My kids use e-sims from Orange France on their iPhones in Canada. 365-day great for kids that are always around WiFi, but need data once in a while. I basically pay for 5 gigs and it lasts a year. Roams on Telus, Bell, Rogers on 5G.

I think for 3 kids, I pay about 10% of what I would pay for them to have monthly plans from a Canadian carrier.

I've had similar experiences, although not quite as expensive. I think it was either 3€ or 4€ to get a new eSIM, which you would do by logging to the carrier's website, clicking a button and scanning the resulting QR code PNG. Absolutely nothing about the process warrants that cost and obviously the operator is blocking from using the iPhone-to-iPhone eSIM transfer tool.

I called up my operator before I decided to switch to another operator. Got a whole slew of excuses for it. "Transfers are blocked for security purposes." Didn't figure out a security benefit for the surcharge. "You'd have to pay for a new physical SIM card too", except I wouldn't because physical SIM cards are REUSABLE. Tried to use this line of reasoning against the operator by asking to not order a new eSIM but reuse the eSIM I already had, but no dice.

Thankfully I managed to find a phone plan that was cheaper than the one I had, so I fixed my eSIM issue and got slight savings on top. Of course after I signed the new contract, my existing operator decided to ring me up and butter me up again. At least this time they admitted that it was just pure rent-seeking and they surely could've given me a free eSIM. Too bad my mind had been made at this point.

Canadian wireless carriers and ISPs (Robellus[1]) suck tremendously. I'm not surprised that they managed to make eSims suck as well.

[1] http://www.realfairforcanada.ca

> In Canada

There’s your problem. Not much to do with esims.

No, it has everything to do with eSims. The fact that it is even possible to make the process miserable is proof enough.

No, canadian carriers are exceptionally good at making everything miserable, there is no technical solutions to a business wanting to create problems. If they could not make esims terrible they just wouldn't support esims at all.

What is most frustrating about this is that they insist on mailing the QR code card to you after you pay up on the carrier website. (as-in postage, in an envelope, arrives in 5 biz days).

Why not just show me the QR code on my computer right after I pay your fee? It's quite ridiculous.

That brings back memories of GRE score being mailed after you paid $25 (iirc). How it was only possible via “snail” “no way to track” mail to anywhere in the world. If it didn’t reach, I had to pay again, except in rare scenarios where an one time exception was made. I kept bagging them to email and that I’ll still pay, but nope! Only was to contact ETS was by phone for which I had luckily had a Google Voice number (thank you CallCentric).

Luckily European universities didn’t give much of a fuck about GRE or even TOEFL and just wanted a scan or photo copy if I had it - or a print or screenshot of the page which I could access by logging in. In one university after I was on call with a professor I was told - “no need for TOEFL score, I just talked to you in English and it’s good enough” or something on the lines of it.

The entire process kind of gave me some kind of closer peek into how education is treated differently in Europe, and in USA, and of course in my home country India.

It's insane. You can no longer pop your sim into your alternate phone (eg for testing). If you want to, that's $10. Want to switch it back? Another $10.