The French-Italian operator seems not to be intent on bringing eSIMs to our country anytime soon, let alone to France. The confirmation comes from the top
After the launch of eSim by TIM and Wind (on an experimental basis) and the postponement to 2020 by Vodafone, now Iliad users are wondering when virtual Sims will arrive also for the French operator. Unfortunately, at least at the moment, there’s no good news.
Until now, in fact, no official news about Iliad’s eSim has arrived either in Italy or in France (where Iliad Group is operating under the Free Mobile brand). But that’s not all: Iliad, by admission of its own founder Xavier Niel during an event in France, is not at all a “fan” of eSim. So much so that in France almost all operators have been selling eSims since June, but Free Mobile has not. Different is the case of the Swiss operator Salt, which is not owned by Iliad but by Niel himself: Salt, in fact, in Switzerland offers eSim to its customers since June.
Iliad doesn’t want eSim
According to the blog Universo Free, specialized in news and updates on the Iliad-Free Mobile group, the Italian customers (and not only) of the French operator would better put their minds at rest: eSim will not arrive for a long time. During a meeting with the Free community in Paris, in fact, Xiavier Niel responded to the many requests with a lapidary “We are not fans of eSim”. Iliad’s strategy, therefore, in the near future does not include the offer of this technology even if the company has not explained in detail why.
The exception Salt in Switzerland
It would seem, however, that it is Iliad and not Niel himself who does not like eSim technology. Swiss operator Salt, owned by Xavier Niel (but not participated by Iliad Group), already adopted eSim in June 2019, in line with what most of its competitors did. In the Swiss case, however, Apple’s position would weigh like a boulder. The Cupertino-based smartphone manufacturer, in fact, has over 40% of the Swiss market with its iPhones and the latest generation iPhones, as is known, support eSim technology. 40% of Swiss users, therefore, are already able to use this technology and, what’s more, most of these customers want eSim. A very different situation from the Italian one, where still few users have an eSim compatible smartphone.