DOJ mostly gives up on stopping mobile carriers from ruining eSIM

The Department of Justice has decided not to do anything about wireless carriers’ attempts to turn eSIMs into a way to keep customers locked to their network. It doesn’t entirely rule out taking action against anticompetitive behavior in the future. But for now, the DOJ says it’s going to let the issue go because the industry group behind eSIM is going to — not actually fix the problem — change its decision-making process to be less slanted toward carriers.

eSIMs are eventually supposed to replace SIM cards, those little pieces of plastic you put in a phone to set which carrier it’s connected to. eSIMs offer a digital version of that, theoretically allowing you to switch phone carriers at the touch of a button, all through software. Your...

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