Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC features iSIM silicon to replace SIM cards and eSIM...

[Alfonso Maruccia]

What just happened? Qualcomm announced that its latest mobile platform is ready to integrate eSIM functionality directly into SoC silicon. The integrated SIM (or iSIM) form factor is highly attractive to device manufacturers, the company said, as a cost-cutting improvement for smartphones and other connected devices.

The classic SIM card-based standard is slowly being replaced by newer eSIM tech, but mobile manufacturers and SoC designers are already working to go beyond that. Qualcomm's recently announced Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Mobile Platform is the first GSMA certified iSIM-compatible device and the world's first "commercially deployable" SoC device with iSIM functionality integrated directly into the chip.

The iSIM is yet another - and likely the last - step in the evolution of connectivity technology for mobile users and devices. The eSIM (embedded-SIM) was designed to replace the small plastic card (and the integrated circuit within) needed for user identification by mobile service providers with a chip soldered on the phone's motherboard.

With iSIM technology, the aforementioned chip is not needed as connectivity ID duties are handled directly by the SoC platform. Qualcomm highlights how the new iSIM tech provides device makers with "further opportunities to save space and reduce build and supply chain costs," while maintaining the same best-in-class security level.

The San Diego-based chip designer worked with French multinational company Thales Group to make its iSIM solution fully compliant with the GSMA Remote SIM Provisioning standard. Therefore, mobile carriers should be able to manage iSIM subscriptions the same way they are currently managing eSIM users.

The iSIM market is expected to grow to 300 million devices by 2027, Qualcomm said, with a 19 percent market share of all the eSIM device shipments by then. While the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC provides integrated support for iSIM, phone manufacturers are mostly still using discrete eSIM chips in their designs.

According to Guillaume Lafaix, vice president of embedded products at Thales Mobile, the world's first GSMA security certification for the company's 5G iSIM gives device makers and mobile carriers even greater freedom to offer users "effortless over-the-air connectivity."

The iSIM technology increases the opportunity to "proliferate cellular capability" on mobile and other connected devices, GSMA chief technology officer Alex Sinclair stated. Meanwhile, end-users and customers will have no control on connection portability anymore.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/97826-qualcomm-snapdragon-8-gen-2-soc-features-isim.html

 

[StupidPeopleSuk]

Meanwhile, end-users and customers will have no control on connection portability anymore

This has effectively been a non-issue since the carriers were forced by the FCC into unlocking phones after a certain time or whenever the phone is paid off from the contract-locked status...

This is great of course, until a certain company "donates" about a gazzillion $$ to QC to make it so that they can lock them to their money-grubbin hands again...

 

[Homerlovesbeer]

Isim surely is less secure then a physical Sim card.

Sim cards are so small now the excuse to save space is not a great one.

 

[Athlonite]

Isim surely is less secure then a physical Sim card.

Sim cards are so small now the excuse to save space is not a great one.

It's also the same argument they used to get rid of the SD card "Oh it's to save space" um no that's a lie you tell us but we all know it's so you can sell more expensive phones with more space

 

[Knot Schure]

First the removal battery.

Then headphone jack.

Now the sim tray.

But I do not have a sim tray, you might say? Well you'll certainly want one, if you travel at all.

And yet the devices' size continues, on average, to grow.

As does the prices at the mid-high, and high tiers.

So all I can promise you is, I'll part with no money for any device not sporting at least two physical sim slots. No way, no how.

 

[Badvok]

So all I can promise you is, I'll part with no money for any device not sporting at least two physical sim slots. No way, no how.

If the iSIM is simply moving the eSIM into the SOC you'll probably be able to have 8 SIMs - isn't that better than being restricted to two physical SIMs?

 

[Knot Schure]

If the iSIM is simply moving the eSIM into the SOC you'll probably be able to have 8 SIMs - isn't that better than being restricted to two physical SIMs?

I carry what I call a drinking wallet. Its an old wallet full of expired cards, and is carried only when 'out on the tiles'. If I lose it, then I lose only my walking cash.
And I have a similar thing with my phones. When on a pre-planned p1ss up, I take out my regular sim and put into an old ASUS ROG2. If I lose that, or the phone 'walks' of its own accord, replacing the lost sim is trivial, but losing my main phone would be somewhat more upsetting, especially since I buy all of my phones outright, and insurance being hit n miss, as I am a frequent traveller.
So no thank you, I'll take physical sims, thanks.