French Operators Fear eSIM Proliferation: Is This the Future of Mobile Tech?

French telecom operators are wary of the widespread adoption of eSIM technology expected in the coming years. Although not a novel component (Apple has supported it since 2018 with the iPhone XS), it is only with this year’s release of the iPhone Air that Apple has mandated its use, replacing the traditional removable SIM card in this exceptionally slim model. Unsurprisingly, the physical SIM card’s days seem numbered: in a recent interview, Apple’s Vice President of Marketing, Greg Joswiak, likened it to the “floppy disk of mobile phones.”

The shift from physical SIM cards to programmable eSIMs primarily aims to free up space within smartphones. However, operators fear that Apple and other manufacturers might see this as a commercial opportunity. “Apple or Google could enable their customers to directly select their mobile plans on their devices,” a French operator executive told Le Monde with concern.

Manufacturers might even “negotiate exclusively with a single operator to push its plans, although regulatory authorities would likely have a say regarding the associated competitive risks,” explained Bona Ung, the Director of Consumer Mobile Marketing at Orange France. He reassured that “We are in discussions with manufacturers to avoid this type of conflict. We ensure they do not encroach on our turf.”

Le Monde reports that many in the industry fear a scenario similar to the rise of instant messaging services like WhatsApp in the early 2010s. “These apps obliterated SMS services globally, costing operators billions in revenue,” notes consultancy firm Strategy&. Some web entities “might purchase bulk capacities from operators and create a digital services ecosystem, including mobile, thus making significant inroads into the telecommunications market.”

Increased competition is already evident in the travel eSIM market, with players like NordVPN entering the telecom sector. Operators are responding by including prepaid plans for numerous countries in their offerings, but they acknowledge that it might only be a matter of time before global players use eSIM technology to compete against their monthly plans.