CBC Fresh Air with Ismaila Alfa: eSIMs are like spare tires for your phone
Below is the full transcript of a fun interview between Chanakya Ramdev (Founder & CEO of Sweat Free Telecom) and Ismaila Alfa (Host of Fresh Air, on CBC) discussing telecom outages, eSIM technology, and why backup connectivity matters.
Ismaila Alfa: Nothing brings into focus the fragility of our communications infrastructure more than when the power goes out. The ice storm last weekend was a case in point. Cell phone reception was sketchy after towers lost power and equipment was damaged. Now, in the worst-case scenario, you're incommunicado. Chanakya Ramdev has a fix for that. He's an Engineering Graduate from Waterloo University (University of Waterloo) and the founder of Sweat Free Telecom. His solution: eSIM cards. He joins us now to explain. Good morning.
Chanakya Ramdev: Good morning, Ismaila. Thank you for having me!
Ismaila Alfa: Great to have you here. So, what exactly is an eSIM card for those who don't know?
Chanakya Ramdev: Sure. So, what happened was, all of us are used to the physical SIM card that we have in our phones. What the telecom folks decided was, let's try to make it virtual. So, starting iPhone 11, every single iPhone has still that physical SIM slot, but they've also had the ability to embed SIM cards in the circuit board of the phone. So, we don't have to give people physical SIM cards. We can just give them a simple QR code. They take a picture of it, and it implements it on their phone. So, on the iPhone side, starting iPhone 11 and most of the new Android phones also have eSIM cards. E of the eSIM means embedded SIM card.
Ismaila Alfa: Okay, okay. So, how exactly does it work? Because you mentioned you take a picture of it and then download, yes, but is this basically giving you access to like one other provider, so you have another cell phone provider as a backup to your main one?
Chanakya Ramdev: Yes. So, what it does is it gives you a backup SIM card. Then from that SIM card you can do anything you want. So, what we decided to do was give you access to all potential major networks in it. So, whether it is Bell, Rogers, or TELUS in Canada, AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile in US. What we thought was, why don't we give you access to all major networks? That way you have backup available if you are in a dead zone where the internet is choppy or like, what we like to say is, what's worse than no internet, slow internet. So, we give you the ability to switch between networks whenever there is an issue.
Ismaila Alfa: Okay, you when you say to all major providers, like, how many providers here can you possibly connect to?
Chanakya Ramdev: Sure, so we have different plans. One is a plan that works in North America. So, it's US, Canada, and starting yesterday, we were also able to get Mexico. So that is one plan, which is $15 one-time fee for 1GB. And until you use up that 1GB, you can just have it on your phone. For $16, so $1 more, you are able to get us Canada, Mexico and 100 countries. And again, 1GB, and it gives you access to over 200 networks. So that way, pretty much all major countries and all major networks you can access from that one SIM.
Ismaila Alfa: Okay. How were you able to connect with these other providers? Like, what brought this about?
Chanakya Ramdev: Yes, so what brought it about was the great Rogers outage that we all went through as Rogers customers, where our phones were pretty much dead. Like it was literally like you were holding a brick in your hand because your phones had stopped connecting. So, what we decided was, after all that pain we went through, where we went back to Stone Age kind off I remember listening to you earlier talking about the physical advertising. That's what it felt like you could do nothing with your phone. So that was one of the reasons where, like, I had so much passion for solving it, because it felt like I was disconnected from the world at that time.
Ismaila Alfa: This was that Rogers outage back in what was that 2022 I think that happened? So, did you have to connect with each of the providers individually to get them on board for this sort of thing? Or how did that work?
Chanakya Ramdev: Yes, so what is cool about telecom is a lot of telecom networks are connected to other telecom networks through roaming agreements. So, for example, whichever provider you use: Bell, Roger, or TELUS, if you are in a different country like Bell, Roger, and TELUS don't have towers there. So how does your phone connect? Because they've already done partnerships with overseas networks. So, what we were able to do was tap into one of these partnerships where they were already connected to most major networks, and that is the reason we are able to offer so many countries right away. Instead of just offering Canada or just offering US, it's because a lot of them are already connected through these roaming agreements.
