The Future of Roaming: How eSIMs & Regulation Are Democratizing Global Connectivity

Over the last decade, eSIMs have evolved from an industrial tool to a worldwide consumer phenomenon. Software-based SIM profiles now form the keystone of new markets like the travel eSIM and embedded telco sectors. The technology has upset traditional market models, offering consumers lower-cost alternatives to roaming fees, “lock-in” multi-year mobile contracts, and excess plastic.

By doing so, eSIMs are democratizing the telecom space, evidenced by growing global adoption rates. By 2030, eSIMs are expected to account for most smartphone connections — they’re already the preferred SIM format in Europe and the Americas.

For mobile operators, understanding this demand and navigating a market shift of this scale is key to remaining viable in the future telecommunications market, as regulators and national governments alike alter their policies to accommodate and encourage the rise of eSIM. With global data demands spiraling, we explore how eSIMs and regulation are lowering the cost of mobile data use and laying the foundations for a more inclusive wireless industry.

The rise of eSIMs

Originally developed for the Internet of Things (IoT) industry, the value of eSIMs for the consumer device market was soon recognized. The first eSIM-compatible smartphone, the Google Pixel 2, hit the shelves in 2017.

Since then, their usage has ballooned, driven by public, mobile industry, and manufacturer demand. eSIMs offer several functional and economic benefits for consumers:

• Practicality: An eSIM can be downloaded to a device and used to get online in seconds, with no need to keep tabs on separate plastic SIM cards. Most eSIM-enabled phones can simultaneously store multiple eSIMs. This allows users the freedom to switch between different providers in seconds.

• Flexibility: As a software, eSIMs can be remotely downloaded or issued anywhere in the world, instantly. For companies with international workforces, eSIMs allow them to connect team members and manage connectivity for multiple users without having to distribute and recall physical cards.

• Economy: The ability to instantly switch between providers is particularly useful during international travel, as it allows users to connect to a local provider and avoid roaming charges abroad.

Roaming charges – the fees that created an industry

Five years ago, international travelers were faced with an unwelcome choice before heading to a new country:

1. Purchase and install a local SIM card for their destination before they travel, losing access to their regular SIM card, contacts, and two-factor authentication services. Multi-country trips would necessitate keeping tabs on multiple separate cards, switching them out every time they crossed a border.

2. Use their phone abroad just like they would at home, and deal with the roaming bill when they get back.

3. Avoid using mobile data altogether while abroad, and intermittently rely on unsecured Wi-Fi networks where possible.

Clearly, none of these present an ideal solution. From boarding passes to hotel check-ins and restaurant menus, mobile internet has slowly become a requirement for many aspects of international travel. The widening gap between the need for mobile travel data and the prohibitive costs of international roaming has now been filled by the travel eSIM market.

A travel eSIM is a short-term, often prepaid SIM profile that can be downloaded in seconds. Over 280 million travel eSIMs are expected to have been sold by 2030. As a digital product, these short-term eSIMs can be sold by a range of digital platforms, from specialist eSIM providers to traditional mobile operators, banks, airlines, and more.

How are MNOs responding to travel eSIMs?

Consumer eSIM use poses a unique dilemma to traditional network carriers. On the one hand, the technology offers a clear customer benefit, backed by rising public demand.

On the other hand, eSIMs challenge many traditional revenue streams of legacy mobile network operators (MNOs): these carriers have often been defined by long-term contracts and lasting customer relationships. Terminating a SIM card mobile contract, or moving to another carrier, can be a notoriously arduous process. eSIMs promise to end this, with instant switching between networks.

Roaming fees, too, are a consistent income source for carriers. The network switching capability of eSIMs circumvents these charges entirely.

The reality is that eSIMs are here to stay, driven by joint pressure from manufacturers and consumers, with traditional operators caught in the middle. With the technology firmly in place, carriers must seek opportunities within this market shift.

Some have embraced the new technology, in an effort to deliver a heightened customer experience and stay ahead of the competitive curve: the French network operator Orange recently gave customers a month of free eSIM data to promote its new 5G network.

The Japanese carrier Rakuten was an early adopter of eSIM, recognizing the growing demand and offering eSIM plans to differentiate themselves in the market – major carriers like AT&T and Verizon have since followed suit. While eSIMs undoubtedly challenge the MNO hegemony, they open the door to new opportunities. For customers, this means that accessing the flexibility and lower costs of eSIM is now possible through a traditional operator.

As the shift has been driven primarily by device manufacturers and consumers, long-standing issues with legacy operator models are being addressed: roaming fees can be a thing of the past, and “lock-in” contracts designed to dissuade competition are becoming a relic of the SIM card age.

