It's been a while since physical and removable SIM cards should have lived a better life in favor of eSIM, the new generation virtual SIMs that are built in as a chip inserted from the factory into the platform plates and that, like standard SIMs, allow us to connect to the Internet and make calls and messages, but with a much higher potential and virtues in design.

Beyond the hardware, with an eSIM the user does not have to go to a store to get their SIM (or wait for it to arrive by mail) when they change operators. Portability is much faster, as is the hiring of additional services. In addition, the data of the virtual SIM is stored in the cloud, facilitating its use on multiple devices simply by entering the user's credentials. Finally, note that all these advantages can be extended from smartphones to PCs, wearables or the Internet of Things.

But there is still a long way to go. before it is universally compatible with all operators. If you need to use 2 different mobile phone numbers on a single device, the solution until now was the dual SIM. One of its advantages is that you can use 2 mobile service providers simultaneously if the phone is not blocked on a specific network and thus achieve greater mobile coverage. Another example of use can be found in some markets, especially emerging ones, to divide voice and data rates. It is useful, but annoying.

Android 13 with MEP support

Until now, most of teSIM capable phones are not compatible with the dual SIM feature unless the OEM included 2 chips eSIM on the phone. However, Google has a solution to this problem and everything indicates that it will be implemented in Android 13. The Google plus solution will come in the form of support for multiple concretes enabled (MEP), a procedure to activate multiple SIM profiles on a single eSIM.

Google plus obtained a patent for this technology back in 2020 and we saw references to it on AOSP and the Android developers site. With support for MEP, a single-element eSIM You can connect to 2 different operators at the same time, eliminating the need for 2 eSIMs or an eSIM plus a nano SIM card to achieve dual SIM usage. This reduces costs and frees up valuable space for other hardware, which is especially important for items like smartphones, tablets and foldables.

How does it work?

Each SIM profile that a user downloads and also installs on an eSIM chip is associated with a «dedicated communication work platform». This communication work platform gives a «communication channel without dependency» between the SIM profile installed in an eSIM chip and a modem, and is generally a physical working platform that connects the two via cables/buses.

A physical working platform is required to connect an eSIM chip and a modem, but since that working platform only supports a single communication channel, 2 physical interfaces would be required to allow 2 SIM profiles stored on an eSIM chip to communicate to work with a single modem in Dual SIM.

To avoid this, Google plus offers the creation of logical interfaces that are multiplexed into just one physical work platform. Each logical platform can provide a separate communication channel between a SIM profile and a modem, so only a single actual physical connection to the modem would be required. And there is no need to rewire, so devices that already have a single eSIM chip connected to a modem could theoretically support MEP. From the modem's perspective, there is no difference between a logical platform and a physical one, allowing for backwards compatibility.

And on top of this, since Google's approach is generic, It is also independent of the interface. In fact, Android 13 may not be the only OS supporting this technology, as Google explicitly points to other OSes like iOS, macOS, and Windows in its patent.

It's unclear whether Google plans to make this technology available to everyone for free or through some patent licensing scheme. Google has been testing MEP support on unspecified Pixel hardware and has incorporated the new APIs into its app that manages eSIM profiles, so it's likely we'll at least see this technology on some Pixel smartphones. The idea is as described, supporting multiple profiles on a single eSIM.