Ismaila Alfa: Okay, and, so when you are, let's say, not close to one of your towers, you don't have reception from your cellular provider, and you're needing to switch over to one of these partners. Is there, like, do we have to manually do something with our phone, or does it automatically switch over?
Chanakya Ramdev: Yeah, so what we say is like the moment you have a second SIM card in your phone, like the physical one that you already have with your current provider, and like a virtual one with us, then through your phone settings, you have the option to turn on or turn off any of the SIMs. So, what we request is keep us off for most of the time. Whenever you're having trouble, go to your setting, there is just one button press and that turns ON our SIM card. After that, we have automatically set it up to choose the best possible network available. But within the settings, for all the techies out there like we also give you the option to manually switch between networks as well. So, say you are traveling, and you find, oh, with Rogers, I'm only getting one bar, but with Bell, I'm getting three bars. Then we give you the option to switch between Rogers, Bell and TELUS.
Ismaila Alfa: Okay, okay, and what exactly will this eSIM card allow you to do with your phone. Because, yes, it's not, you won't get full cell phone usage. Yes, right? Yes. Tell me a bit more about that.
Chanakya Ramdev: Sure. So, what we allow, we are allowed to offer, is data as well as 911 calls. So, you might remember when the outage had happened. That time, the 911 network had gone down, so people, if they were an emergency, were not able to call 911. So, what we've been able to do is offer data as well as 911. But we are not allowed to offer a phone number, so that's why we cannot offer talk and text. And what I realized was most people just wanted to communicate, even if they could get like a WhatsApp message or an email out, that was all they wanted to do. So, that's why we are focusing just on data and 911 calls if they are ever in an unsafe situation. So, like a good way for all your listeners to think of us is like a spare tire in your car. Like we are not trying to be your car. We're just trying to be the spare tire. And our hope is, if you're ever in like a flat tire situation, then you have some kind of replacement. And most of the days you might not even need us, but when you need us, you really need us. That's where we want to be there for all of your listeners.
Ismaila Alfa: And as you point out, this data, sorry, this eSIM card doesn't expire. You just you have data there until you have used it all. Who do you see as, kind of like the main customer for this sort of thing?
Chanakya Ramdev: Yes. So, like partly I feel my fellow Roger customers will be one of them, because they went through the outage, so they realize the pain, and they felt it, and they know the importance of communications when you don't have access to them. But, also there are a lot of people whose job is to do emergency management, emergency preparedness, business continuity. So, they work for like the government or organization, and their job is to make sure that the government and the organization continues to function if there is ever an outage. So those are some of the folks that we would like to try our product. Also, you were mentioning you were a traveling musician earlier. So, imagine, if you're traveling from city to city, somewhere you have great coverage. Somewhere, you have not the best coverage. And a lot of salespeople have to go to the field and like talk to customers. It's for people who need access to internet as part of their job. Or they might be working remotely. And some days internet in their home is perfect, so they don't need us at that time. But sometimes the internet is choppy, but their most important client is like get me this presentation right now. I need it! So, it's for people who want to be connected, who want to make sure they have a backup as fail-safe kind of thing.
Ismaila Alfa: And so, this is available on your website right now: Sweat Free Telecom.
Chanakya Ramdev: That’s right!
Ismaila Alfa: What's the response been like? Like, how have sales been so far?
Chanakya Ramdev: So, the response has been great! I never knew people had such passion for telecom before like I started this. And, like for the people who have gone through outage, like, we don't even have to pitch them. We don't even have to sell them. We just tell them what we are doing, and they are like, take my money and take my money! So, it's been an extremely awesome experience. So, I love it!
Ismaila Alfa: Chanakya it's been wonderful to learn all about it with you. Thanks so much for the conversation this morning.
Chanakya Ramdev: Thank you so much for having me!
Ismaila Alfa: You take care. Bye. Bye. Chanakya Ramdev is the founder of Sweat Free Telecom.
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This interview is available in its entirety on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-Orxkjja1s
An eSIM is a way to communicate when your network goes down. Chanakya Ramdev is the founder of Sweat Free Telecom. He explains how the eSIM cards his company is selling work as a back up for when you can't connect with cellular your provider.