For international travellers, mobile service plays an essential role in navigating unfamiliar destinations, managing bookings and staying in touch with people back home. Yet the experience of using a mobile network abroad can vary significantly depending on the destination, local infrastructure and the arrangements between telecom operators.
As eSIM technology makes international mobile access easier, an important challenge remains for the telecom industry: ensuring that the experience behind a simple digital activation is dependable.
A global market with very different levels of maturity
The Holafly Global eSIM Index 2026, which examines 50 markets and 171 mobile operators, reveals significant differences in how countries support eSIM adoption and activation.
The United States leads the ranking with a score of 90.2 out of 100, followed by Estonia (83.6) and the United Kingdom (82.8). Thailand and Canada follow closely, each scoring 82.7. Meanwhile, markets such as India (45.6) face greater structural barriers to eSIM adoption.
These figures do not measure network reliability directly. Instead, they highlight how the conditions surrounding mobile access differ across markets, from operator readiness and device compatibility to activation processes and regulatory requirements.
For international travellers, these differences matter. A digital mobile service may be straightforward to activate in one country but involve additional requirements in another. The challenge for the industry is to make access as consistent as possible despite these differences.
Why carrier partnerships are essential
The Index identifies activation friction, regulatory constraints and limited access to compatible devices among the barriers to wider eSIM adoption. These findings demonstrate that technological availability alone does not guarantee a straightforward customer experience.
From a telecom operations perspective, this reinforces the importance of collaboration between mobile operators and digital service providers. Reliable international services depend on more than commercial agreements. They also require technical compatibility, clear operational responsibilities and effective coordination when problems arise.
At Holafly, we view carrier partnerships as long-term relationships that must balance commercial value with technical and operational requirements. Their importance extends beyond providing access to networks: they are part of the foundation on which international mobile experiences are built.
The difference between activation and performance
One of the most important developments brought by eSIM is the ability to activate mobile services digitally, without relying on a physical SIM card. However, a successful activation is only the beginning of the experience.
Once a traveller is using the service, network availability, capacity and performance become central considerations. These depend on the underlying mobile infrastructure and the operational arrangements supporting international access.
The Holafly Index shows that activation and support account for 25% of its assessment of eSIM market readiness, reflecting the importance of reducing friction at the point of access. Network performance is a separate consideration, but one that operators and digital providers cannot afford to overlook.
For the industry, the opportunity is to bring these elements together: making services easier to access while maintaining the technical and operational standards needed to support their use.
Making international mobile services more dependable
The evolution of eSIM is creating new opportunities for operators and digital travel providers, but it also places greater importance on how different parts of the telecom ecosystem work together.
Market readiness, regulation, interoperability and network operations all influence different stages of the international mobile experience. Addressing these challenges requires collaboration rather than treating each element in isolation.
For travellers, the expectation is much simpler. They want to arrive in a new country and use their mobile services without having to understand the infrastructure behind them.
That is ultimately where the industry’s attention should remain: not only on making international mobile access easier, but on ensuring that people can depend on it throughout their journeys.
