Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) in a consultation paper last year wrote about the implications of physical Subscriber Identity Module (sim) cards on the environment and suggested that the way forward would be with e-sims.
Efforts to reduce pollution by using the E-sim features in new mobile phones go in vain because currently a physical sim, with all its plastic and silicon, is needed to activate the e-sim. TRAI has flagged the possibility of risks during the activation of e-sim cards without the physical cards and insists on users getting a physical sim first.
Sim cards are made up of silicon with added impurities of phosphoros with the entire shells made of plastics.
H.C. Latha, Assistant Telecom Officer (ATO), Regional Office, Bengaluru said, “Yes, it is true that physical sim cards are polluting the environment which have plastic content upto 80-85 percent. That’s why it is our vision that by 2025, our dependence on plastics used in telecommunication components should be minimised upto 90 percent.”
Most mobile phones these days are e-sim enabled she said, adding, “companies now have e-sim or embedded sim or eUICC for M2M,” Latha said. eUICC is Embedded Universal Integrated Circuit Card and M2M is machine-to-machine.
Currently, iPhone, Samsung and a few other android mobile phones have e-sim features along with physical sim card slot.
Prajwal Gowda, Software tester in Accenture, and an iPhone user from Bengaluru said, “I wanted to opt for Airtel or Jio as my secondary sim card in my iPhone. In iPhone, there is one physical sim slot and another is e-sim feature which gets activated from network provider. The network provider said that they will give me a physical sim card and from that sim, after entering all credentials and one-time passwords (OTP) verifications the number will be converted into e-sim.”
He said that he doesn’t have multiple mobile handsets. For activating another sim, he should have another mobile, which should have the feature of physical sim. He said that network providers ought to do something, after all he has to throw his physical sim once the e-sim gets activated in his mobile. Last year, TRAI floated a consultation paper on physical sim cards and their impact on the environment.
TRAI has even instructed all Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) about the challenges in issuing e-sim. They have been asked to cite their views in issuing of e-sim for new mobile number for both prepaid and postpaid connections.
Mohammed Kaleem, Chief Customer Care Executive (CCE), Airtel Corporate Office, Bengaluru agreed with TRAI’s concerns, but said that there were practical issues when it came to issuing e-sims. “The problem lies with the biometrics and Know Your Customer (KYC) procedures. Biometrics have to be accessed from Aadhar servers, which can take time, and KYC needs OTP verification through the same number for which you need a physical sim.”
He added that Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in their last tripartite meeting with TRAI and Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) held last November noted that many customers suffered from cyber scams. In the name of activating e-sim, cyber criminals transferred the access of physical sim cards to their e-sim mobile phone. The scammers get the access of the bank accounts through e-sim. Scammers then withdraw money from the customer’s account without them knowing about it.
S. Babu, Human Resource Executive, Corporate Office of Jio, Bengaluru said that e-sim is a great innovation but without any roadmap, planning and execution, the physical sim card will keep polluting the environment. Less usage of silicon and other impurities in manufacturing sim cards will help in growing the TSPs more efficiently in adopting new technologies in 5G and 6G.
Md. Kaleem, Customer care executive (CCE) of Airtel said that Airtel rolled out the e-sim service in 2017. Till September 2023, they have 38 percent of the total market. In 2017 the activated e-sim was five percent. Since 2018, the e-sim subscribers rose with an average of six percent every year.
Vodafone-Idea (Vi) and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) doesn’t have the e-sim service to offer which is a setback for the expensive mobile users.
M.B. Rajegowda, Climate Change expert, Bengaluru said, “Increasing number of activations of e-sim users also signifies the choice of using phones of users. As most of the users are now going for high end mobile phones so it is good for the atmosphere because ultimately it will help manufacturers to use less non-biodegradable components in making mobile phones. But the TSPs should work from their end to issue and activate e-sim without the need of physical sim card. Until it happens physical will be a huge burden for the environment.”
He added that if users will have only the e-sim option, mobile users need not be blamed for environmental pollution. Less silicon means less air, water or soil pollution. On an average around 30 micrograms cubic per meter of Particulate Matter (PM 2.5) is released with a single macro sim card if it is thrown untreated. It is enough to block the heart of a young person.
The advantages of e-sim cards are that they can’t be damaged or lost, extra security and better signal and connectivity.