The accessibility of eSIM phones

Though eSIMs offer users significant cost savings, particularly while traveling, they have often been confined to high-end smartphone models – any cost savings are often offset by the higher price of eSIM-compatible handsets. For years, eSIM connectivity was limited to premium and flagship phone models. While the connectivity may have ultimately been cheaper, accessing it still required a significant investment in a modern premium mobile handset. This is changing, spurred by a combination of manufacturer action, public demand, and larger supply chains for eSIM components.

The mobile industry body, the GSMA, considers the availability of eSIM-compatible devices a major obstacle towards the rollout of eSIMs, while identifying a link between major eSIM-only smartphone releases and public eSIM adoption rates.

Now, eSIM compatibility is transitioning from a premium feature to a standard expectation, appearing on mid-range and budget handsets as well. Finally, eSIMs are becoming available in more accessible hardware, bringing the benefits to a wider population.

This push has been largely driven by manufacturers. Not only does eSIM compatibility offer another reason to purchase a specific handset, it also allows device makers to dispense with bulky SIM cards and trays. In the highly competitive hardware market, every square millimeter of internal real estate is needed.

This is neatly encapsulated by the 2025 iPhone Pro: the model is available (region dependent) as either dual SIM card & eSIM, or eSIM-only formats. Tellingly, the eSIM-only model features a longer battery life. Apple also used the absence of a SIM tray to develop the 5.6mm-thick iPhone Air – something that would be hard to achieve with a physical SIM card present.

Mobile operators, too, can capitalize on this shift: supporting eSIM-only devices provides access to a vast new customer base.

International eSIM regulation

New industry standards, such as the GSMA’s SGP.32 architecture, have been developed to encourage and strategize the ongoing rollout of eSIMs among commercial and IoT users. Other measures have been enacted to curb the impact of roaming fees and encourage lower-cost mobile usage among travelers.

Since 2017, the EU’s “Roam like at Home” policy has allowed mobile users to access wireless data in any of the EU and EEA member nations, without incurring roaming fees. The policy also requires operators to notify their customers when they connect to non-terrestrial networks, such as maritime or satellite networks. For consumers, this makes European travel far more accessible, while the EU maintains that it regulates inter-operator pricing and encourages market competition.

The strategy has been applied to other global regions, including the western Balkans, where it has led to a simultaneous increase in data traffic and an 80% reduction in roaming costs.

Perhaps the greatest indicator of the scale of the eSIM adoption is how it has affected national legislation. As a product, eSIMs are causing governments, industry bodies, and private companies to rethink their policies to accommodate the new format.

Apple announced four new iPhone models earlier this year – among them the iPhone Air. The release of the Air was notable for several reasons: as a structural achievement, a design innovation, and – perhaps unexpectedly – an instigator of national policy reform. Prior to 2025, the sale of eSIM-enabled phones in mainland China was forbidden on a number of economic and security grounds. Earlier iPhones, even when eSIM-compatible elsewhere, were built and sold as SIM-card-only models for the Chinese market.

The iPhone Air marked a turning point. Due to its paper-thin dimensions, all Air models are eSIM-only, regardless of market. The public demand for the new model is such that it prompted the Chinese government to relax its eSIM restrictions rather than miss out.

As manufacturers continue to develop eSIM-compatible hardware and software, public uptake will follow. The first eSIM-only iPhone, the USA-only iPhone 14, caused an uptick in eSIM adoption and awareness soon after release. Apple’s latest iOS 26 software is replete with eSIM-focused features like the eSIM auto-switching and eSIM Quick Transfer functions.

A more inclusive future

For mobile operators, eSIMs are no longer viewed as a potential threat – they're increasingly understood as a method of serving the world’s surging data demand.

The global digital transformation is causing steep growth in wireless data demand. Operators, governments, and civil society must coordinate to ensure the future of wireless connectivity is available the world over, and that increased demand doesn't result in uneven distribution and deepening global inequality.

The future lies in global expansion and sustainable development.

All this growth only matters when it's environmentally and socially sustainable. Transitioning away from physical SIMs is a tiny step towards a more responsible mobile industry. By switching to eSIM, the material and environmental toll caused by the procurement, manufacture, transport, and disposal of SIM cards can be largely eliminated from the future mobile industry.

This in itself is not enough to significantly reduce the mobile industry's environmental impact, though it can be part of a wider collective effort to reform the sector and deliver socially responsible products that meet the rising demand for wireless data.

New technologies like 5G help to address the data demand by improving the capacity of mobile networks. The rise of eSIMs is another potential benefit – remote SIM distribution and the freedom to switch between operators and access multiple networks have helped to democratize wireless data usage.

Harnessing these new technologies is key to developing a more sustainable mobile industry. As a relatively new technology, any carrier requires a partner with a deep level of product knowledge and eSIM infrastructure to successfully integrate the product into their suite.

Since 2018, 1GLOBAL has distributed over 60 million eSIMs and helped industries from finance and travel to the IoT and telecoms prepare for their digital future. For more information on our eSIM services, contact our team directly.