In September at the presentation of the smartphone iPhone 8 Tim cook reported that this is the best iPhone, which only saw humanity. In turn, Samsung will say exactly the same thing on March 29 on your Galaxy S8. But the one feature which does not receive both the smartphone supports two SIM-cards. This was told by a major mobile operator and handset manufacturers. Why so expensive and the best of its kind smartphones will not get the simplest function, which is so useful in travel ?
“The truth is that mobile operators earn a lot of money on data plans, including roaming, – said the representative of one of the operators at MWC. Their profits evaporate as soon as the second SIM card. You won’t see the second slot in top-end phones.”
In other words, it is not the greed of Apple or Samsung, it is the greed of the operators that provide their services to access the network. Even the leading smartphone makers should consider the views of operators.
The second SIM card saves you money in trips
If your phone has a slot for a second SIM card, you can use your regular card for making calls and SMS and second, local, to access the Internet.
Local operators, where ever you are, providing services much cheaper and that is why many try to avoid wild price on the Internet abroad from your home operator.
If there is only one slot you will have to choose between paying expensive data plan with roaming and a complete switch to local SIM card with change rooms. Goodbye, iMessage. Hi, strange country code +86 in China, the conversations with friends.
Look at these prices
For example, take one of the partners of Apple in the U.S. mobile operator AT&T. the Standard international plan costs about $40, and for the money the subscriber receives only 200 MB of Internet. Forget about streaming video and music. Pay $60 and get 300 MB, and it’s not an extra 300 MB, it’s only 300 MB.
Over 800 MB will have to pay $120. It is not even 1 GB. What happens if you exceed the limit? Cost of 1 MB will be from 15 to 25 cents. The excess traffic can be a very costly mistake.
Another American operator Verizon is no better. For every 100 MB you will have to pay $25, but if you need unlimited incoming messages (and 100 outbound), pay $40.
When “free” actually not quite “free”
International rate plans from Sprint and T-Mobile cheaper, but still cannot provide everything the user needs on the trip, and they do not eliminate the need to buy a second SIM card. Free the data is transferred at speeds of 2G, but even for 3G will have to pay a lot of money.
Fee for 100 MB of 3G Internet in roaming from Sprint is $15, but that’s megabytes expire after 24 hours. For 200 MB, which expire after 7 days, the operator asks for $25, while the 500 MB for 14 days can be purchased for $50.
Google provides roaming services with Project Fi for a reasonable price. 1 GB costs $10 for unlimited national calls and SMS, you must pay another $20, but you can get a refund for the unused megabytes.
Project Fi has no limits on speed, it all depends on the operator. What’s the catch? It works only with the Google Pixel, the Pixel XL, 6P Nexus and Nexus 5X. In addition, a Google account must be registered in the United States.
Among the mobile operators to get the best tariff plans for roaming, but each of them is some kind of trick like the speed limit.
Mobile operators are changing your smartphone
So, how expensive plans for data transmission are connected directly with your smartphone? Because of them you will not be able to get a flagship device with support for two SIM-cards. That is, the operators actually change the design of mobile devices. For example, let’s take Axon ZTE Mini. In the US and the UK the device is sold with two slots, but in Canada hybrid the second slot can only be used for SD card.
In Russia, Asia and Africa the situation is somewhat different. Phones are not locked to a specific operator and sold without his intervention. In these regions no problem, you can buy the dual SIM Samsung Galaxy S7 edge.
Not only that, you don’t buy Galaxy or iPhone with two SIM-card slots in the West, so Samsung smartphones, not locked, very hard to come by at the start of sales in the United States. Samsung took nearly four months to begin the sale of unlocked Galaxy S7, which greatly played into the hands of mobile operators.
All this to make you pay more
Influence and pressure from mobile operators, forcing users to pay more. “While operators have the advantage, and all will be”, – said at MWC one of the smartphone manufacturers, who wished to remain unknown.
It is like a tax on travel. If you can afford to travel, companies expect you to pay an expensive data plan.
On the question of changing the situation, the sources claim that to fix all the competition can only or Apple. If a sufficient number of smartphones with two SIM-cards outside China affect the profit, the situation may change. However, this is an unlikely scenario.
Most likely that change things can only Apple. The company can easily implement support for two SIM-cards even without the second slot. Rather, it will be software solution in the form of the Apple SIM.
Although Apple has managed to get operators to stop to put logos on your iPhone and get rid of unnecessary apps in iOS, expect the support of two SIM cards in the iPhone 8 is clearly not necessary. And now we know why.
