Hands On With Apple's Dual SIM in the US

The iPhone XS, XS Max, and XR now have dual-SIM capabilities. But none of the major US carriers support them yet. To check out the user experience, I turned to Truphone, a virtual carrier that specializes in international roaming.

The new iOS 12.1 software enables new iPhones to carry two cellular subscriptions at once. But to do that, one of those subscriptions must be on the iPhone's eSIM—and no major US carrier supports the eSIM as of yet, although three major carriers and two virtual carriers have said they will.

In the phone's cellular settings, you will now find an option of "Add Cellular Plan." Tap it, and you'll be asked to scan a QR code, run a special app, or enter some technical details to activate your second SIM. This is different, and much less friendly, than the experience on the iPad Pro, which just lets you select a plan from a pop-up menu.

AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon, and virtual carriers GigSky and Truphone are all on Apple's first-round list for eSIM-supporting carriers. Truphone said it has just submitted a new app that will let people sign up for plans; in the meantime, it sent me a QR code to scan.

AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon all told me they're working on ways to make dual SIM possible soon. GigSky said it will offer the feature in the next few weeks. Sprint says it's coming in the future.

In Verizon's case, enabling eSIM also involves getting past a technical hurdle that would cause the phone to fall back to an old 2G system when its SIM is put in the secondary position. Sources close to the carriers seemed to agree this will get shaken out around early December.

Meanwhile, in Canada, Bell has begun to activate eSIM customers, a Bell spokesman confirmed to me. "Customers can activate the second line on any in-market smartphone rate plan that fits their needs," he said. Customers should go to a Bell store to activate the second line for now, he said.

The Dual SIM Experience

Once you've added a second plan, it appears in a "Cellular Plans" area under Settings/Cellular. You can choose either of your plans for "cellular data" or as a "default voice line," and switch them back and forth whenever you'd like. You can also activate a feature to use data on the second line while you're on a call on the first line. That's very optional.

Your signal indicator changes, too: it's the standard stair-step bars over four little squares, representing signal strength on the primary line over the secondary line. (See the main image for this story.)

When you go to make a call, there's a button at the top of the screen showing the line you're using. Tap it, and it lets you select the line to use. The same goes when you start a new text conversation—but once the conversation has started, you're stuck on that line for the duration of the text chain. Tap the contact name, and then Info, to see which line the conversation is in. In your address book, you can also set a default line for each contact.

Under settings for each line, you can temporarily disable the line (to prevent roaming charges, for instance), activate Wi-Fi calling, enable or disable 3G, or remove the plan.

It's all pretty simple, and pretty smooth—once you get it working. Now the carriers just have to get it working.

Why the Rush?

Industry sources told me that pressure from carriers in other regions where dual-SIM is more popular led Apple to release the feature early. But looking at Apple's list of eSIM carriers, I'm not seeing multiple carriers from countries where dual-SIM is tremendously popular.

There are two Indian carriers on the list, Airtel and Jio, but neither carriers' apps or websites make it clear how to activate the eSIM.

This leaves me pretty perplexed about the whole rollout, to be honest. Apple promised dual-SIM support by the end of the year, and we have two months before the end of the year. It would have made more sense for Apple to wait for the feature actually to be supported.

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