An employee lands in another country just before an important meeting; they open their laptop and check their phone because they need to access a presentation, join a video call and reply to a client who expects an immediate answer. The airport Wi-Fi is right there, free and easy to access, so they connect.

For the employee, it is a completely ordinary moment. For the IT and security teams back at headquarters, however, it raises a more concerning question: who decided that this was the network the employee should use?

In many cases, the answer is that the company did not provide a better option. In fact, according to Holafly’s 2026 Summer Travel & eSIM Report, more than half of planned business travellers (53.4%) manage their own internet access.

That part of business travel is easy to overlook: companies spend considerable effort securing the networks, devices and applications they control; but when an employee lands in another country, the first step to accessing all of those systems may be a network the company has no control over.

Why a company-provided eSIM is the first step to ensuring a secure connection

Tools like VPNs can protect an employee’s connection to the company’s systems, but they do not decide how that employee gets online in the first place. Before they can use them, they still need to connect to a network.

Businesses might have strong access controls, but they do not determine whether an employee connects through an airport hotspot or a hotel network. While the VPN protects the data in transit, it does not remove the risk of the access point.

The objective is not to replace the security tools already in place, but to make sure employees have a company-managed and safe way to get online before they need to use them.

By providing the workforce with a managed eSIM, organizations eliminate this initial vulnerability entirely. It provides a trusted connection from the moment the plane touches down, proving that a solid cybersecurity strategy doesn’t begin when the VPN is turned on; it begins with that crucial first step of securely providing the connection itself.

What are the risks of a network the business doesn’t control?

While not every public Wi-Fi network is dangerous; the problem is that neither the employee nor the IT team can easily verify who is operating the network or how it is being managed.

A fake access point, for example, can be made to look like a legitimate hotel or airport network. An employee who is rushing to a meeting may connect to it without giving it much thought and unintentionally leak important business data.

Furthermore, many public networks also rely on portals that request the users’ details, such as names and emails, and they can be imitated to trick them into sharing that information. This creates immediate opportunities for credential theft before a corporate VPN can even be activated.

Good cybersecurity policies need to reflect how employees actually work, and for business travellers, getting online is not an optional part of the job. If the company has not already provided a way to do that, the employee has to solve the problem themselves.

Giving the workforce a company-approved mobile connection removes one decision from that process. This is where corporate solutions like Holafly for Business offer a practical alternative: by providing international eSIMs to employees, companies can give their teams a secure mobile connection before they leave, rather than leaving them to find their own way online after they land.

What do employees expect when the company provides the connection?

A traveling employee is not intentionally making a bad security decision; they are trying to do their job and stay productive while on the road. If the only available way to get online is a hotel network or a conference venue hotspot, connecting to it may seem like the most practical thing to do. They are unlikely to stop and assess every network they see before deciding how to get online.

An IT team can tell employees to avoid public Wi-Fi, use a VPN and follow the company’s security procedures; but when they land somewhere without a working mobile connection, those instructions do not answer the most basic question: how should they get online?

When companies rely on their workforce to arrange their own connection, activate roaming, or find Wi-Fi, they are leaving an important part of the company’s security environment to individual employees. Taking back that control is not only necessary, but it also aligns with what employees actually want.

According to Holafly’s 2026 Summer Travel & eSIM Report, security remains the top connection priority for 41.7% of business travellers overall. Furthermore, when organizations provide the connection, security expectations increase, becoming the primary priority for 52% of users.

A company-managed eSIM is also the simplest way for employees to connect to the internet. By allowing them to install it beforehand and ensuring a seamless connection across borders, they skip the frustration of finding open networks, buying a SIM card themselves or having to go through complex authentication steps.

Businesses can regain that control

Business travellers will always need to get online as soon as they arrive, so the question is whether the company has decided how that should happen before the trip, or whether the employee has to figure it out after landing.

For companies with internationally mobile teams, providing a company-approved connection is a simple way to remove that decision from the employee. Holafly for Business allows organizations to deliver international eSIMs in advance and easily manage them through the Holafly Business Center.

Securing corporate travel starts before the flight takes off. Making sure employees have a safe way to get online is not a replacement for the security tools already in place, it is what makes them work as intended.

If the company has already taken the first step in telling employees not to use public Wi-Fi, the next one is making sure they have a simple and safe alternative to use.