Telecom Simcards Can Be History Soon

E Sim Cards to Replace Traditional Telecom Sim Cards : As reported by the Financial Times , Apple and Samsung are working along with the GSMA (Groupe Speciale Mobile Association) for replacing the traditional Sim cards which are used in the mobiles with Electronic-Sims.
E-Sims will be issued as standard sim cards with the smartphones and will be compatible with all telecom operators. The E-SIM will work like the traditional Sim but will be embedded in the smartphone itself and telecom carrier will be chosen from the Mobile user interface. 

GSMA is in advance level talks with Mobile companies like Samsung and Apple to finalize the architecture for the sim cards along with the telecom operators like AT&T, Deutsche Telekom, Etisalat, Hutchison Whampoa, Orange, Telefónica and Vodafone.

" GSMA is the global body which represents the telecom operators through out the world and work for the standardization , advancement and promotion of the GSM mobile telephone system."

The E-Sim will change the way a consumer sign up for a telecom connection and it will give more freedom to the subscribers to choose the telecom operator of their choice without the need for swapping sim cards or mobiles.
The E-Sim offers more convenience to the smartphone users with ease of porting out from one telecom operator to the other without need of getting a new physical sim card.
Anne Bouverot, chief executive of the GSMA, said all parties were heading towards an agreement for the “common architecture”. However it may take time to finalize the architecture for the sim cards and also to align the mobile operators to come to a joint conclusion.

" Apple also launched an E-sim with Apple iPad last year and only few of the operators supported it in US and UK.  It was supported by T-Mobile and AT&T in the US, and just EE in the UK. Those familiar with its UK rollout said that it had not been widely adopted. "

Concept is great and may take 2-3 years for adaption but we may see this getting widely adopted in future. It will be quite interesting to see how things like a lost sim card or a lost smartphone will be handled by the companies which currently requires mobile user to run from pillar to pole to get a new sim card with the same number.
Also with the National MNP now applicable to Indian telecom market it is possible to keep same number and even the same operator when you move from one state to other. The E-Sim cards will make MNP more user friendly.