Orange Wholesale’s expertise in deploying MVNO lights has been rolled out for the fast-growing eSIM Travel market. This know-how has been recognized by Kaleido Intelligence and many major customers of OW’s mobile managed solutions, with or without a network core.
For more than 20 years, Orange Wholesale has been offering access to light MVNOs (operators without own network cores), providing them with connectivity and the SIM cards through which it transits. A pioneer in Europe, OW began offering its wholesale customers the consumer eSIM solution in 2020: MVNO customers have thus begun to offer this innovative service to their customers, both B2C and B2B. At that time, only high-end smartphones are equipped with an eSIM, in addition to the classic housing of the SIM card.
With the resumption of post-Covid tourism from 2023, correlated with a fleet of smartphones increasingly equipped with eSIM, several MNO are starting to decline in eSIM their classic offer of physical SIM card with a prepaid package dedicated to travel (for example, a 20 GB package valid for 15 days in Europe).
In addition to the «historical» operators, several «pure players», sometimes in start-up mode sometimes in addition to their historical activity, create or extend their activity around this eSIM Travel, organizing a wholesale purchase-resale, including Orange Wholesale.
Recognized in the the eSIM Travel market
Orange Wholesale was already addressing the tourism market for players without core network (ie MVNO Light) with its Wholesale Data Access offer, particularly towards Asian aggregators, and very early organized the technical version of its WDA offer in eSIM version, backed by the excellent roaming conditions that gives it its French position as the world leader in tourism. For operators with core network (ie MVNO Full), Orange Wholesale has been offering its Roaming Sponsor offer for many years. The agency Kaleido Intelligence has just recognized Orange Wholesale as Champion Travel eSIM Enabler 2024 in view of the strength and richness of the wholesale offers.
One (R)evolution
with eSIM
The eSIM (Embedded SIM) is a SIM card integrated directly into a connected device. GSMA standards distinguish the eSIM consumer, which is increasingly present in smartphones and tablets, and the eSIM M2M that equips connected objects, such as connected cars. A third GSMA SGP.31/32 standard, called eSIM IoT, will be deployed industrially next year to simplify the eSIM M2M standard: it is considered an accelerator of the eSIM presence in the IoT.
While the SIM card permanently stores the information to access its operator, the principle of eSIM is to be able to download the encrypted elements of access to a new operator: so it is possible to change operator without changing SIM card, using the eSIM welded into the smartphone. And so «download a connectivity package» for tourist from a third party operator.
With our know-how to support our customers in their MVNO light projects and the quality of our roaming contracts, we were able to deploy expertises and services dedicated to eSIM Travel and thus support the major players in this new activity» underlines Yannick Decaux, SVP Mobile Wholesale & Interconnection Orange.
This offer complements our Roaming Sponsor solution for major network operators and we are delighted that Kaleido Intelligence has recognized our status as Champion Travel eSIM Enabler.
The eSIM Travel market is booming: analysis firms estimate that the turnover achieved in the retail sale of eSIM Travel packages would reach between 4 and 6 billion euros by 2028. The many players who address this market have begun to seek to differentiate themselves, beyond tariff aggressiveness: efforts are focused on the addressable market, gradually expanding the resale of these eSIM Travel packages to the usual commercial channels of tourism (airports, aviation companies, travel agencies, etc.). Technical models are also diversifying, and with numerous partnerships with key players in this activity, Orange Wholesale collects and declines the needs detected in the market.
Orange Wholesale continues its technical innovations in co-construction with its customers, by offering a technical solution centered on increasingly rich APIs, on the autonomy for the partner to manage and configure data offers for its retail activity, its ability to better monitor the activity of its end users. With this recognition, OW continues its innovation efforts to better support its customers and continues to integrate new features to meet market changes.
