Mobile World Live Industry Survey 2025: demand for eSIMs rises but lack of consumer awareness remains key challenge

On the eve of the recent Mobile World Congress (MWC) Barcelona 2025 (March 3 – 6), 1GLOBAL partnered with Mobile World Live to produce the latest State of the Industry Survey for 2025.

This year’s results were fascinating, revealing a great deal about what excites, energizes and worries global mobile professionals in 2025.

From sustainability concerns to issues around cybersecurity and the ever-looming specter of generating more revenue, the Mobile World Live Industry Survey 2025 provides a valuable snapshot of how the industry is preparing to tackle this year’s most pressing matters.

Industry-wide foundational issues affecting mobile professionals

Data from the GSMA finds that Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) will spend $1.5 trillion on CAPEX globally between 2023 and 2030. The majority of that investment – more than three-quarters – will be steered into 5G-related topics, and that figure mirrors the chief concern of the 300 mobile professionals surveyed: 24% said that generating a return on 5G deployments is their most pressing issue in 2025.

Security concerns came in second, with 22% of respondents citing issues over network security as their main focus this year – up by eight percentage points on 2024.

Interestingly, while only 7% of respondents said that hitting net zero would be their chief focus in 2025, some 20% of respondents cited ‘making business more sustainable’ as their number one priority in 2025 – a figure beaten only by ‘making the most of AI’, which is priority one for 30% of respondents.

eSIM marketing entering a phase of maturity and growth, but awareness still lacking

In the eSIM space, there were a couple of noteworthy takeaways from the survey. Encouragingly, the survey results reflect a steady growth in the number of customers now using eSIMs.  

In response to the question ‘What percentage of your customer base is currently using eSIM?’, the most popular answer was ‘less than 10%’, which was given by 36% of respondents. However, last year half of all respondents gave this same answer, so there is a definite upward curve at the lower end of the eSIM adoption scale. 

And it gets better...

• An encouraging 22% of all carriers have an eSIM user base of between 25% to 50%, while 31% see eSIM adoption in at least 10-25% of their customers 

• 45% of respondents rated consumer demand for eSIMs as moderately or very high, which is eight percentage points up on last year 

• 49% of respondents think that eSIMs will overtake the physical SIM in mobile devices within 3-5 years, with 32% confident that the change will happen even sooner (less than three years) 

• 60% of respondents believe that eSIM technology will have a moderate or strongly positive impact on customer retention

• And that number again: 60% of respondents also think that eSIMs will have a moderate or strong positive impact on roaming revenues 

• However, a lack of consumer awareness or understanding of the technology is the key reason holding back wider deployment, according to 44% of respondents, while… 

• 21% of respondents cited technical integration challenges as the main challenge they face in boosting eSIM adoption rates 

eSIM enterprise solutions from 1GLOBAL

The results of this survey confirm what industry leaders have long recognized – eSIM adoption is accelerating, yet significant challenges remain. While consumer demand is rising, widespread penetration is still a work in progress. The ability to seamlessly integrate eSIM at scale, address consumer awareness gaps, and simplify activation will define the next phase of growth.

As eSIM moves from early adoption to mainstream, the most forward-thinking providers of business eSIMs are already preparing for a landscape where flexibility, interoperability, and automation are paramount. This shift is not just about connectivity – it’s about enabling a smarter, more agile telecom ecosystem that meets the evolving needs of businesses and consumers alike.

Download the full survey report, Mobile World Live Industry Survey 2025 here.