How to Transfer an eSIM Between iPhones using Bluetooth

With the new iOS 16 for iPhone you can now transfer eSIMs that are issued by supporting cellular carriers. The feature has been made available in multiple countries, including the United States and the United Kingdom.

Earlier this week, the first beta of iOS 16 was put into the hands of developers. They’ve planned a public beta for release in July. Apple says that iOS 16 will be officially released to all users in the fall.

To access the eSIM transfer, go into the Settings app on your iPhone running iOS 16. Click on “Set up eSIM” and it will bring up an option to transfer an eSIM and its associated phone number from another iPhone via Bluetooth. 

Per Apple, the other iPhone must be nearby, unlocked, have Bluetooth turned on, and is running iOS 16 or later.

As always, Apple continues to provide the more traditional option of setting up an eSIM by scanning a QR code provided by a carrier.

What is an eSIM anyway?

An eSIM is a digital SIM that allows you to activate a cellular plan from a carrier without having to use a physical SIM card. 

Users of the iPhone XS and newer have access to a single eSIM, while all four iPhone 13 models support dual eSIMs.

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How AT&T’s 5G Network is Contributing to the Department of Defense

AT&T has been implementing 5G service and showcasing its benefits in different areas. Most recently they demonstrated how a Naval “Smart Warehouse” could be created using a variety of 5G-powered technology solutions. During demonstrations, the team working on the project found AT&T’s private 5G network delivered data throughput speeds of 3.9 gigabits per second. The latency was less than 10 milliseconds.

Back in October 2020, the Department of Defense (DoD) announced $600 million would be given in awards for 5G experimentation and testing at five U.S. military test sites. This would represent the largest full-scale 5G tests for dual-use applications in the world. 

One of those locations was Naval Base Coronado in San Diego. This is where the smart warehouse concept is being showcased. The goal is to increase the efficiency and fidelity of naval logistic operations including identification, recording, organization, storage, retrieval, and the transportation of material and supplies.

Thanks to AT&T’s 5G network, DoD has the ability to scale its 5G-enabled smart warehouse solution. It also supports global access for DoD users via roaming capabilities used with AT&T’s network infrastructure. This allows DoD to benefit from AT&T’s commercial investments in its network and avoid costly additional network builds.

“This is a key example of organizations coming together in a collaborative environment with our Armed Forces to explore the art of the possible in 5G,” said Amanda Toman, acting Principal Director of 5G-NextG, Office of the Under Secretary of Defense, Research & Engineering. “We’re not just building for the warfighter; we are also innovating with the American citizen in mind. DoD is working to accelerate the development and deployment of 5G-enabled capabilities across many use cases while ensuring those systems — as well as those of our allies and partners — are robust, protected, and reliable.”

What 5G solutions were demonstrated? 

There was a focus on the 5G Radio Access Network and its optimization of warehouse operations via increased throughput of data, internet of things (IoT) support, and low latency. Among the prototype use cases demonstrated were:

  • 5G-enabled VR/AR capabilities to support military training and operations
  • 5G-powered high-definition video surveillance
  • Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning use cases that use AT&T 5G in a cloud environment.
  • 5G-enabled AR to support advanced put/pick technology operated via a hands-free mobile device
  • Zero Trust Architecture cybersecurity support

For more information, check out the official announcement from AT&T. You can also read the related Department of Defense announcement by clicking here.

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5G: What is Voice over New Radio?

When LTE first arrived, phone calls were still made using the older 3G network. It wasn’t until later on that Voice over LTE, or VoLTE, service was introduced. The same thing is happening today with 5G service. Voice calls still mainly utilize LTE services. That’s even in locations where 5G data coverage is widely available. 

As of today, T-Mobile announced they would be supporting Voice over 5G. This technology is referred to as Voice over New Radio, or VoNR.

“5G is already driving new levels of engagement, transforming how our customers use their smartphones and bringing unprecedented connectivity to areas that desperately need it,” said Neville Ray, President of Technology at T-Mobile. “And it’s just going to get better thanks to the incredible T-Mobile team and our partners who are tirelessly innovating and advancing the capabilities of 5G every day.”

Rollout will start in Portland, Oregon and Salt Lake City, Utah, where some commercial calls will be routed via T-Mobile’s standalone 5G network. The service will only be available in “limited areas” of these cities.

In order for to obtain VoNR, your phone must support the new technology. This is no different than how Voice over LTE functioned. Your phone must support it and you must have the feature enabled on the phone. Currently, only one phone supports it – the Samsung Galaxy S21 5G smartphone. 

