Delivering travel data to business travellers and tourists can be good business. However, the wrong choices can potentially make the business less attractive. Three key points to consider, if you are selling travel data packages, are:

Physical SIM versus eSIM. Am I ready to meet customer demand and at the same time save the cost of supplying eSIM instead of physical SIM?
Local connectivity versus roaming. Is it better to aim for delivering local mobile network operator subscriptions, or to use one global roaming provider?
Packages versus bulk data. Does the security in buying readymade data packages outweigh the potential economic benefit of buying data in bulk and managing the packaging yourself?

In this blog post, we look into the above points while highlighting the pros and cons.

Physical SIM versus eSIM

When travelling to a new country, many business travellers and tourists have been used to buying SIM cards with data packages when they land. But it often turns into a frustrating experience when they have to find a kiosk that actually sells the SIM cards, provide the right documents, pay, and then wait for activation.

With the introduction of eSIM in most new smartphones, many business travellers and tourists are likely to select a provider of eSIM based travel data services. The process from purchasing to downloading and activating can be handled directly on the phone and can even be done from home before actually travelling. The search for a physical SIM card travel data solution on arrival can be avoided, and the traveller is online when setting foot on land.

Service providers that do not have an eSIM travel solution ready today probably already now lose customers to their competitors, and this trend will only grow with time.

To deliver travel data services on eSIM, the provider needs an eSIM platform that can hold the eSIM profiles and allow one of these for download to a smartphone when a user has purchased a data package.

The eSIM platform is called an SM-DP+, and depending on the size of the travel data business the provider can consider purchasing this either as an own SaaS instance, or by purchasing eSIM downloads as-a-service from a connectivity provider that has its own SaaS instance.

Local connectivity versus roaming

When looking at options to provide travel data there are two typical ways to achieve the data: buying from a local mobile operator, or buying as roaming data from a global connectivity provider.

Coverage

When purchasing data from a local connectivity provider you will normally get access to only one physical mobile network in the country. Depending on the chosen mobile network operator, the coverage will vary in quality across the country.

When using a global connectivity provider that is usually roaming in the country it is, depending on the quality of the provider, not uncommon to get access to multiple mobile networks in the country. This will often give the traveller better coverage and a higher supply guarantee, since there will often be a redundancy of available networks in the travelling area.

Also, the risk of permanently losing a returning customer due to not having coverage in certain countries, simply because you haven’t found the right local partner, can often be avoided if you use a true global connectivity provider. If you deliver good travel data to a returning customer they may stay just because they know it is working, and look less at the cost details, as long as the cost is within reason.

Management

If using local mobile operators you will have to interface with as many suppliers as the number of countries you are covering. Needless to say, it will be more demanding than having only one global supplier of travel data: only one interface when there are issues, and only one interface when the monthly settling of data has to be handled.

Cost

Buying data from a local mobile operator is often the most competitive if you look in isolation at the cost price of the data package. However, when considering the extra manpower needed to handle the many interfaces and the complexity of managing SIM cards and eSIM profiles, the picture is not that clear. A good global connectivity provider may be the best choice from an overall point of view, compared to having local providers in each country.

Packages versus bulk data

It is well known that many travellers buy more data than they actually end up using, simply because they don’t want to run out of data while travelling. The unspent data is normally lost because it times out shortly after the traveller has returned home.

When buying data from a local mobile operator it is common only to have the option of selecting between a set of predefined packages that have been defined by the mobile network operator. In these cases, it is the local mobile operator that harvests the benefits of travellers not using the data that they have paid for.

With the right global connectivity provider, you will be able to design your own data packages freely, as well as buying data in bulk, and through this harvest the economical benefits of prepaid but unused travel data.

The above points are based on the feedback we have gained from our travel data customers, and should be considered by any company selling travel data packages.

Please feel free to contact us if you want to discuss further the pros and cons of using a global connectivity provider as a way to deliver travel data packages worldwide.

For more on eSIM, read eSIM: why you should switch now.