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Even though the S23 is a world phone like all other models, the SIM card support has changed in terms of regional compatibility. Up until the launch of the Galaxy S23, foreign SIMs could work with limited support after five-minute voice calls with SIMs from the US and Puerto Rico. Now, it seems like Samsung is cracking down on foreign SIM usage on newer Galaxy devices sold in the US and Puerto Rico despite having the bands to work on foreign networks. Only SIM cards from carriers in the US, Puerto Rico, and parts of Europe will work on newer devices sold in the US and Puerto Rico. Except for a few European countries, other foreign SIMs are no longer compatible, not even those from Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Korea, or China (despite having those display languages available).
There was no official announcement on those regional restrictions, but this was quietly implemented to deter bad actors from circumventing the region locking system. To clarify this, the region locking mechanism only applies to the SIM cards and eSIMs being used, NOT roaming.
What do those bad actors do when they import those devices? They use tools like Samkey to remove the region locking. It isn't fair that those people have access to those tools and many others like us do not.
(Those SIM restrictions only apply to US variants. International variants will still be able to use foreign SIM cards as usual, including those from Canada and Mexico, except 5G support may be limited in unsupported countries.)
Here's what's changed for One UI 6 for US Galaxy S23 and newer devices.
1. A new carrier called Open is added. We don't know what this means. We thought it may refer to Open Mobile in Puerto Rico, but this carrier was defunct a long time ago. Others may think Open is a subset for all other US carriers and MVNOs not on this list (excluding those outside the US and Puerto Rico).
2. Cross-platform eSIM transfers, as well as the legacy eSIM transfer feature (US, Germany, and Sweden) are no longer supported on US variants. Only wireless eSIM transfers are supported.
3. The ability to manually enter an eSIM activation code is no longer available on US variants. In the past, when a QR code was scanned, the phone might have asked you to enter the activation code manually (depending on the carrier). Going forward, eSIM QR codes that ask for an activation code will result in an error.
Those restrictions apply to both physical SIM cards and eSIMs. Roaming is unaffected and will continue to work as usual with no regional restrictions. Hope this helps.
There was no official announcement on those regional restrictions, but this was quietly implemented to deter bad actors from circumventing the region locking system. To clarify this, the region locking mechanism only applies to the SIM cards and eSIMs being used, NOT roaming.
What do those bad actors do when they import those devices? They use tools like Samkey to remove the region locking. It isn't fair that those people have access to those tools and many others like us do not.
(Those SIM restrictions only apply to US variants. International variants will still be able to use foreign SIM cards as usual, including those from Canada and Mexico, except 5G support may be limited in unsupported countries.)
Here's what's changed for One UI 6 for US Galaxy S23 and newer devices.
1. A new carrier called Open is added. We don't know what this means. We thought it may refer to Open Mobile in Puerto Rico, but this carrier was defunct a long time ago. Others may think Open is a subset for all other US carriers and MVNOs not on this list (excluding those outside the US and Puerto Rico).
2. Cross-platform eSIM transfers, as well as the legacy eSIM transfer feature (US, Germany, and Sweden) are no longer supported on US variants. Only wireless eSIM transfers are supported.
3. The ability to manually enter an eSIM activation code is no longer available on US variants. In the past, when a QR code was scanned, the phone might have asked you to enter the activation code manually (depending on the carrier). Going forward, eSIM QR codes that ask for an activation code will result in an error.
Those restrictions apply to both physical SIM cards and eSIMs. Roaming is unaffected and will continue to work as usual with no regional restrictions. Hope this helps.
