Comprehensive technical knowledge base covering 12 GSMA eSIM specifications. 84+ articles on Remote SIM Provisioning — SGP.02, SGP.22, SGP.32, SGP.41, SGP.29, SGP.23, SGP.25, SGP.26 and more.
You’re a secret agent on a mission. You have two invisible cloaks: one makes you a business agent so you can enter the corporate skyscraper, and the other makes you a friend agent so you can slip into the birthday party next door. But there’s a problem: the old cloak rules say you can only wear one cloak at a time. Every time you switch cloaks, you disappear for a moment. Awkward!
Wouldn’t it be better to wear both cloaks at once : and just choose which door to walk through? That’s exactly what Multiple Enabled Profiles (MEP) lets your phone do in SGP.22 v3.x!
In older eSIM magic (v2.x), your phone’s magic vault chip could hold several secret keys, but only one could be active at any moment. If you wanted to switch from your Home key to your Work key:
Like a magician changing outfits behind a curtain: there’s always that awkward moment where nothing works!
MEP introduces eSIM Ports : think of them as different doors on your phone, each with its own invisible cloak hanging ready:
Each door can have exactly one active secret key behind it, and each key can only be behind one door. Your phone can use several doors at once: no more changing outfits!
MEP has three different modes: like three ways to arrange the rooms in a house:
| Mode | Who Decides? | How It Works |
|---|---|---|
| MEP-A1 | The Phone’s Assistant | “I’ll put the Work key behind Door 1 and the Home key behind Door 2” |
| MEP-A2 | The Magic Vault Chip | “I know best: let me assign the keys to the right doors” |
| MEP-B | Any Door Works! | “You can walk through any door to reach any key: maximum freedom!” |
Most phones use MEP-A1 because it’s the simplest: the Phone’s Assistant handles everything.
| Before MEP (v2.x) | With MEP (v3.x) |
|---|---|
| One active phone number | Two (or more) active numbers at once |
| Switching means a brief disconnect | Switching is seamless, no interruption |
| Dual-SIM hardware wasted on eSIM | Finally: true dual-eSIM devices! |
| Work and personal on one phone? Nope! | One phone, both numbers, always on |
When you switch cloaks in MEP mode, the magic vault chip is smart enough to only reset the door that’s changing: not the whole phone! It’s like changing the poster on one door without locking all the other doors. This is called a “per-port reset” instead of a full phone restart.
Kid-friendly version of Multiple Enabled Profiles