It’s likely that other carriers will begin to follow suit when they see the benefits – not only the lower latency, but more of the LTE spectrum can be cleared out to make room for additional 5G service. Dish Network, for example, does not have an existing LTE network to fall back on so they are relying on a deal with AT&T while they work on their own VoNR services.

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Providing Service During Natural Disasters – How AT&T is Testing 5G on Drones

An AT&T drone equipped with 5G network hardware (source: AT&T)

For the past few years, AT&T has provided cellular coverage at disaster sites around the U.S. They run the network behind FirstNet, a service for first responders. When their services are needed they typically provide this via trucks called COWs (cell on wheels). 

In the more recent years, the carrier expanded to using a fleet of flying COWs (cell on wings). These flying COWs are drones that are capable of providing coverage to larger areas and are therefore more effective. 

Just last month, AT&T started testing its first flying COWs with 5G service rather than LTE. Tests took place in a remote area of Missouri where no other services are available. 

In an exclusive interview with CNET, Art Pregler, AT&T’s drone leader, said it was challenging to find a location without their service. 

“We were trying to find an area where there was no signal at all so we could be assured that all the signal we were capturing was from our drone,” said Pregler.

As AT&T prepares their flying COWs to be available in about a month, they are also upgrading some fiber optic tethers. This is what links the drones to the trucks that serve as communication and power bases.

Pregler says the drones are staged in warehouses and ready for use now. He added, “We have them on the West Coast for fire season, in the Southeast for hurricane season and in the Midwest for flood season.”

With a focus more on coverage and availability over maximizing speeds, AT&T reported their first 5G flying COW test showed results of 10 square miles of coverage. This is with the drone hovering at 300 feet up.  At this distance, the drone connected to a satellite and provided download speeds of 46Mbps and upload speeds of 71Mbps.

Pregler recalled the Hurricanes in 2017 and 2018 when they used the flying COWs to provide network service to first responders on the ground. He noted, “For a while we were the only network that was operational there at ground zero.” 

Since 2018, both Verizon and T-Mobile have also invested in preparation for disasters. In 2021, Verizon debuted their large mobile 5G base station truck they named Thor.  For T-Mobile, they currently use portable network vehicles, satellite cells on wheels and satellite cells on light trucks. The uncarrier is improving their operations now and adding backup generators for when there is loss of power.  

AT&T expects they’ll be utilizing the high-frequency radio waves called millimeter wave, or mmWave. These frequencies allow for a larger increase in data transfer speeds. Though the range is shorter, they can see speeds beyond 1Gbps.

The flying COWs won’t use mmWave for connecting your smartphone but will use it to help strengthen the network overall, Pregler said. mmWave connections will allow multiple drones to connect via a sort of mesh network in the sky, which will extend the flying COW coverage.

There are six different ways that the COW technology itself can connect to the network. According to Pregler, this includes fiber optic links and satellites in low Earth orbit or higher in geostationary orbit.

As climate change continues to take its toll on the world, AT&T will keep implementing improvements and advances where possible. We can only hope that the other carriers will do so as well. Good news is that Verizon just announced how 5G can help detect and even prevent wildfires. According to the news article:

Minsait, a European company, is currently testing a solution that takes steps in this direction. Its system uses solar-powered, 360-degree cameras to look for smoke in a 2-kilometer range and uses sensors to detect conditions such as humidity, temperature, wind and dew point. The cameras are AI-enabled to analyze all the data at the edge and can transmit alerts as needed.

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Updates on Dish Network’s 5G Rollout

Dish Network released its first 5G market in the U.S. on May 4th in Las Vegas. This came after they originally expected to launch at the end of 2020. 

In a few weeks, Dish will be switching on 25 major markets – including a few smaller sites – which should cover 20% of the U.S. population with 5G.

Per a statement from Dish’s CEO Erik Carlson, they are on their way to meeting a deadline of June 14th. 

Since Dish will initially deliver a “data–only network,” they’ll be relying on a 10 year deal they signed with AT&T back in July 2021 for providing voice services. 

The service plans, which Dish is currently calling “Project Genesis,” offers unlimited 5G data, text, and voice for only $30 per month. With regards to phones, Dish has only one 5G model on its new network so far – the $900 Motorola Edge+. 

