The burgeoning trend of eSIM is being driven in large part by the increasing availability of eSIM-enabled devices for consumers. For instance, the iPhone is expected to become eSIM-only very soon (outside of the US), perhaps with the iPhone 16 or iPhone 17. But the growth in demand doesn’t match the movement of network operators and MVNOs yet, according to Fredric Liljestroem, CEO of 10T Tech.
Frederic said, “The national carriers haven't really recognised the importance of eSIM.”
“They’ve merely just treated it as a necessity to support a technical feature. This creates a huge opportunity for agile MVNOs to steal a lead in digital onboarding.”
And Frederic agrees that many operators haven’t yet recognised the full potential of eSIM either. So far, they’ve mostly focused on eSIM while onboarding new customers, but they are yet to identify the opportunity with travel and other use cases highlighted in the previous chapter.
The growing popularity of eSIM will only continue to accelerate from here. That means the opportunity won’t last long, and the market will quickly become more competitive.
As a result, MVNOs must not only begin to take strategic steps to embrace eSIM, but also find ways to differentiate and stand out amongst competitors.
Some valuable ways to do this are through the customer onboarding experience, and with advanced orchestration of eSIM to enhance customer relationships.
Understanding eSIM customer onboarding
eSIM onboarding experiences can be used as a key service differentiator for MVNOs in the increasingly competitive market. But many operators are still using outdated or inefficient onboarding methods, and this may be slowing down their growth.
Legacy eSIM customer journeys use physical QR codes, distributed like traditional plastic SIM cards. Basic digital downloads have also been used as a standard method of onboarding, but this isn’t quite as widespread.
Other legacy onboarding methods include public campaign QR codes. This places eSIM activation QR codes in public places, allowing customers to use them at their own convenience. An example of this is placing QR codes in magazines kept in the backs of seats on planes, for travel use cases. These can also be placed in advertisements such as digital billboards. While this is a good method for customer acquisition at scale, it does come with security issues.
Either way, most operators have typically only opted for one single approach, but Frederic believes it’s crucial to offer a variety.
He said, “Many carriers are choosing to go for just one. Either they go for app installation on eSIM, or they go for a QR code. I would say that looking through the installation of customers, you can't just choose one. You need to have a variety of these use cases, depending on where the customers are coming from.”
Exploring more modern onboarding methods
It’s important to create more agile and flexible onboarding experiences for customers as eSIM becomes more widely adopted. Frederic highlights several ways in which that can be done effectively:
Generic carrier QR code
An increasingly popular method for providers is using a generic carrier QR code, with the QR code printed directly on the box of the device. Generic carrier QR codes are actually connected to the specific device.
Here, users can scan the QR code to download their pre-assigned eSIM profile. This method is useful for 5G migration and eSIM replacements of traditional SIM. This method is also more secure, as it can help eliminate fraud and other security issues.
Apple “Quick Link”
For Apple devices, Apple Quick Link now allows users to download profiles without needing to scan a QR code.
Distributing eSIM activations to customers was previously a significant challenge for mobile operators without an Apple carrier or an Apple partnership. But this highly efficient approach now enables users to simply click a link and activate their unique profile, streamlining the experience.
And this can work in combination with the previous options too. Again, it’s unwise to limit your onboarding to just one approach. Offering users a diverse and flexible selection of ways to activate their eSIM will help maximise growth.
Carrier apps for customer reselling
One of the most innovative ways to acquire and onboard new customers with eSIM is to provide existing customers with a carrier app that they can take to active eSIM profiles for new users. This method essentially allows all your customers to become re-sellers for you.
The carrier app allows existing customers to easily generate a QR code, and their friends or colleagues simply scan to activate a new eSIM.
Here, you can incentivise both existing and new customers with rewards to maximise results and ROI. This approach also improves customer loyalty and retention, which will be valuable in the long term.
Crucially, this helps to reduce one of the biggest costs for operators, which is customer acquisition.
Resolving customer retention concerns
A key consideration MVNOs must make with eSIM is customer retention and support in the event of lost devices, accidental deletion of eSIM, and other “worst-case” scenarios.
MVNOs should ensure they have systems in place to maintain communication with customers in these scenarios, to minimise the risk of lost business.
A disastrous scenario is a customer deleting their eSIM, so they can no longer be contacted. Maintaining communication with customers and retaining them in these challenging situations is crucial for every operator.
Frederic said, “In this part, your eSIM supplier to you as a carrier should have all the information. We can act on it, we can set up a ruling based around this so that we can alert either the customer service of the carrier, or we can even start communicating with the customer to help you.”
Advanced eSIM orchestration explained
eSIM advanced orchestration is one way to mitigate those challenges with customer retention. Being able to control the services on devices is so important for MVNOs, and there are intelligent solutions available to do this.
But smart eSIM orchestration also acts as another point of differentiation, and it is a great innovation in the current market.
This capability can provide in-depth insights for a greater understanding of customer usage patterns, customer journeys, and individual user preferences with eSIM. This helps to enhance the customer experience and maximise customer retention.
Smart orchestration includes:
User profile management
Marketing features
Multi-tenant management
Reporting and analytics
Business and process rules
Client messaging engines
Dynamic data generation
Profile package storage
Profile delivery
Management of notifications from devices
And more.
“Smart eSIM orchestration will soon become a central part of the eSIM and digital onboarding for your customers,” said Frederic.
MVNOs that can adopt this capability into their service offering early will gain a strong advantage as the market becomes more competitive.
And there are many talented solution providers enabling MVNOs with this capability. Among those is 10T Tech.
Key takeaways
Since eSIM is still a relatively new concept for many users, it’s important to streamline the onboarding experience as much as possible to aid customer acquisition. It will also be beneficial to put advanced systems in place, like smart orchestration, to enhance the customer experience and improve retention. But MVNOs can also use these capabilities to differentiate themselves from competitors and maximise their ROI with eSIM investments.