There is a strange irony in the tech industry: whenever we successfully remove friction from a product, our behavior quickly finds a way to build it right back in.
The eSIM was supposed to be the solution for staying connected. It promised to eliminate the plastic SIM card, remove the tiny metal ejector pins we always lose, and erase the anxiety of landing in a foreign country without mobile data. In theory, connectivity should have become effortless. Yet if you look at the global landscape today, friction remains everywhere. The technology exists, but the experience of adopting and accessing it is still far from seamless.
Understanding where that friction comes from, and why some countries have embraced eSIM while others continue to resist it, is precisely what led us to create the Holafly Global eSIM Index. While conversations around connectivity often focus on network quality, coverage, and digital experiences, there was no clear benchmark capable of measuring how prepared different markets truly are for eSIM adoption. Without a consistent framework, it was difficult to compare countries, identify barriers, or track progress over time.
That challenge became the focus of the fifth episode of eSIM Talks, where Rafael Junquera sat down with Chris Hills, Holafly’s VP of Carrier & Network Operations, to discuss the thinking behind the Index and what it reveals about the current state of global connectivity. Beyond rankings and scores, the conversation explored a broader question: if the technology is already here, what is actually slowing adoption down? The answer, as the discussion reveals, has very little to do with technology itself.
Much like Netflix’s ISP Speed Index helped bring transparency to broadband performance years ago, the Holafly Global eSIM Index was created to provide visibility into an ecosystem that often lacks clear points of comparison. It is designed to track changes over time, identify emerging trends, and create a common framework for discussing how connectivity is evolving across different markets.
More importantly, it reveals a simple but powerful reality: the future of connectivity is no longer being limited by technology. It is being shaped by the decisions, regulations, and behaviors that determine how quickly that technology is allowed to spread.
The telco dilemma and the fear of the invisible
It may sound surprising that the biggest barriers to connectivity are no longer technological, especially considering how often telecom conversations revolve around infrastructure, coverage, spectrum, or device compatibility. But the reality emerging from the Holafly Global eSIM Index is much simpler: the technology is largely ready and what remains are the human decisions that determine how that technology is deployed, regulated, and ultimately experienced by consumers.
For decades, telecommunications companies operated in an environment built around physical control where customers visited stores, received SIM cards, signed contracts, and remained attached to a single provider for long periods of time. The physical SIM itself became part of that structure rather than a technical component, like a control mechanism embedded within the customer relationship. eSIM fundamentally challenges that logic because it transforms connectivity from a physical product into a digital service.
That shift creates a tension that is visible throughout the industry today. During the episode, Chris pointed out a profound contradiction currently playing out among operators, recalling a recent conversation with a telecom executive. “We definitely see traditional roaming and travel eSIM working in parallel and we embrace it… but we prefer physical SIMs’”.
This is where we actually see that resistance is framed as a preference, and it often appears through onboarding requirements, activation processes, verification procedures, or internal policies that introduce friction where technology no longer requires it. As Chris pointed out during the conversation, these are decisions made by people rather than limitations imposed by technology.
The irony is that travel connectivity has become one of the few areas within telecommunications experiencing significant growth. At a time when many traditional telecom services face increasing competitive pressure and shrinking margins, eSIM-enabled connectivity continues to expand globally. Yet some players remain focused on protecting legacy models instead of accelerating the transition toward new opportunities.
The Holafly Global eSIM Index highlights a broader reality about innovation: new technologies often fail not because they don’t work, but because existing institutions take time to adapt to the new possibilities they create.
In the particular case of eSIMs this is both fascinating and frustrating: the technology is ready, but the ecosystem is holding onto the past.
Hardware creates adoption. Utility creates demand.
One of the most interesting dynamics in the evolution of eSIM is that the technology itself was never enough to guarantee adoption, and this is a pattern that repeats throughout the history of technology; innovations do not become mainstream simply because they are technically superior, but because consumers discover a reason to incorporate them into their daily lives.
Apple played a decisive role in accelerating the eSIM adoption process when they removed the physical SIM tray from iPhones in the United States, forcing an entire ecosystem to adapt. Possibly operators may have preferred a slower transition, but the reality is that they suddenly had to embrace a future in which digital provisioning was no longer optional. The decision demonstrated the power that hardware manufacturers can have in shaping industry behavior; Apple effectively pushed the ecosystem forward by changing the rules of the game.
However, forcing an industry to adopt a technology is not the same as convincing consumers that the technology matters. Most users do not care about the underlying infrastructure that powers their digital experiences, but they do care about convenience, reliability, and peace of mind, like arriving in a new country and having a connection available the moment they step off the plane, ordering an Uber, contacting family members, or continuing to work without interruption.
This is where travel eSIM providers fundamentally changed the narrative. Companies like Holafly transformed eSIM from a technical feature into a tangible consumer benefit. Instead of selling the technology itself, they sold what the technology enabled: simplicity.
