Mobile Operator Three UK Delays eSIM Support AGAIN to 2022

First they launched it, then they “put a short pause” on the deployment and said it was just a trial, before adding that it would arrive in “early 2021“, which in January 2021 became “later this year” (here). Mobile operator Three UK has now indicated that eSIM support for 4G and 5G handsets will not arrive until 2022.

Normally, the SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) card that you insert into a handset will contain a tiny chip that authenticates your identity to a mobile operator. Such cards can also store a basic list of your contacts, although online contact lists have largely superseded that feature on modern devices.

But a growing number of new Smartphones, and also Smartwatches (wearables), are now shipping with eSIM as an option, which essentially embeds an electronic SIM into your device and that could make it easier to switch between carriers via multiple account support (i.e. no more waiting for new SIM cards to arrive or fiddling with different ones when trying to change network). At least that’s the idea, but in practice it hasn’t always worked out that way.

After a long wait, mobile operator Three UK finally appeared to be introducing limited eSIM support last September 2020 (here), but feedback from consumers suggests that this was a somewhat muddled affair, and by December 2020 they had opted to put a “short pause” on its deployment. But that “short pause” now looks set to last even longer.

Upon enquiring about the status of eSIM support, one of Three UK’s customers (Nic) was this week told: “Following a successful trial in a small number of our stores, we’re pleased to say that we’ll be launching eSIM on handsets in 2022. We don’t have an exact date right now, but rest assured we’ll inform you when it’s available for both consumer and business customers.” We chased this up and got a similar response.

A Spokesperson for Three UK told ISPreview.co.uk:

“We’re working to bring it to market as soon as possible – likely next year.”

At present nobody is saying when in 2022 it will be launched and, once again, there’s no mention of support for wearables in there. The wait for eSIM is now rapidly becoming almost as bad as the wait for Virgin Media (VMO2) to finally introduce IPv6 support to their network, although that issue has been running for several years longer.

Rival operators including O2, Vodafone and EE (BT) have had eSIM support for a while, albeit with varying different levels of support (i.e. it’s sometimes only enabled for selected devices).