Apple has been granted a patent for “On-Device Physical SIM to eSIM Conversion.”
About the patent
The patent relates to wireless communications, including methods and apparatus to support transfer of cellular wireless services, such as cellular voice and data services, from a physical subscriber identity module (pSIM) included in a wireless device to an electronic SIM (eSIM) on an embedded universal integrated circuit card (eUICC) of the wireless device.
In the patent, Apple notes that newer generation (e.g., fourth generation (4G) and fifth generation (5G), cellular wireless networks) provide a broad range of packet-based voice and data services. A user of a wireless device can access services offered by a wireless network service provider, also referred to as a mobile network operator (MNO).
The services are based on service subscriptions controlled by authentication credentials included in a profile, also referred to as a subscriber identity module (SIM), when included in a removable universal integrated circuit card (UICC). The latter is also referred to as a SIM card, or referred to as an electronic SIM (eSIM), when included in an embedded UICC (eUICC) of the wireless device.
With a removable UICC and an unlocked wireless device, a user can access different services by replacing the UICC/SIM combination. With a configurable eUICC, eSIMs can be downloaded to the eUICC to access different wireless services.
Wireless devices that accommodate multiple UICCs/SIMs and/or multiple eSIMs on an eUICC provide for multiple subscriber identities to be used by the same wireless device to access different services, including services that can span different cellular wireless networks that use different cellular radio access technologies (RATs).
Apple wants to make it easy for a user to transfer or seek to transfer cellular services associated with a physical SIM (pSIM) included in the wireless device to an eSIM on the eUICC of the wireless device, e.g., to access services and/or capabilities that cannot be provided without replacement of the pSIM in the wireless device.
Summary of the patent
Here’s Apple’s abstract of the patent: “This application describes cellular service transfer mechanisms that can be used to convert cellular service credentials on a physical SIM (pSIM) card included in a wireless device to a newly downloaded electronic SIM (eSIM) on an embedded universal integrated circuit card (eUICC) of the wireless device.
“Transfer of the credentials for cellular service access can occur locally within the wireless device with authorization to transfer obtained from a mobile network operator (MNO) entitlement server associated with the pSIM. The new eSIM corresponding to the previously used pSIM can be downloaded to the eUICC from a provisioning server of the MNO.”
