In the new FP5, is it possible to have 2 physical sim cards at the same time? I’ve been trying to find this information in official posts and reviews, but couldn’t find a definitive answer.
Hi @Jonson26, welcome to the forum!
It is not possible to operate 2 physical SIM cards at the same time as Fairphone 5 has only 1 physical SIM slot; the secondary slot is embedded (eSIM).
I hope this answers your question.
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It is mentioned on the official site (see specifications):
Hi @FrancescoSalvatore,
Just to be sure (for future reference 
): Having 2 eSIMs active at the same time (and no physical SIM) is not possible, right?
No, there’s 1 e-sim and 1 physical one.
Unfortunately, no.
You can load multiple eSIM profiles but only 1 can be active at the same time.
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Thank you both for confirming!
Do I understand it well that you mean both eSims can be on and receive phone calls etc.?
But when you are calling with 1 eSIM you can’t receive a phone call from the other eSIM.
The same behaviour when you have 2 physical SIMs in a Fairphone 3.
No, that isn’t what he’s writing. You can load several eSIM profiles into the eSIM memory of the phone, just like you can have multiple physical SIM cards in your pocket. But only one of these SIMs can be active at a time.
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Thanks for clarifying it, it was indeed perhaps not the most accurate wording on my side
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Then I still don’t understand it.
When I have 2 SIMs I can choose if I want to call which SIM I want to use.
When my phone is on, I can recieve sms from both SIMs (of course not in the same minute).
In my perception both SIM’s are active.
Where do I go wrong?
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The question was about using 2 eSIM profiles at the same time (which is not possible), not PHY+eSIM (which is possible).
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Now I get it, Thanks for your explanation.
I hope in the future it will be possible to use multiply eSIMs at the same time.
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You’re welcome 
Just to add some tech insight, dual-SIM modem(s) normally support 2 separate UICC connections and this implies that you can only choose between the following combinations:
- 2 physical SIM slots OR
- 1 physical slot + 1 embedded (with 1 active profile) OR
- 1 embedded with 2 active profiles (assuming that the eSIM chip supports multiple active profiles)
The radio capabilities of consumer modems are limited (i.e. shared antennas) thus it is basically impossible to keep more than 2 active profiles at the same time.
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Which you already explained that this option is not available in a Fairphone 5.
Is there a possibility that this will be possible in the future of the Fairphone 5?
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I understand it in a way that one of the options can be implemented and that’s it. For the FP5 they chose to have
However by saying
Francesco doesn’t explicitly exclude that option 3 (two eSIM profiles active) would be possible if the physical SIM isn’t used. It depends on if it can be switched between those three options in software, I’d say.
I apologize for the confusion in my comments above, option 3 (2 eSIM profiles active at the same time) is and will always be impossible on Fairphone 5 due to hardware constraints.
The UICC connections are actual traces on the PCB board and not just software routes, and the eSIM chip does not support multiple active profiles.
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just got my fairphone 5 today I have a physical Australian and a physical German SIM. I don’t wanna swap to eSIM. Is it possible to replace the eSIM slot to a physical SIM slot?
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No, that won’t be possible.
You might want to read this although about the FP4
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