Among other frequencies, the company is using band 71 (600MHz) low–band spectrum for coverage. This is the band over which T-Mobile was able to begin rolling out their 5G network. They’re also using band 66 (AWS) mid–band (like Verizon does) to achieve increased data download speeds for its initial Vegas deployment. Download speeds for the 5G service in Vegas have been clocked at over 100mbps. 

The Dell’Oro Group calls the Dish launch “one of the most anticipated and publicized 5G Core launches” in a new report, noting that Dish is “the first to run 5G Core on the public cloud.” The analysts note that Nokia is the main 5G core vendor for Dish.

Dish has given themselves until June 14, 2023 to continue building out their 5G network – ultimately covering 70% of the U.S. population. The company has also promised the Federal Communications Commission that such a network will use “at least 15,000 5G sites” and “at least 30 MHz of Dish’s 5G downlink spectrum” in order to be considered “a nationwide facilities–based wireless competitor.”  

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Verizon Price Increase Coming – Who Will Be Affected?

It’s been about two weeks now that AT&T legacy subscribers got a shock that AT&T would be raising their prices in June. Verizon is now jumping on that same bandwagon and increasing prices for consumer and business accounts.  

Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg first mentioned increasing prices back in April, saying that inflation was to blame. While he did not say they were definitely coming, he instead said that the carrier had “plans to be prepared for what it takes,” including “different types of cost adjustments.”

It has actually been two years since Verizon has raised prices for these customers. Although back in late 2021, the carrier increased prices on customers grandfathered into older plans.

As first reported by Bloomberg (and confirmed by Verizon reps), Verizon has taken an interesting approach to how they are advertising the rising prices. Instead of raising the actual plans, they will instead begin adding a new “economic adjustment charge” to your bill every month.

According to Verizon, the “economic adjustment charge” will be $1.35 per voice line for consumers. Note that we said voice as the increase applies only to voice lines per account. 

Business customers will receive a larger increase every month, with data plans increasing by $2.20 per month and “basic service plans” increasing by $0.98 per month.

Verizon began alerting consumers of this new “economic adjustment charge” yesterday, while it has also been in direct contact with “some of its larger corporate clients” recently. They say pricing will go up starting in June and the “economic adjustment charge” will apply to ALL plans.

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How Does 5G Work?

5G has been designed to provide more connectivity than was ever available from previous generations. It’s more capable and has extended capacity to allow for new or updated technologies and user experiences.

With high speeds, superior reliability and lower latency, 5G will certainly help our world to evolve. Every industry from transportation, healthcare, and agriculture will be impacted.

Much like any other generation, 5G uses radio frequencies (also known as spectrum) to carry information through the air. The difference is that 5G uses higher radio frequencies that are less saturated. This allows for it to carry more information at a much faster rate.

Now let us break down how 5G works more technically speaking. 

A mobile network has two main components, the Radio Access Network and the Core Network.

The Radio Access Network consists of small cells, towers, masts and dedicated in-building and home systems that connect mobile users and wireless devices to the main core network.

Small cells are especially helpful at the millimeter wave (mmWave) frequencies since the connection range is very short. In order to provide a continuous connection, small cells are distributed in clusters. This complements the macro network, which provides wide-area coverage.

5G Macro Cells use MIMO (multiple input, multiple output) antennas to send and receive more data simultaneously. This allows more users to connect simultaneously while also maintaining high throughput.  Where MIMO antennas use very large numbers of antenna elements they are often referred to as ‘massive MIMO’, however, the physical size is similar to existing 3G and 4G base station antennas.

Beam steering is a technology that allows the massive MIMO base station antennas to direct the radio signal to the users and devices rather than in all directions. The beam steering technology uses advanced signal processing algorithms to determine the best path for the radio signal to reach the user. This increases efficiency as it reduces interference.

The Core Network is the mobile exchange and data network that manages all of the mobile voice, data and internet connections. For 5G, the “core network” is being redesigned to better integrate with the internet and cloud based services and also includes distributed servers across the network improving response times (reducing latency).

Many of the advanced features of 5G including network function virtualization and network slicing for different applications and services, will be managed in the core. 

Network Slicing enables a smart way to segment the network for a particular industry, business or application. Think of the FirstNet dedicated network for first responders. These emergency services can operate on a network slice independently from other users.

Network Function Virtualization (NVF) is the ability to instantiate network functions in real time at any desired location within the operator’s cloud platform. Network functions that used to run on dedicated hardware – for example a firewall and encryption at business premises – can now operate on software on a virtual machine. NVF is crucial to enable the speed efficiency and agility to support new business applications and is an important technology for a 5G ready core.

