eSIM support for the new iPhone Air

Forums › New Zealand Mobile and Wireless › eSIM support for the new iPhone Air - just the beginning?

gzjdoe

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#322668 10-Sep-2025 12:03

I am reading the iPhone launch announcements and noticed that the new iPhone Air only supports eSIMs. Given that Apple killed many interfaces in the past (Floppy disks, CD-rom, 3.5 jack port, USB A, did I forget anything?) I suppose other phones will follow the same path in the future. I don't own an Android for a few years, it could be the case that there are already many Android phones that are eSIM only.

So, I did a quick search to see what networks support eSIMs and found this. Sadly I'm with Kogan Mobile and it seems that not every MVNO supports eSIMs despite the all actual networks already doing so.

Does anyone here work for Kogan or other MVNOs and are allowed to discuss their plans for supporting eSIMs? As this will be a consideration for many people choosing their mobile plans going forward as devices shift to eSIM only.

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Max
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#3413355 10-Sep-2025 12:13

Licensing + the support model. I imagine there would be some conversation (if already there) but nobody could tell you when or where or how.

Kogan is really just One NZ Prepay so it wouldn't be that hard to turn it on anyway (source: ex one nz who handled a lot of Kogan customers as escalations).

However you will remember that Kogan Mobile owns Mighty Ape... who then also owns Mighty Mobile and they support eSIM (deployment requirements + whole different CRM).

I missed the announcement but it really does seem like the iPhone Air is the start of eSIM only devices in NZ.

Really going to be interesting how this plays out (as much as I love eSIM and do carry 2, I do find it handy to have a SIM slot in a pinch).

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turtleattacks

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#3413356 10-Sep-2025 12:14

eSims when travelling is truly a game changer.

One can land, and have a connection as soon as you switch on you land.

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MaxineN

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#3413358 10-Sep-2025 12:17

turtleattacks:

eSims when travelling is truly a game changer.

One can land, and have a connection as soon as you switch on you land.

And just look at how many eSIM travelling mobile companies have spawned since carriers started offering eSIM... Even YouTubers got on this.. https://jjesim.com/ (and truth be told... it's reasonably priced...)

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gzjdoe

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#3413362 10-Sep-2025 12:26

Interesting about Kogan's relationship with Mighty Ape and Mighty Mobile. I wasn't familiar with this.

I had a quick look at MM's plans and they seem to be competing with Rocket Mobile (unlimited data at capped speeds), which I am not very keen on. I'd rather be capped on data than speed. I usually wait for a Kogan deal and sign-up for the year. Currently paying $14/month to get 15gb of data (which is enough for my needs), and with their current deal I'd be paying $28/month for 32Gb of data which is more than I ever used on my phone. For that price point I'd still have a speed cap on MM or Rocket Mobile. :(

shk292

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#3413363 10-Sep-2025 12:33

Having read some of the threads about people needing to visit an NZ carrier store in order to get an esim, I think this would be a backwards step. I'm a big fan of esim for travel, but having your main sim as physical seems the safest way

gzjdoe

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#3413364 10-Sep-2025 12:36

shk292:

Having read some of the threads about people needing to visit an NZ carrier store in order to get an esim, I think this would be a backwards step. I'm a big fan of esim for travel, but having your main sim as physical seems the safest way

I never ordered an eSIM here in NZ. When I go overseas I do everything on whatever app the operator provides. It is bonkers if we're not supporting this. 🤦‍♂️

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#3413365 10-Sep-2025 12:36

gzjdoe:

Interesting about Kogan's relationship with Mighty Ape and Mighty Mobile. I wasn't familiar with this.

I had a quick look at MM's plans and they seem to be competing with Rocket Mobile (unlimited data at capped speeds), which I am not very keen on. I'd rather be capped on data than speed. I usually wait for a Kogan deal and sign-up for the year. Currently paying $14/month to get 15gb of data (which is enough for my needs), and with their current deal I'd be paying $28/month for 32Gb of data which is more than I ever used on my phone. For that price point I'd still have a speed cap on MM or Rocket Mobile. :(

I would ask yourself this. Do you need full speed? Answer is likely no.

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gzjdoe

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#3413366 10-Sep-2025 12:37

MaxineN:

gzjdoe:

Interesting about Kogan's relationship with Mighty Ape and Mighty Mobile. I wasn't familiar with this.

I had a quick look at MM's plans and they seem to be competing with Rocket Mobile (unlimited data at capped speeds), which I am not very keen on. I'd rather be capped on data than speed. I usually wait for a Kogan deal and sign-up for the year. Currently paying $14/month to get 15gb of data (which is enough for my needs), and with their current deal I'd be paying $28/month for 32Gb of data which is more than I ever used on my phone. For that price point I'd still have a speed cap on MM or Rocket Mobile. :(

I would ask yourself this. Do you need full speed? Answer is likely no.

You're most likely right. But I fear switching and regretting. Still the main driver is the higher cost of the plans (around twice as much for what I pay in the Kogan deals)

MaxineN

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#3413368 10-Sep-2025 12:43

gzjdoe:

MaxineN:

gzjdoe:

Interesting about Kogan's relationship with Mighty Ape and Mighty Mobile. I wasn't familiar with this.

I had a quick look at MM's plans and they seem to be competing with Rocket Mobile (unlimited data at capped speeds), which I am not very keen on. I'd rather be capped on data than speed. I usually wait for a Kogan deal and sign-up for the year. Currently paying $14/month to get 15gb of data (which is enough for my needs), and with their current deal I'd be paying $28/month for 32Gb of data which is more than I ever used on my phone. For that price point I'd still have a speed cap on MM or Rocket Mobile. :(

I would ask yourself this. Do you need full speed? Answer is likely no.

