this post was submitted on 08 Apr 2024
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More and more people are ditching carrier roaming in favor of travel eSIMs (www.androidauthority.com)
submitted 7 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] [email protected] 10 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Is there a FOSS implementation of esim any where? AFAIK all privacy/security rom need to download a proprietary component to use esim, and such component need to run as root (as of now).

I wonder if this is another HDMI situation where implementing a FOSS version would violate some NDA of some sort.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

Well, this is a bit tricky to answer:

  1. The e-sim in a phone is a separate chip with proprietary firmware. The chances of a FOSS version of this HW are nearly nonexistent. It would require developing your own silicon and putting it into your own phones. Chances of FOSS FW for this proprietary HW are also very small, because it is difficult and there is not much reason to do so.
  2. Currently, registering an e-sim requires a proprietary app (usually google). There is no FOSS alternative. Work on one is slow and there are some IP issues.
  3. Using an e-sim does not require a proprietary app. So you can remove google services or remove their access to the e-sim HW once you have it registered. GrapheneOS uses this.
[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

Huh, TIL, an esim is literally a sim soldered into the board.

Now I wonder, could something like the Pinephone FOSS modem firmware register a sim and resolve point 2?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

I am not an expert but I don't think a modem has anything to do with registering the e-sim.

Even if it did, the hard part is probably getting the e-sim data/keys to be registered, not the uploading it to the e-sim chip itself.