Kenya’s biggest, and arguably, most innovative telecom company, Safaricom, has introduced support for eSIM.
While the announcement was made via the company’s Twitter account, it is now official, Safaricom supports eSIM.
Safaricom customers with phones that support eSIMs now don’t need to have a physical SIM card inserted into the device. Instead, users can visit a Safaricom Shop and simply scan a QR Code and get access to Safaricom network and services.
eSIM is short for an Embedded Subscriber Identity Module, or simply an Embedded SIM card.
A couple of high-end smartphones have an embedded SIM card within their phone which they can activate at any time with network settings for whichever network they so wish.
How to get Safaricom eSIM:
- Visit a Safaricom Shop with a supported device
- Scan the eSIM QR Code you’ll be given by Safaricom with your supported device
- Your device will download and install the Profile Settings and set up the Safaricom Network on your eSIM
- Your eSIM will now be ready for use.
Devices that support Safaricom’s eSIM:
- iPhone SE 2020, iPhone X, iPhone Xs, iPhone 11, iPhone 12
- Samsung Galaxy S21, Galaxy Z Fold, Galaxy NOTE 20
The benefits of an eSIM are quite vast:
- If you have an iPhone, you can have two networks running at once.
- If you travel a lot, you can just buy an eSIM for whichever network in that country you’re travelling to instead of paying lots of cash when roaming.
- You can easily switch between networks. As with the example above where you can switch between Faiba and Safaricom. Provided these companies don’t do stupid stuff to try and stop you.
- You can have multiple data plans – if you’re someone who actually pays monthly for data plans.
