Kaleido Intelligence, who hosted a deep dive into travel eSIMs last week and posed the big question of whether it should be perceived as a threat or an opportunity, recently held part two of its series, this time focused on MNOs’ strategies for being successful in travel eSIMs.
On the 2nd July, Chief Commercial Officer Jon King and Nitin Bhas, Principal Analyst at Kaleido Intelligence spoke to Greg Gundelfinger, CEO of Telna; Azad Singh, Chief Global Mobility Solutions at Reliance Jio; Emmanuel Bain, Senior Vice President at Console Connect and Vanesa Fernandez Romero, Head of Roaming & IPX at Telefónica.
In a similar manner to the last webinar, Bhas took the audience through key findings from its survey on the adoption of travel eSIM, one of which was that the number of “silent roamers” AKA travellers who either connect to Wi-Fi or don’t use roaming because of costs, using travel eSIMs had significantly increased. “We estimated this figure to be under 5% of international travellers last year, but this year, the number is on track to approach 10% of total international travellers,” said Bhas.
Another major finding from the survey was that travel eSIM is becoming a “standard” for new smartphones. “Our prediction is that by 2028, nearly 4 billion smartphones will support eSIMs and also take into consideration that the surge in these eSIM adoption among smartphones will be driven by the integration in mid- and low-tier smartphones,” Bhas added.
Based on an observation made from the last webinar about a question around awareness in consumers of travel eSIM, Bhas explained that the awareness is quite low in some markets and what will drive awareness is educating consumers on the benefits, functionality and how to use it.
Three themes were explored in the webinar; fostering partnerships, 5G’s role in travel connectivity success and the different strategies for MNOs in approaching travel eSIM.
Bain from Console Connect was first to be asked about how important partnerships with different brands (such as Amex, Emirates, Mastercard) are in the adoption and success of travel eSIM technology.
“I think brands will help to accelerate the travel eSIM adoption because of their reach and also their ability to onboard new services and facilitate payments seamlessly,” Bain said. “And some of these brands have been very successful in onboarding new customers in minutes.”
Gundelfinger from Telna was asked about the significance of 5G roaming as a standard in relation to enhancing the functionality and adoption of travel eSIMs. “From an experience perspective, I think it is superior,” he said. “In terms of the digital experience of being able to purchase roaming services through an app is much easier for the customer.”
The panel were also asked, as part of the third theme, what strategies MNOs should employ going forward to address growth in travel eSIM, both in the short term and long term.
“I think it’s clear there’s room for improving not only the pricing but also the customer experience, providing a more customised proposition,” explained Romero from Telefónica. “In the long term, there is a lot of opportunity to partner with travel companies.”
For putting together a strategy in addressing travel eSIMs, Singh said that data provides invaluable insight to their retail teams. “As a strategy, we always try to be innovative with our approaches in the market.”
In the last webinar run there was a general consensus among panellists that travel eSIMs should be seen as an opportunity – Gundelfinger in particular agreed that travel eSIMs should be capitalised on as an opportunity and disputed the notion that travel eSIMs are cannibalising MNOs’ revenues.
“From your own report [Kaleido’s] that you showed, it showed that retail and eSIM roaming are both growing,” said Gundelfinger. “It’s a clear growth opportunity for the industry. It’s about MNOs providing a solution to address this market.
“I think it’s an evolution that needs to take place. I think many operators that are adopting this [travel eSIM] are seeing a strong, positive revenue result.”
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