In its latest move to embrace the internet of things (IoT) technologies, China Unicom, one of the country's major telecommunication operators, is about to launch its eSIM service in China's southeastern coastal cities of Guangzhou and Shenzhen on March 7, the Beijing Business Today reported on Tuesday.
The concept of eSIM, which is short for Embedded-SIM, is to embed regular SIM cards in communication devices like mobile phones instead of keeping them as independent components, which will make those devices lighter and thinner. More importantly, it will allow users to freely switch their devices to other telecommunication operators at any time.
China Unicom has started to allow smart phones containing eSIM to be linked to its LTE network since the end of last year. After obtaining the approval from the authority on Feb, 14 this year, the company plans to launch its pilot program of connecting two different kinds of communication terminals with one eSIM card in six Chinese cities including Guangzhou and Shenzhen, among others. This means that users can make phone calls on Apple Watch 3 and other smart watch products which support eSIM.
In fact, China Unicorn has been cooperating with such world-leading communication device developers as Apple and Huawei in introducing mobile terminal devices supporting eSIM to the Chinese market since as early as 2015.
Since then, the company has achieved a variety of accomplishments including building the world's first eSIM management platform, establishing the only eSIM-based electronic certificate service system for the Chinese market, completing its overall network upgrading with its IT technologies, and providing solutions for the eSIM-based IoT for consumption.
Analysts believe that with the launch of this pilot program, China Unicom has gotten ahead of its major rivals such as China Mobile and China Telecom in this area.
The concept of eSIM, which is short for Embedded-SIM, is to embed regular SIM cards in communication devices like mobile phones instead of keeping them as independent components, which will make those devices lighter and thinner. More importantly, it will allow users to freely switch their devices to other telecommunication operators at any time.
China Unicom has started to allow smart phones containing eSIM to be linked to its LTE network since the end of last year. After obtaining the approval from the authority on Feb, 14 this year, the company plans to launch its pilot program of connecting two different kinds of communication terminals with one eSIM card in six Chinese cities including Guangzhou and Shenzhen, among others. This means that users can make phone calls on Apple Watch 3 and other smart watch products which support eSIM.
In fact, China Unicorn has been cooperating with such world-leading communication device developers as Apple and Huawei in introducing mobile terminal devices supporting eSIM to the Chinese market since as early as 2015.
Since then, the company has achieved a variety of accomplishments including building the world's first eSIM management platform, establishing the only eSIM-based electronic certificate service system for the Chinese market, completing its overall network upgrading with its IT technologies, and providing solutions for the eSIM-based IoT for consumption.
Analysts believe that with the launch of this pilot program, China Unicom has gotten ahead of its major rivals such as China Mobile and China Telecom in this area.
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