Originally Posted by
frappant
I spent some time in chat with Australian carriers about prepaid eSIM options.
Right now they only seem to offer to convert physical SIMs to eSIMs for you in their stores.
Not the case. Many of the providers support eSIM from the get-go.
https://whirlpool.net.au/wiki/esim will give you an idea of who supports eSIM, although that list isn't 100% clear as to which support them from the start (eg, the first MVNO on the list, Amaysim, definitely supports them for new customers even though that isn't clear).
Note that presuming you're not an Australian citizen/resident, you'll need to have an Australia evisa/ETA in order to sign up for a SIM plan of any form. I think you can do this before you're physically in Australia, although I'm not 100% sure on that.
Originally Posted by
frappant
Looks like Apple devices are eSIM-only now, going forward.
US iPhones are eSIM only which is why all US providers now support them (for iPhones at least). non-US iPhones still have a SIM card slot, so not all providers globally support eSIMs yet.