You're most likely right. But I fear switching and regretting. Still the main driver is the higher cost of the plans (around twice as much for what I pay in the Kogan deals)

The thing to remember is that Kogan Mobile is a straight up budget operator with budget after service, who negotiated for the bare minimum. That's why it's so cheap. Tackling on extra features will likely increase costs (licenses + support and a renegotiation of current deal).

Business wise... I would rather kill Kogan Mobile than continue to compete with myself(Mighty Mobile), because the second you add eSIM to Kogan Mobile feature list... Then what's the point of it existing...

🤷‍♀️

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Asteros

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#3413376 10-Sep-2025 13:08

OP I would just wait until the Kogan Mobile deal you want comes up. I'm in the same situation and it's clear that they are switching up when their promos are available. So I'm going to wait it out by switching to a month to month Kogan plan and pay slightly more in the meantime.

If you are wanting to buy a new Iphone, the Iphone 17 and Iphone 17 Pro will have physical SIMs in NZ.

freitasm

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#3413378 10-Sep-2025 13:12

turtleattacks:

eSims when travelling is truly a game changer.

One can land, and have a connection as soon as you switch on you land.

Just remember to turn off the other SIM before turning the phone off, or risk being pinged for a roaming day. Or more.

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#3413382 10-Sep-2025 13:27

shk292:

Having read some of the threads about people needing to visit an NZ carrier store in order to get an esim, I think this would be a backwards step. I'm a big fan of esim for travel, but having your main sim as physical seems the safest way

iPhones have the ability to convert Physical SIMs to eSIM via the Settings app, and I think all three of the major NZ carriers now support this.

One NZ was only recently - and their support via 777 was atrocious for the related eSIM device transfer portion of the Apple feature...

Spark certainly do, and I believe 2degrees was a little while ago but not 100% sure on that, but I think I saw the option when I was helping my mum transfer phones.

I'm not sure if the MVNOs that offer eSIMs have picked up on the transfer feature yet, and that's not to mention Kogan and Warehouse Mobile who are two that I can think of that don't offer eSIMs full stop (Warehouse Mobile has been extremely slow on picking up new features, for instance WiFi Calling was only enabled recently from what I can tell).

KiwiSurfer

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#3413488 10-Sep-2025 17:24

I would never willingly use a eSIM for my main SIM -- which rules out the iPhone Air for me. But agree with the OP it looks like where the market is heading. And that is heading back to the "good old days" of AMPS/TDMA/CDMA where you were required to deal with your carrier if you need/want to swap your number to a different phone. GSM with its SIM swappability was a big deal but intereting to see the market have quite quickly forgotten the advantages of having a physical secure card you can pop into any phone. Maybe in 25 years time we'll see the market reinvent the whell brining back a SIM like device.

Travel eSIM seem nice but I did my research for my last trip and figured out pretty much all eSIMs are issued from some cheapo telco based in country X which has favorable roaming agreements with operators A, B and C in country Y. Means in many cases your data get trunked half-way across the globe to a cheapo telco (Poland telcos being a common apparently). So for NZ bound traffic is first trunked to the other country and from a IP gateway there it gets routed all the way to NZ. Imagine for example "Australian" eSIM >>data trunked to>> Poland Telco >> internet routed >> NZ -- basically going around the globe twice. I went to Kenya recently for work and roaming (work paid) in Kenya saw all my traffic trunked directly back to NZ with minimal latency to NZ -- leading to smooth video calls back to NZ. I went to Singapore for my personal holiday and got a local Sigtel SIM which routed traffic back to NZ via a direct path--again minimal latency leading to smooth video calls on par with what I get locally. Not sure I would get that with the cheapo eSIMs. Sadly most of the eSIM operators don't say up front where they trunk data to -- I think they should especially if it's on the other side of the planet.

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#3413547 10-Sep-2025 22:26

freitasm:

turtleattacks:

eSims when travelling is truly a game changer.

One can land, and have a connection as soon as you switch on you land.

Just remember to turn off the other SIM before turning the phone off, or risk being pinged for a roaming day. Or more.

Or just disable roaming on the other SIM.

Handle9

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#3413548 10-Sep-2025 22:28

KiwiSurfer:

I would never willingly use a eSIM for my main SIM -- which rules out the iPhone Air for me. But agree with the OP it looks like where the market is heading. And that is heading back to the "good old days" of AMPS/TDMA/CDMA where you were required to deal with your carrier if you need/want to swap your number to a different phone. GSM with its SIM swappability was a big deal but intereting to see the market have quite quickly forgotten the advantages of having a physical secure card you can pop into any phone. Maybe in 25 years time we'll see the market reinvent the whell brining back a SIM like device.

Travel eSIM seem nice but I did my research for my last trip and figured out pretty much all eSIMs are issued from some cheapo telco based in country X which has favorable roaming agreements with operators A, B and C in country Y. Means in many cases your data get trunked half-way across the globe to a cheapo telco (Poland telcos being a common apparently). So for NZ bound traffic is first trunked to the other country and from a IP gateway there it gets routed all the way to NZ. Imagine for example "Australian" eSIM >>data trunked to>> Poland Telco >> internet routed >> NZ -- basically going around the globe twice. I went to Kenya recently for work and roaming (work paid) in Kenya saw all my traffic trunked directly back to NZ with minimal latency to NZ -- leading to smooth video calls back to NZ. I went to Singapore for my personal holiday and got a local Sigtel SIM which routed traffic back to NZ via a direct path--again minimal latency leading to smooth video calls on par with what I get locally. Not sure I would get that with the cheapo eSIMs. Sadly most of the eSIM operators don't say up front where they trunk data to -- I think they should especially if it's on the other side of the planet.

All the travel esims I have used work great for video calling. You are over thinking this.

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