Despite an estimated annual growth of 15% through 2024, Juniper Research warned that mobile telecoms operators’ future retail roaming revenues will be threatened by competing travel mobility solutions.
The research firm predicts operations will generate over US$10 billion from roaming data revenues worldwide in 2024, rising from US$8.6 billion in 2023.
However, travel mobility solutions offer the option for roaming subscribers to adopt a temporary local profile rather than incur roaming charges when they are abroad.
“eSIMs are the key enabling technology for the growth of travel mobility services. This enables roaming subscribers to adopt local profiles through digital platforms, rather than relying on roaming via physical SIMs,” said Juniper Research in a statement.
eSIMs are inbuilt eUICCs (Embedded Universal Integrated Circuit Cards) that are operator-agnostic.
By 2024, over 1.5 billion smartphones globally will leverage eSIMs for cellular connectivity and are anticipated to reach 3.5 billion by 2027.
Juniper Research urged operators to launch travel mobility services aimed specifically at long-term travelers that do not wish to incur these roaming charges or are likely to become permanent roamers.
“To maximise the opportunities in the travel mobility market provided by eSIMs and minimise the potential for roaming charges, operators must also provide travel mobility services to subscribers roaming on their network,” the company said.
However, to reduce friction in the adoption of these services, Juniper Research noted that a user-facing digital platform must be offered to subscribers.
“These platforms must allow subscribers to self-manage their travel mobility mobile subscriptions, including the setup, data allowance and cancellation in real time. As a result, this will lessen the reliance on the delivery of physical SIM cards that can increase the time for a travel mobility subscription to be created,” Juniper said.
