Thales & G+D maintain leadership in Global eSIM Management landscape

Thales, G+D continue to lead the eSIM Management landscape, according to Counterpoint Research’s eSIM CORE (COmpetitive, Ranking & Evaluation) report. The incumbents lead the eSIM Management landscape not only in terms of overall completeness of offerings but also in partner reach, and customer outreach. Both the players have aced the GSMA-approved platform offerings, although Thales edges out G+D with a growing number of customers, partnerships, and live eSIMs managed.

More than six billion eSIM (eUICC- and iUICC-based) capable devices will be shipped cumulatively in the next five years. To better understand the positioning, platform capabilities, and competence of various eSIM management players managing these hundreds of millions of active eSIM devices, The CORE (COmpetitive, Ranking & Evaluation) framework ranks different players in terms of completeness and capabilities of the platform providers offering, level of GSMA compliance, the number of eSIM RSP management platform deployments, diversity of end-customers, partnerships, and other parameters such as PaaS, Geographical Reach, Interoperability etc.

Commenting on the changing eSIM Management landscape, Research Analyst Ankit Malhotra said, “The eSIM Management landscape went through continuous evolution in 2021 with several new players entering the market. In 2020, we evaluated 11 integrated eSIM management players, this has now doubled to 22. eSIM Adoption continues to increase, with more eSIM capable smartphones in the <$200 price category being launched, and a similar trend in smartwatches. In IoT modules shipments of eSIM-capable IoT modules increased by almost three times.”

He further added, “With the increasing number of eSIM-capable devices, the number of profiles managed by service providers has increased. Therefore, the need for features such as Analytics, Campaign Management, etc. has also increased. These have been added to the evaluation criteria categorized as PaaS (Platform as a Service) – and is one of the key trends which emerged in 2021. Another key trend worth noting was the double sourcing by MNOs and thus interoperability with other service providers, EUMs and MNOs also became more important.”

Thales and G+D have been recognized as the top providers of end-to-end feature-rich eSIM management platforms, followed by specialists such as IDEMIA, Truphone, Workz, Oasis Smart SIM, and Valid.

Commenting on the eSIM management competition, Research Vice President Neil Shah highlighted, “Thales has led Counterpoint’s CORE Scorecard for the third time running, it is the best rated in all the major parameters. It is also the only player to have deployed more than 300 platforms worldwide. Its success in the market co-relates with our evaluation and is thus a deserved leader. G+D is one of the pioneers of eSIM solution and offers an end-to-end solution for its customers. It offers a guaranteed 99.99% server availability for eSIM downloads and management which has set a new benchmark for other eSIM providers. G+D has also secured more than 250 eSIM management deployments which demonstrates its success in the market.”

Shah, added, “The leaders are followed by specialists IDEMIA, Truphone, Workz, Oasis Smart SIM, and Valid. IDEMIA ranks third overall, its offerings include its proprietary entitlement server which sets it apart from the leaders. Truphone, which celebrated its 10th million eSIM profile in April 2021 follows IDEMIA in fourth. Workz is a fast-growing player, its open eSIM Platform “Mesh” released in September was a great step to solve the problem of interoperability. Oasis Smart SIM is one of the fastest-growing eSIM service providers that carries a unique proposition of being a “pure eSIM player”, Oasis enjoyed a great year and is well-positioned to challenge the leaders. VALID, which follows Oasis, launched “Interoperability as a service”, which was a stand-out achievement.”

Kigen, 10T Tech, Invigo, and Eastcompeace are recognized as Dark Horses. Kigen is fast emerging as an IoT eSIM specialist, making great strides in advancing use cases for iSIM as well. 10T Tech holds a unique position in the eSIM Management landscape. 10T Tech has achieved great success and is one of the top five players in deployments globally.

There are a handful of operators that have built and managed an in-house eSIM management platform. The top three Indian operators, Jio, Vodafone-Idea, and Airtel are in the list, activating and managing eSIM devices on their networks using platforms built with the help of partners. These operators have built platforms to align with their specific requirements. Telenor leads the group followed by Vodafone Idea, Jio, Airtel, STC, and Tele 2.

CT Bureau