Between May and June 2022, GSMA Intelligence conducted a global survey of eSIM vendors focused on eSIM in smartphones. Hearing from companies that are driving eSIM momentum is key to assess what factors could accelerate consumer adoption of eSIM going forward and how we get there.

GSMA Intelligence's Chart of the Month is a visual way of telling an important story in the mobile and broader tech ecosystem. From the shape and size of markets to trends in consumer behaviour, we aim to provide food for thought through informative visuals designed to bring colour and clarity to complex issues facing the industry. In this edition, we take a look at how consumers are finding out about eSIM and examine the push from operators and OEMs on this front.

GSMA Intelligence's Chart of the Month is a visual way of telling an important story in the mobile and broader tech ecosystem. From the shape and size of markets to trends in consumer behaviour, we aim to provide food for thought through informative visuals designed to bring colour and clarity to complex issues facing the industry. In this edition, we examine the state of eSIM in smartphones, specifically the contrast between growing service availability and low consumer awareness.

Enterprises continue to deem security among the top three challenges to IoT adoption (along with integration with legacy systems and cost), according to our Enterprise in Focus Survey. The fragmentation of the IoT ecosystem makes securing IoT a difficult task. In this report, we examine how eSIM can address some of the challenges around IoT security. We also highlight a range of vendors offering IoT security solutions.

Momentum for eSIM is accelerating in the consumer market, opening up new opportunities for mobile ecosystem players and enabling new benefits for consumers. By 2025, 2.4 billion smartphone connections will use eSIM globally. As market adoption grows and eSIM becomes part of day-to-day business, having a clear roadmap and strategy will be crucial to capture and monetise the new opportunities presented by eSIM.

2020 is a turning point for eSIM. The top three smartphone makers are now fully on board, while the number of mobile operators offering eSIM service has doubled over the last 12 months. For OEMs and operators that have yet to launch, supporting eSIM is not a matter of if, but when.

Momentum for eSIM in smartphones is accelerating: over 100 mobile operators now offer eSIM services to their customers, spanning more than 50 countries across all regions but Africa. Our new smartphone survey reveals important insights into what could lie further ahead for eSIM. We highlight five key takeaways, as well as crucial implications for eSIM stakeholders.

This GSMA Intelligence report looks at current and future developments in the eSIM ecosystem across several perspectives: technology, use cases, market outlook and challenges, and policy & regulation. The report offers a global perspective before focusing on the eSIM market in China. We look at the future outlook for eSIM across three segments: consumer electronics (wearables, tablets and laptops), smartphones and IoT.

Earlier this month, Onomondo hosted the Made for IoT Summit 2025, bringing together a mix of IoT developers, device OEMs, module makers and adopters from across the IoT ecosystem, under the motto 'IoT connectivity should never be a bottleneck'. Key themes discussed included the latest GSMA eSIM SGP.32 and SGP.31 specifications, how the ecosystem is getting ready for commercial launches and the impact to connectivity service providers and device makers. Non-terrestrial networks IoT was a topic of focus as well, with the event’s participants taking note of progress being made and expressing high expectations for further advancements in the low Earth orbit space that will help drive greater adoption and lower costs. Finally, a new flagship private wireless project was unveiled in detail: Onomondo’s implementation with Maersk, Nokia and a suite of other partners that will bring private wireless to 450 ships at sea.

Remote provisioning technology and embedded form factors represent a major development in the history of the SIM. This report looks at the implications from a market perspective. For consumers, SIM developments are likely to be unambiguously positive; for businesses, the implications are more nuanced, bringing both opportunities and challenges.

This report provides an overview of recent developments in the SIM card market, underlining the industry’s efforts to work towards defining a new approach to the SIM that will serve both the M2M and consumer markets. It covers the history of the SIM from the earliest days of mobile technology to the present day - and discusses new SIM solutions such as Embedded SIM and Remote Provisioning.

Over the last few years, there has been important progress on remote SIM provisioning (RSP) technology (eSIM and integrated eSIM) but adoption is still limited compared to its long-term potential. This report examines the outlook for RSP and provides a view on future developments that could help overcome some of the challenges that are currently hindering adoption of RSP.

In terms of financials, roaming was a remarkably steady line of business prior to 2020. However, revenues were inevitably exposed to the curtailment of international travel as a result of border restrictions and closures once lockdowns came into force in the first half of 2020. This report gauges the nature and extent of the downturn over the last 12 months and its lasting impact, following a recent survey of roaming professionals, which included network operators, MVNOs and other specialists.

Smart utilities have been a prime area for IoT, including applications such as smart metering. The recent acceleration in deployments and adoption of cellular-based IoT, notably NB-IoT, is making smart utilities an even more attractive opportunity for operators.

The number of mobile connections in Brazil decreased by more than 9% during 2015 to reach 248.2 million connections (excluding cellular M2M) at year-end – the first time Brazil has ended a year with lower connections than the previous year. Although much of this can be attributed to the economic crisis, the average number of SIM cards owned per person is also falling.

Over the past decade, mobile operators have introduced an ever growing choice of services and offerings to consumers as technology continues to rapidly revolutionise consumption habits.