MWC26 Barcelona: Highlights and Recommendations for SIM and eSIM Vendors

MWC26 concluded in Barcelona with a wealth of topics fueling product roadmaps and vendor strategies for the years ahead. The ever-expanding expo shows the growing depth and complexity of the connectivity ecosystem, with opportunities and challenges available throughout the stack for those who understand and can differentiate the hype from the impactful market drivers for 2026 onward. While MWC26 drives announcements, with newness top of the priority list, Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) vendors will need to carefully manage maintaining legacy markets and capturing new growth in the years ahead.

In the embedded SIM (eSIM) world, few conversations can be had without reference to China, SGP.22 download growth, and SGP.32. In the removable market, managing the digitalization transition, pressured Average Selling Prices (ASPs) and Post-Quantum (PQ) readiness all offer a challenging lens through which to view the event.

The subsequent impacts of China opening up to eSIM smartphones in 4Q 2025 on SGP.22 transactions will be significant, given the scale of the device market, but that will come after substantial market seeding. The traditionally slow activation penetration of eSIM-enabled devices is compounded by SIM registration procedures, which currently require in-person visits to the operator branch. For this reason, travel will likely be a key early driver of transactions for devices in the region, though the highly technologically-engaged consumer profile in the region will promote accelerated usage once the early adoption challenges are mitigated.

Overall, SGP.22 transactions will continue to grow steadily, with jumps driven by the expansion of eSIM-only policies. This occurs both by device as seen in Apple’s iPhone 17 Air, and by region, with significant portions of the Middle East now falling under Apple’s eSIM-only banner—notably ahead of Western Europe, in part due to significant differences in operator readiness and an eSIM-first policy. Device-specific global eSIM-only policies, combined with the still-growing travel eSIM market, will bolster overall usage and drive requirements for support for operators, but until we see eSIM-only policies beyond Apple (and in the United States for Google), this will continue to be limited to areas where Apple has a large market share.

SGP.32 transactions, on the other hand, will be significantly less predictable in the coming years. As expected, it was a key discussion point at the event, and its evolution through the pilot phase raises striking questions about the core of the profile infrastructure business.

Excitement around the possibilities enabled by SGP.32 remain strong, with Giesecke+Devrient (G+D) announcing a partnership with Electric Vehicle (EV) brand Rivian, the first consumer application use of SGP.32 with the eero router, and important developments in profile delivery flexibility for “seldom-connected” use cases. This cluster of developments acts as a neat summary for several of the core focal points in the eSIM Internet of Things (IoT) market—especially in an SGP.32-enabled context, namely:

• Maintaining stellar support in automotive—the historical best customer of IoT eSIM, and especially important given the boost to connected use cases introduced in the growing EV subsegment.
• Taking advantage of global single manufacturing Stock Keeping Units (SKUs), provisioning flexibility, and improved support for constrained devices to corner growing markets such as personal network equipment.
• Recognizing the needs of markets and moving beyond traditional business models to provide a win-win of affordable, flexible connectivity for device manufacturers and consumers, and new eSIM penetration markets for vendors.

However, the complexity is clear, and mirrors the same complexity already noted in the SGP.32 infrastructure itself. The needs in the cellular connected IoT space are more diffuse than ever—a quick scan of IoT-related devices presented at the show makes that clear—and vendors will have to tread a fine balance of economies of scale and adequate tailoring.

Although facing different challenges, a similar thread pulls through to the removable SIM market when addressing Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) implementation. Regulation will rub against technological limitations, particularly in the lower-end of the market, and price points will be a particular bugbear in a segment already straining against pressured ASPs. Flexibility and dynamism in implementation are inherently harder to achieve than in the IoT eSIM market, so removable SIM vendors will need to strategically tailor what can be changed—billing models, commercial strategy, and end-market specific messaging—to manage the transition into the PQ-ready world.