Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 has integrated e-SIM

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 888-soc has a built-in e-SIM. That’s what the chip designer says. As far as is known, no telephone maker has yet made use of the soc’s ‘integrated SIM card’.

Qualcomm refers to the technology as ‘iSim’, an integrated version of the e-SIM chip that some phones have on board. The integrated version of the Universal Integrated Circuit Card, as the standard is officially called, should make it easier to put SIM cards in phones without losing extra space. The iSim is located in the Secure Processing Unit of the soc.

Qualcomm has been working on this technology for several years, but hadn’t said before that the iSim is already on the Snapdragon 888. Interest in e-SIMs is limited for the time being. There are phones that support it, but many phones still don’t have an e-SIM on board. With an e-SIM, users can switch plans via an app or via the settings menu, instead of switching a SIM card. It should save space for smartphone makers, because the SIM slot takes up a relatively large amount of space in the phone.