07 October 2025

Darren Shaw, Chief Product Officer, eSIM Go

Today, North African MNOs are keeping less than 10-20% of the value of travel eSIM data consumed on their own networks by inbound roamers. The rest flows straight to international eSIM vendors.

Travellers are connecting, operators are carrying the traffic — but the revenue is leaving the country. Outbound subscribers are doing the same when they travel, abandoning high-margin roaming domestic bundles for global eSIM brands. Operators are being disintermediated in both directions.

07 October 2025

Kallie Carlsen, MD of Paratus South Africa

The demand for increased connectivity across Africa is determined and shaped by the continent’s unique geography, population distribution and infrastructure. Africa spans vast geographical areas with low population density and this makes traditional infrastructure deployment expensive and therefore both economically and logistically challenging.

Another major challenge in many regions is unreliable power infrastructure. This means that these countries need connectivity solutions that have low power requirements or independent and backup power sources. Another complication is limited terrestrial infrastructure, with fibre connectivity being concentrated in urban centres and coastal regions. At the same time, there is an urgent need for affordable solutions, given the economic constraints across most markets, as well as resilience due to all the harsh environmental conditions and infrastructure vulnerabilities.