I was afraid of this, when I bought my 15PM. Traveled to Chile, and what would have been a quick transaction at the Entel store ended in disappointment. Apparently you need a Chilean ID to purchase an eSIM. Fortunately, I brought a pixel 3 I can hotspot, and takes a nano sim, but it’s something of a hassle. My only regret so far.
Let me tell you, I loathe eSIM. I will sell my youngest child to get a nano SIM slot back. I have t-mo and they need you to call them and then they need to send a 1 time randomized PIN via SMS to read back to them… Except if you have no functioning eSIM or another line they can send it to on your account, how else would you do it? Oh, that’s right… GO TO THEIR STORE! This defeats the whole point of having any SIM to begin with. They wont even send an EMAIL of the PIN to you…
That sounds like a T-Mobile issue?
SIM cards feel like an extremely dated concept. You need a random bit of plastic to authenticate yourself with an online service? It’s just that the infrastructure around eSIM hasn’t really caught up to the point where they are as convenient as SIM cards, but we will get there.
I didn’t realize how much of a pita an esim would be until I had to use one (I bought a U.S. Iphone esim only). So until they are way more ubiquitous I will most likely go back to a phone that uses regular sim cards.
Well that sucks. But specifically that’s T-Mobile having a shitty policy. No doubt supremely frustrating though.