If you own an iPhone 12 or a Samsung Galaxy S20, your device supports an eSIM card. Actually not every S20 offers compatibility, however, Samsung does ship eSIM support in its Galaxy S20 series based on market region. And why is it even important? Well, Nepal Telecom (NTC) has announced the eSIM card support for the fiscal year 2078/2079.
Before we move any further, what is an eSIM? Let’s find out.
eSIM card or eSIM, in general, is an embedded SIM card. Essentially, it’s a chip inside a smartphone. Consider it similar to an NFC chip, hence no physical SIM cards are required.
An eSIM card is backed by GSMA, which is an association of mobile networks. Its information is rewritable, i.e. you can change your operator with just a phone call. Moreover, you can add data plans or connect smartphones that support the service to a mobile account in just a few minutes.
However, without your network allowing an eSIM card, you can’t use it. That’s where Nepal Telecom comes in. It announced to distribute eighty lakh eSIM cards within a year of its launch in the next fiscal year. If everything goes well, it could be the first-ever telecommunication service provider in Nepal to enable eSIM card service.
But are there any demerits to eSIM cards? Surely!
If someone decides to sell smartphones exclusively with a particular network, not all will supposedly sign up for it. It takes away the flexibility to change smartphones at will since you will need to contact your network provider every time you do so. Not to mention, a majority of customers are still used to storing contact numbers in their SIM cards, which is not at all practical in eSIM cards.
Anyway, let’s wait till the launch to see how it goes for us. We believe you will not even encounter many demerits just because Nepal Telecom (NTC) is the only one to have announced the eSIM card as soon as 2078/2079.
