iPhone 17: models only with ESIM in the EU?

Apple now also seems to plan within the European Union not to equip iPhones with physical SIM card slots. This could already be the case with the iPhone-17 series, which is to be presented in the coming week. Apple is currently focusing on a double strategy in the EU countries: a “real” SIM meets one (or several, although only one can only be active) digital ESIM. According to a report by Macrumors Training courses for the ESIM area planned -four days before the iPhone keynote. Apparently there are appointments in all 27 EU countries.

In the USA since iPhone 14 no more issue

The dates are therefore recorded in Apple’s internal training app Seed, which is available both Apple store employees and employees of the authorized dealers (Apple Authorized Reseller). Since iPhones have had ESIMs for a long time, this refresher course fits an overall conversion of the SIM strategy. Last year, the IT news service The Information reported that Apple is planning to “eliminate physical Sims in more countries”. In the meantime, this does not taste good for all mobile phone providers: in Great Britain they turned to the responsible regulator because they fear customer losses by a quick change.

In the United States, there have been only ESIMs since the iPhone 14 series, which was published in 2022. The physical SIM space is currently not yet used for other components, according to Teardowns, the area is simply empty. With the particularly thin iPhone 17 Air, it could now be that Apple is missing the space for the SIM slot. There was a different development in China: here the devices even have double physical Sims. Both cards are placed next to each other in the SIM tray (each pointing outwards). Apple leads countries in which ESIMs are already available In a support document on.

ESIM change can still be annoyed

In practice, the ESIM actually works well for users: You no longer have to wait for the mobile phone provider to send out a physical card. Providers like Fraenk have digitized the entire sales process: the app creates the ESIM after the contract is concluded. However, there are providers who still send the necessary QR code by letter. The change of devices can also make difficulties if the network operator does not provide for a standard ESIM transmission.

Apple had recently screwed to new transmission options, and with iOS 26, it would soon allow ESIMs to be passed on to Android devices. But here too it is unclear whether every mobile operator is possible. It is best to contact us directly to find out how painless this handles the disclosure of ESIMs.