NEW DELHI: The day may not be far for Indian mobile phone subscribers to change their operators on the fly – thanks to embedded SIM cards or eSIMs – making it all the more critical for telcos to up their quality game to retain their users, say company officials and experts.With the introduction of eSIM technology, mobile number portability (MNP) – which allows consumers to change operators without changing numbers - will become much easier which will put pressure on carriers to retain customers and acquire new customers, and may even intensify competition, hurting margins, said Rishi Bhatnagar, president, Aeris Communications.An eSIM is a digital SIM that allows a subscriber to activate a cellular plan from a carrier without having to use a physical SIM card.“People will switch network on the fly if they are not satisfied with their service providers. The only way out for telcos is to continuously enhance their customer experience while introducing new services and service bundles with competitive pricing,” Pankaj Lamba, customer business executive- APAC, Amdocs, said.No wonder, the telcos don’t appear to be in a particular hurry to launch eSIMs for mobile consumers. Currently eSIM is only being largely used for Internet of Things (IoT) and Machine-2-Machine (M2M) solutions.Telcos like market leader Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel say they are ready to work with eSIMs but are waiting for an expansion of the e-Sim compatible device ecosystem before deploying them. Airtel and Reliance Jio partnered with Apple to sell the e-SIM enabled Apple Watches. Both the telcos introduced special data plans to push the latest smart watch.While the eSIM support is also available for smartphones, the handset ecosystem is in its nascent stage with only few smartphones — iPhones XS, XS Max, XR and Google Pixel 3, which are all at the higher end - supporting eSIMs.In a statement to ET, Vodafone Idea said it sees slow rate of adoption of eSIMs on the consumer side in the short term as the functionality will initially be introduced on high-end devices.“We are currently piloting and testing capabilities and will be ready to go live with the forthcoming launch cycle of new eSIM devices. We expect the demand and adoption of eSIMs to scale up over the next 2-3 years,” Vodafone Idea said.Currently, the eSIM penetration is less than 1% in smartphones in India but it is expected to grow to 25% by 2025, as per Counterpoint Research. The overall global eSIM market is estimated to grow from $253.8 million in 2018 to $978.3 million in 2023 at a CAGR of 31%, according to Markets&Markets.An official familiar with Airtel's plans said that the telco has the capability but said the device companies/OEMs have to first allow eSIM functionality on their device. “Once they do that, we can certainly work with them and allow the eSIM feature to come on board.”But what may push carriers to adopt eSIMs is the fact that they are now willing to resell connected devices other than smartphones that can help them generate extra revenue from data services, said Aeris Communications’ Bhatnagar.For example, Vodafone Idea is working with an ecosystem of partners to ensure wider adoption of eSIMs in the IoT domain even as it sees slow adoption of eSIMs on the consumer side.Bhatnagar said that the pressure on margins and of falling ARPUs can be set-off by adopting e-SIM technology and taking a leading role in the IoT market. “..telcos would have the ability to provide convergent offers with multiple devices.”Amdocs’ Lamba said that most eSIM devices will also support physical SIM slot for the time being, until the ecosystem and infrastructure is ready. Eventually, eSIM will be the new normal.However, availability of dual-SIM phones may pose to be a challenge for telcos that are trying to make consumer-eSIMs popular. Also for eSIMs, telcos would want to tap postpaid customers to ensure long-term loyalty, Counterpoint’s research analyst Shobhit Srivastava said.He added that the handsets should be bundled with affordable plans, making it a carrier-bundled eSIM phone. “that could be the best strategy for telcos in popularizing eSIMs.”