Activating service

  • 3 minutes

Now that you have successfully either inserted your physical Nano SIM or installed your eSIM profile, you're ready to activate service on your Surface device.

Note

Service must be activated through your mobile operator before accessing 5G services on your Surface for Business device.

With a physical nano SIM

After ensuring that your service is activated from your mobile operator and the SIM card is correctly inserted, do the following to activate service on your Surface:

  1. Select Start.
  2. Open Settings.
  3. Select Network & internet.
  4. Select Cellular.
  5. Select SIM1 from Use this SIM for cellular data.

Your SIM is now active and 5G data is ready to be used on your Surface.

With eSIM

After setting up your eSIM profile, follow these steps to connect to cellular data:

  1. Select the Start button, then enter Settings. Select Settings > Network & internet > Cellular > eSIM profiles.
  2. Under Profiles for cellular data, select the eSIM profile you want, and then select Use.
  3. Select Yes for This will use cellular data from your data plan and may incur charges. Do you want to continue? After accepting, you'll be connected to a cellular data network and are ready to go.

Tip

You can temporarily turn off cellular data when not in use. To do this:

  1. Open Settings.
  2. Select Network & internet on the left side of the screen.
  3. Under Cellular, select the slider to Off.
  4. Select the slider again if you wish to turn cellular connectivity back on.

eSIM profile management

If you use eSIM and you have more than one eSIM profile installed on your Surface, you can switch between them to use a different mobile operator and data plan. To do this, follow these steps:

  1. Select the Start button, then enter Settings. Select Settings > Network & internet > Cellular > eSIM profiles.
  2. Under Profiles for cellular data, select the profile you want to stop using, and then select Stop using.
  3. Select Yes or You'll be disconnected from this cellular network. Continue?.
  4. Select the different profile you want to use, then select Use.

If you have an eSIM profile that you don't want to use anymore, you can easily delete it from your Surface for Business device. To do so, do the following:

  1. Select the Start button, then enter Settings. Select Settings > Network & internet > Cellular > eSIM profiles.
  2. Under Profiles for cellular data, select the profile to delete, and then select Delete.
  3. At the prompt that warns you that the profile will be permanently deleted, select Yes.

Note

If your Surface device is managed by your organization, you might not be able to delete an eSIM profile because of a policy set by your organization. Remember that deleting an eSIM profile doesn't cancel wireless service agreements. To do so, you must contact your mobile service operator.