3 mins read
After decades of almost uninterrupted growth, the travel industry faced an enormous setback when the Covid-19 pandemic hit. Today, the travel industry is not only bouncing back but may even exceed pre-Covid levels by 2024.
The nature of travel has also evolved with digital nomads on the rise. These types of travelers require all the connectivity comforts of office working wherever they relocate in the world, often for short periods of time.
Even more casual travelers, such as tourists, will still want easy access to their preferred digital services no matter where they are. They want to be able to stay connected as they would at home, and use heavy apps such as video calling apps, social media platforms, and more without long loading times.
Unfortunately, traditional roaming isn’t fit for purpose for digital nomads or tourists. Travelers are plagued by poor coverage and interrupted connectivity that doesn’t enable them to use their applications successfully. On top of that, they will have concerns over the hidden costs of roaming, especially if they are forced to hotspot. No one wants to go home to an unexpected bill. Nor do they want to go through the trouble of purchasing new SIM cards in each country and manually inserting them.
In a nutshell, travelers need a simple user experience. They require uninterrupted and high-quality connectivity with flexible data plans and full transparency and control of their consumption in real time. Whether they’re traveling for a short amount of time, or regularly relocate for work, they deserve a frictionless experience to roaming.
Fortunately, there is a simple solution: the adoption of embedded Universal Integrated Circuits (eUICC), aka an eSIM. 330 million phones worldwide had eSIM in 2021, and the number is set to further increase by 2023.
eSIM have the potential to revolutionize the user experience that travel SIM providers offer, as they:
- Eliminate the need to swap physical SIMs
- Provide access to networks in multiple countries, staying compliant with GSMA regulations
- Support a fully-remote, self-serve business model to protect margins
At BICS, we’ve developed an eSIM for travel SIM providers specifically designed to provide travelers with a world-class roaming experience and help providers operate a profitable and globally relevant service.
1. Excellent global coverage
It’s easy to keep your customers connected seamlessly anywhere they travel, without downtime.
As a world leader in international voice, messaging and data traffic, when it comes to global and local coverage, we’re hard to beat! We carry and deliver 50% of the world’s roaming traffic reaching over 900 mobile operators. We offer carrier-grade quality of service with multi-network coverage that supports 2G to 5G, NB-IoT, and LTE-M technologies. Whether they are uploading travel videos or participating in video calls, your subscribers will enjoy crystal clear connections.
With guaranteed coverage worldwide and high Quality of Service, even with bandwidth-heavy applications, your customers can keep using their apps abroad without disruption.
2. Advantageous cost structures with real time usage updates
One of the greatest deterrents to roaming is the fear of the final bill.
To increase customer loyalty and encourage usage, you need to offer excellent coverage hand-in-hand with advantageous pricing.
The BICS global eSIM platform provides you with real-time information on network use: so you can ensure that your subscribers stay updated about their spend throughout their journey. On top of that, your customers can purchase additional data packages, and customize them based on their specific needs.
Thanks to BICS’ deep relationships with MNOs worldwide, your users have access to advantageous prices – especially for data roaming.
3. Real-time monitoring and troubleshooting
Taking proactive action is only possible when you have full visibility and control.
You need a single source of truth for your deployment and network performance. Through our 200+ APIs and easy-to-use portal you can manage, troubleshoot, and control your deployments from anywhere in the world. For example, you can remotely activate and suspend eSIMs, recycle profiles, send personalized notifications to your end-users, and much more.
With access to real-time reporting, detect issues rapidly and tackle them before they even affect your customers.
Convinced? Get in touch today to find out more about how we can help you deliver a world-class experience to your subscribers.
An article by NGUYEN QUAN Hoang Khuong, Senior Product Manager IoT Solutions & Innovation at BICS