries in a year), it's easier and cheaper to just pick up a sim card and have them activate it at the airport (or a shop near the border). They deal with the complications and you check that it's active before walking away. It usually only takes us 5-10min and we are set. Trying to do that online and then it's wrong when you arrive...no thanks, we've tried that in the USA and it's a huge pain took basically a full day to get a phone activated the first time around. (USA is about the worst for just picking up a sim card and activating it).

Problem I see going with a pure esim phone (today not 5-10yr in the future) is when you show up in a new location, many systems will not have esim capability and with no physical sim slot...you are out of luck. In 5-10yr, that might change but right now, it's probably more hassle than help.

In the context of this forum (RV), most will only deal with crossing the boarder into Canada or Mexico on a regular basis (kind of hard to drive to Europe or Australia). Most won't be going to both (at least not over a short period of time). And if you flip from say USA to Canada and back frequently a dual sim phone does the job nicely without being on the bleeding edge of technology.