When Microsoft yesterday showed off the first set of Always Connected PCs powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor, with LTE, there is one thing we forgot to mention. Virtual or eSIM. These devices will support eSIM thanks to Snapdragon X16 LTE modem offers gigabit speeds which are inbuilt into the system.
As a matter of fact, Microsoft actually talked about during its introduction of Connected PCs at WinHEC event.
Windows 10 will support eSIM which will allow one to get a new SIM over Windows Store, and the need of physical sim will die off slowly. This, of course, will need partners to support it and will vary from country to Country.
Of course, Microsoft isn’t killing the physical SIM slots, at least not now, but having a virtual SIM makes things lot easier for the consumers. They can switch any time, change operators, and so on.
There are two types of eSIM:
- Consumer: It enables easy eSIM profile download from the Windows Store, activate it, and attach to a carrier of your choice.
- Enterprise: It allows the enterprise to buy SIM in bulk using MO or Intune to automatically provision the connectivity.
We should seeing more of this as more progress happens for Windows 10 ARM.