As Chris Hills explained during the episode, “travel eSIM has provided a use case which has opened people’s eyes.” That observation helps explain why travel became such an important catalyst for adoption. The value proposition was no longer about replacing a physical SIM card, but about removing uncertainty from the travel experience. In many ways, travel became the first truly compelling use case that allowed consumers to understand why eSIM mattered in the first place.
Viewed through that lens, the growth of travel eSIMs represents something much larger than a new connectivity product, demonstrating a broader truth about innovation. Technologies rarely succeed because they are available, but because they solve a problem people genuinely care about. Apple helped create the infrastructure for a digital-first future, but travel eSIM providers helped consumers understand why that future was worth embracing.
The regulatory contradiction
One of the most surprising insights revealed by the Holafly Global eSIM Index is that technological leadership and digital readiness do not always move in the same direction. Intuitively, one might expect countries with advanced telecommunications infrastructure, widespread 5G deployment, and strong digital economies to lead the adoption of eSIM. Yet the data suggests a more complicated reality where some of the markets that appear most advanced on paper continue to maintain barriers that make digital connectivity unnecessarily difficult to access.
What makes this particularly interesting is that the justification is often rooted in security; governments and regulators frequently point to identity verification requirements, consumer protection measures, or compliance obligations as reasons for maintaining restrictions around eSIM activation.
These concerns are understandable considering mobile connectivity plays an important role in both economic activity and public security, making regulation inevitable. However, the challenge is that many of the processes being used to address these concerns were designed for a different technological era.
During the episode, Chris argued that the debate is often framed incorrectly. The question is not whether regulation is necessary, but whether regulation is evolving at the same pace as technology. As he pointed out, “you can do KYC from your mobile phone very easily because the technology exists.” Today, consumers can open bank accounts, complete financial transactions, verify their identities through biometric systems, and sign legally binding documents directly from a smartphone.
The technology required to securely authenticate users already exists and is widely deployed, yet in some markets activating mobile connectivity still requires procedures that feel more aligned with the age of paperwork than the age of digital services.
The contradiction becomes even more evident when looking at specific examples. Some countries continue to require physical verification processes or impose restrictions that make eSIM activation unnecessarily complex, despite having highly developed digital ecosystems. Meanwhile, other markets have demonstrated that regulation and innovation do not have to be mutually exclusive. During the conversation, Chris pointed to China as an example of a country that has embraced eSIM while adapting its regulatory framework to local requirements. As he explained, “China has fully gone eSIM”, demonstrating that governments can preserve compliance and oversight without preventing adoption altogether.
This is ultimately why the Index is so valuable, because it highlights the difference between technological capability and institutional readiness. The question is no longer whether eSIM can satisfy regulatory requirements, but whether regulators, operators, and policymakers are willing to redesign processes around the possibilities that modern technology already offers.
The countries that move fastest may not necessarily be those with the best networks. They may be the ones most willing to recognize that security and digital adoption are not competing objectives. In many cases, the technology needed to satisfy both already exists. The challenge is whether institutions are prepared to trust it.
The invisible future of connectivity
Perhaps the most compelling idea discussed during the episode is that the ultimate success of eSIM may arrive when people stop talking about eSIM.
At first, the technology itself becomes the story, consumers learn new terminology, discover new features, and adapt their behavior around a visible innovation. Over time, however, the most successful technologies disappear into the background, like electricity, Wi-Fi, cloud computing, and GPS. And this is when they become so deeply integrated into everyday life that users stop thinking about them as technologies and start experiencing them simply as expectations.
Today, consumers still think about mobile plans, activation processes, roaming charges, and network selection because the experience of staying connected continues to contain moments of friction. Yet the promise of eSIM goes far beyond removing a piece of plastic from a smartphone; its real promise is making the underlying technology invisible. In an ideal future, users would not need to manage profiles, compare activation methods, or worry about what happens when they cross a border.
During the conversation, Chris Hills described this future in very simple terms: “In the end, people will forget there’s an eSIM. It will just happen.” That observation captures the industry’s long-term ambition better than any discussion about activation flows, network provisioning, or device compatibility ever could. Ultimately, the goal is not to improve how people interact with eSIM, but to reach a point where they no longer have to interact with it at all.
The Holafly Global eSIM Index offers an interesting way to think about that future. While the rankings and scores provide a snapshot of where countries stand today, they also reveal how far the industry still needs to travel. The objective is not simply higher adoption rates or faster activation processes. It is reaching a point where the technology becomes so seamless that users barely notice it exists.
The Index also shows that we are not there yet. Friction still exists, barriers remain, and adoption continues to move at different speeds around the world. Yet every improvement in onboarding, every regulatory barrier removed, and every market that embraces digital-first experiences brings the industry one step closer to that vision.
Ultimately, the future of eSIM will not be defined by the technology itself. Like many of the innovations that transformed everyday life before it, its success will be measured by its ability to disappear. The greatest achievement of eSIM may not be that people adopt it, but that they eventually stop noticing it exists at all.
