Your Samsung Galaxy S7 and Galaxy Note 6 may come with an e-SIM card in 2016

Phone

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Samsung is at the forefront of smartphone sales worldwide, but a new report says that the Korean manufacturer is about to advance the smartphone era in a big way — and the Galaxy S7, Galaxy S7 edge, and Galaxy Note 6 could all inaugurate the new smartphone feature.

Financial Times reports that one of your most annoying problems is about to disappear – namely, switching SIM cards. Samsung is part of a new movement to replace existing SIM cards with an embedded SIM card (known also as an e-SIM) that need not be replaced when switching from one carrier to the next. Currently, if you want to switch from AT&T to T-Mobile in the US, you’d have to request a new SIM card from the new carrier and pay $9.99 or a reduced price (sometimes 99 cents) to get a new SIM card with which to activate the new phone.

Apple has implemented its own Apple SIM into smartphones, which serves the same purpose: it allows LTE iPad users to switch carriers when they choose to do so without the need to swap out SIM cards. The GSM Association, the group responsible for what could become a universal implementation, says that Samsung is onboard but that Apple still needs some convincing: “While we are optimistic, a formal agreement with them is still in progress.”

The e-SIM will allow consumers more choice, which is what consumers want when their money is involved. Samsung’s adoption of the e-SIM for its mobile devices will allow consumers to be happier with their carrier choices as well as the product. Manufacturers that remain behind the times and choose not to go with the e-SIM card will be left behind. So far, T-Mobile parent Deutsche Telekom, AT&T, Orange, Telefonica, Vodafone, and others have agreed to push this technological program forward.

Via