What happens when a vendor disappears?
Why 9eSIM cards keep working when other physical eSIM brands shut down.
Most physical eSIM cards only work with their maker's app. If the company shuts down, you can't download new profiles directly on the phone — and the brand premium and any prepaid downloads you bought turn into dead weight. 5ber's collapse in late 2024 made this real, not theoretical.
What happens when a vendor disappears?
When 5ber's parent company (iFree Group) ran out of funding, the official app and cloud went down. Cards that had already shipped only stayed usable because they could be paired with community open-source LPA tools and a USB-C card reader. Cards locked to a vendor-only app keep the profiles you already wrote, but you would lose the ability to add new ones from your phone — and any pre-paid download licences become worthless.
Where 9eSIM is different
9eSIM cards work with any open-source LPA — NekokoLPA, OpenEUICC, MiniLPA — using the public eUICC standard. There's no proprietary cloud you depend on. If we ever stopped developing our own app tomorrow, your card would keep working with whichever community LPA you prefer.
Comparison at a glance
| Card | Vendor app | Community LPA | If vendor shuts down |
|---|---|---|---|
| 9eSIM (ours) | ✓ | ✓ | Card keeps working |
| 5ber | service halted | ✓ (with USB reader) | Already happened — needs card reader + OSS LPA |
What to do if you have a 5ber card
Don't throw it away. The chip itself is a standard programmable SIM, so you can still add and switch profiles using:
- A standard PC/SC card reader (our USB-C reader works)
- Any of the open-source LPA apps linked from our software page
That's the same workflow that protects your 9eSIM cards from this scenario in the first place — open standards on top of standard hardware.