London, June 30th, 2026: New research from Kaleido Intelligence provides a deep dive into the evolving wholesale roaming market, providing a comprehensive view of market evolution, commercial shifts and strategic opportunities for mobile operators.
Kaleido’s report focuses on recent trends across the wholesale roaming market, examining the impact of emerging technologies such as eSIM and AI on revenues and business operations to inform MNO strategy in a rapidly shifting roaming environment.
To inform this report, results from Kaleido’s Wholesale Roaming 2026 MNO Survey were used. The survey was conducted amongst 68 Tier 1 and Tier 2+ MNOs, alongside select MVNOs, drawing from a vast pool of industry titans.
Revenue Growth: Traditional Avenues Disappearing
Revenue projections from Kaleido demonstrate a critical transition across the roaming ecosystem, specifically pertaining to traditional business models. Whilst it is clear that wholesale roaming revenues are set to continue on a steady upward trajectory, the nature and composition of these revenues is quickly changing.
Global Wholesale Roaming Revenues in USD Millions, Consumer Roaming Market Share & Forecasts for SMS, Voice & Data Traffic 2020-2030
Source: Kaleido Intelligence
Data services have dominated wholesale roaming revenues for years, and this dominance is only expected to intensify as voice and SMS revenues decline. Now, data remains as the sole avenue for wholesale revenue growth, and the growing impact of travel eSIM roaming traffic and the upcoming launch of commercial 5G SA is only expected to compound this sentiment. Data services are diversifying and expanding, and as circuit-switched voice is phased out, voice services will be increasingly carried as data packets, further eroding voice revenues in favour of data.
To quantify this shift, the above graph showcases the downward trajectory of voice and SMS revenues, which are expected to decline by over 70% between 2026 and 2030.
Travel eSIM: Reshaping Wholesale Roaming
The recent proliferation of eSIM technology across the roaming ecosystem is another factor reshaping the wholesale roaming revenue landscape. eSIMs are a major commercial disruptor, offering end users near-unparalleled convenience and affordability, essentially representing an entirely new avenue for delivering connectivity to roamers.
Naturally, the rise of eSIMs has presented operators with commercial challenges: increased competition from new market players and potential erosion of traditional roaming revenues. Without a decisive and inclusive eSIM strategy, operators are likely to struggle in sustaining their revenue growth, especially amid declining wholesale prices.
MNO Wholesale Strategies for 2026 Regarding Roaming Alternative Providers
Source: Kaleido Intelligence Wholesale Roaming MNO Survey 2026
In Kaleido’s 2026 Wholesale Roaming MNO Survey, operators were asked to summarise their approaches regarding alternative roaming providers, to shed some light on the industry response to eSIM and the like, and the wider patterns surrounding individual strategies. Whilst the survey results demonstrate no strong alignment on one particular strategy across the industry, the most popular responses reveal what may become the prevailing strategy regarding eSIM providers.
Selected by 47% of respondents each, the two most popular strategies were to introduce wholesale rate plans tailored to travel eSIM and multi-IMSI platforms, and to act as a roaming sponsor or host network for travel eSIM providers. The most popular approaches are inclusive of alternative roaming providers, attempting to fold them into the broader strategic aims and operations of traditional operators. The inverse, those more dismissive or confrontational approaches, appear to be less popular. For example, only 21% of respondents shared that they wish to continue their current wholesale roaming policies, and just 13% are looking to add restrictions on travel eSIM traffic in bilateral roaming agreements.
It is evident that the best way forward is to embrace travel eSIM providers, and to work with them (unless an operator plans on launching their own travel eSIM offerings). Sponsorship models, for example, enable operators to secure a foothold in the fast-growing eSIM segment, allowing for deeper market integration and fostering greater wholesale growth prospects for the future. Those operators who do not partner with alternative roaming providers, and those who treat these providers only as direct competitors, are more at risk of losing wholesale revenues as the ecosystem diversifies.
Wholesale Roaming: Strategies & MNO Outlook 2026: Key Findings
- A decline in wholesale data prices is expected by 38% of operators. A similar sentiment exists concerning voice pricing, though a notable portion of operators foresee relative stability over the next 3-5 years. The majority expect SMS pricing to remain stable.
- Inbound data roaming traffic is projected to increase steadily over the upcoming three years – only 4% of operators expect a decrease (<10%) in volumes.
- 25% of respondents have noted an incremental increase in inbound traffic and/or wholesale revenue through direct or indirect partnerships with travel eSIM/alternative roaming providers.
- A fifth of participating operators have no current plans or strategy defined for 5G SA roaming, as of Q1 2026.
Access the report
Access Kaleido’s Wholesale Roaming: Strategies & MNO Outlook 2026 for a comprehensive examination of the current wholesale market, including revenue projections for consumer and IoT, technical priorities and commercial challenges identified by operators, and roaming investment plans for 2026.
Blog Author: Max Holden, Market Research Analyst