The ranks of Australian telcos providing eSIM are about to grow by two. Both More and Tangerine will start offering the technology to customers from November 2.
Alongside Everyday Mobile (formerly Woolworths) they will be the only providers offering eSIM on the Telstra wholesale network which covers 98.8% of Australians.
eSIM (or embedded SIM if you're fancy) is a rewritable SIM built into your smartphone - it's an alternative to the traditional physical SIM card with which most people are familiar.
eSIM technology has a few advantages over a physical SIM number one of which is convenience. Because an eSIM is entirely digital the process for setting it up is too. This means you don't need to worry about buying a physical SIM from a store or waiting for one to arrive in the post. All you need to do is sign up for your new telco and follow its instructions.
CEO of More and Tangerine, Andrew Branson shared said “Our eSIM capabilities extend beyond hassle-free and fast activation – they also provide customers with a host of other benefits: the ability to use multiple phone numbers on a single eSIM-enabled device, no fiddly SIM swaps when travelling overseas and improved security features. eSIM technology also contributes to environmental conservation by minimising plastic waste and lowering the overall carbon footprint.”
eSIMs slow take off Australia
With More and Tangerine on board, there will now be 11 providers offering eSIM in WhistleOut's database of 28. Less than half of the tracked telcos offer eSIM.
eSIM adoption has been slow in Australia. The latest data from amaysim shows that only 11% of Australians are currently using eSIM.
While the technology has been available since 2017 Telstra only opened it up as an option to its Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs) in March 2021.
felix says about half of its new customers signed up with eSIM owing to the fact that its app automatically detects if a customer's phone is eSIM compatible and sets that as the default option.
You can see how More and Tangerine's SIM-only mobile plans with at least 20GB compare with other eSIM providers here:
CommBank customers can get three months free on More's mobile plans when they sign up using a CommBank credit or debit card.
Note: This story has been updated to reflect that the launch of eSIM from More and Tangerine has been pushed back to November 2.
Dylan Crismale
Digital Content Editor
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