It’s a familiar arrival routine at the airport. Clear customs, pick up your luggage, then scour available telco booths for the best available data deals. Upon selecting a suitable data plan, a friendly salesperson will extricate the subscriber identity module (SIM) card from your smartphone and swap in a local one. What if you didn’t need to fiddle and worry about safekeeping your existing SIM?

The telecommunications industry in Southeast Asia is fast evolving. The average revenue per user (ARPU) from voice calls is on a freefall giving way to increased usage of mobile data which is required to access a variety of applications like video and music streaming, e-hailing and social media. Consumers are increasingly becoming more affluent as the middle-class household segment continues to grow in Southeast Asia.

It’s a familiar arrival routine at the airport. Clear customs, pick up your luggage, then scour available telco booths for the best available data deals. Upon selecting a suitable data plan, a friendly salesperson will extricate your existing SIM card and swap in a local one. What if you didn’t need to fiddle and worry about safekeeping your existing SIM? What if you could perform this process by simply scanning a QR code? This is part of the embedded SIM or eSIM promise.