When it comes to lower latency with 5G, we must look to advancing mobile device technology and mobile network architecture.

With the redesigned core network, a key feature is to move the content closer to the end user and to shorten the path between devices for critical applications.  Think of video on demand streaming services where you can choose to store a copy of content in local servers, making the time to access quicker.

To achieve the low latency, the Radio Access Network (RAN) will need to be re-configured in a manner that is highly flexible and software configurable to support the very different characteristics of the types of services that the 5G system anticipates.

Implementing a virtual, dynamic and configurable RAN allows the network to perform at very low latency and high throughput, but it also allows the mobile network to adjust to changes in network traffic, network faults and new topology requirements.

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Looking for the BR1 Mini LTEA Cat 6 Router? We’ve Got Them!

These days we’re dealing with low stock and out of stock products quite frequently, on top of long delays in some cases. With some of those products having a 6 to 8 week lead time, it could certainly affect your project’s timeframe. 

Most recently, we’ve seen a shortage in the Peplink MAX BR1 Mini router, specifically the Cat 6 model. Aside from the Pepwave Surf SOHO, this has been one of Peplink’s most popular router solutions. It’s compact size and affordable price make it the ideal choice for any application. 

Several companies are currently without stock of this BR1 Mini. Thankfully, we have stock available at this time, so don’t hesitate to reach out if you’re in need!

We ship Monday thru Friday, with a cut off time of 3pm CT. Give us a call, send us an email, or reach out via our online chat for more information.

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How Do Cellular Home Internet Services Compare?

After roughly a year of getting their 5G home Internet services rolled out, both Verizon and T-Mobile are not only increasing their coverage areas, but their customer base as well. Just recently, T-Mobile reported they had expanded their service’s availability from 30 to 40 million households. For Verizon, they had announced back in January that their service reaches 20 million households.  

AT&T doesn’t have 5G home internet, but it does offer a 4G LTE option to rural customers and businesses. UScellular has also been working on its own 5G home Internet too, but it’s still very limited. 

In comparison, Verizon offers the fastest potential speeds for both downloads and uploads, yet T-Mobile‘s service is more widely available. Right now, we only have a max download speed for UScellular, but expect to see more results in the future. 

With both, keep in mind that your average 5G speeds will vary based on your location and coverage. And yeah, AT&T’s 4G home internet is abysmally slow.

Download Speeds

  • T-Mobile = 33 to 182 Mbps
  • Verizon = 85 to 1,000 Mbps
  • AT&T (4G Only) = 10 to 25 Mbps
  • UScellular = up to 300 Mbps

Upload Speeds

  • T-Mobile = 8 to 25 Mbps
  • Verizon = 10 to 50 Mbps
  • AT&T (4G Only) = up to 1 Mbps

Something to keep in mind about these speeds – at least with Verizon – is you must sign up for the 5G Home Plus plan to gain access to speeds between 300 to 1000 Mbps. 

Aside from reasonable pricing options, both Verizon and T-Mobile offer trial periods to test the service. T-Mobile allows for 15 days, while Verizon allows for 30 days. Here’s an outline of some comparisons between T-Mobile, Verizon and AT&T plans (we’re still waiting on UScellular to release more details):

5G home internet detailsT-MobileVerizonAT&T
Price with cellular plan$30/month$25-35/month$59.99/month
Price without cellular plan$50/month$50-70/month$69.99/month
Contract❌❌❌
Taxes and feesIncludedIncludedExtra
Data cap❌❌350 GB
Self-setup✅✅❌
Installation fee❌❌$99
Price lockLifetime2-3 years❌

Given the information, it may still be difficult for those of us with access to wired broadband services to switch to cellular. However, with the pricing, it could very well make up for the slower bandwidth. Or you might consider adding it as a backup to your broadband service if you cannot afford any downtime. Either way, there’s options with risk free trials so check them out today!

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Can Signal Repeaters Extend the Entire 5G Spectrum?

As good as 5G service can be, we won’t be capable of enjoying the benefits without adequate coverage and performance. The problem is mainly with mid-band and high-band spectrum, which has a difficult time penetrating through buildings and covering long distances.

Wilson Electronics thinks their commercial line of signal repeaters, known as WilsonPro, can help to alleviate the need to build out more cell sites and base stations to increase network capacity. Check out RCR Wireless’ Q&A with Jon Mykrantz, vice president of enterprise sales at Wilson Electronics, here.

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