The FIFA World Cup 2022 is just around the corner, and it’s set to be the most expensive tournament in football history. Current projections indicate that the event will cost the Gulf country around $220 billion, which is 60 times more than the South African World Cup in 2010. During the event the local population will more than double, with an estimated 1.5 million football fans expected to stay in Qatar between 20th November and 18th December.

Football Fans Expect Connectivity

A tournament of this kind is a huge boost to the local tourism industry, bringing together a unique blend of people from all over the world. And like all once in a lifetime experiences, those people will want to share it with everyone back home. A huge amount of mobile data is going to be consumed in Qatar during those four weeks, and football fans will expect it to be seamless. From video calling to picture messages, music and video streaming to social media updates, connectivity will be a big priority for many. But it’s a notoriously complex and expensive business.

The cost of data roaming has long been a bugbear for international travellers, who often have to spend hours reading up on different travel SIMs all promising to offer an affordable, reliable solution. More often than not, they are left feeling frustrated and out of pocket, still faced with soaring data charges and poor connections.

Travel operators are presented with similar challenges. Delivering travel data can be great for business, but traditional SIM cards bring logistical barriers while selling data roaming through third parties is costly and time consuming.

Veteran travelling football fans will be used to buying data from a local mobile operator. This can be cheaper than roaming on your standard mobile contract, but there’s no guarantee of reliability. Also, when you buy from a local connectivity provider, you’ll normally only be able to access one physical mobile network in the region. Depending on who that is, the coverage will vary, potentially resulting in millions of unhappy football fans.

There are also significant time and administrative costs associated with mobile data management – it takes a huge amount of human intervention to manage all those different SIM cards and profiles, quickly making it an unwieldy and expensive exercise.

Luckily, embedded SIM cards – or eSIMs for short – are changing the way people use data when they travel.

What is an eSIM?

An eSIM is an evolution of the traditional SIM card, but instead of being a tiny fiddly device that has to be physically placed inside a phone, it’s embedded in the device. and can connect users to a choice of different providers. eSIMs can connect users to a choice of different providers and are activated by installing the eSIM profile of a new operator, either via an app store or by scanning or entering a code.

eSIMs represent a huge paradigm shift, giving customers the opportunity to travel the world without having to keep swapping SIM cards or pay offensively high roaming charges. With around 7 billion potential customers predicted by 2024, this is an exciting market that’s already being hailed as the ultimate travel add-on. That’s great news for customers, and means those in the travel and tourism industry who’ve always wanted to offer connectivity as a service no longer have to miss out.

That’s because eSIM Go is taking the whole concept of embedded SIMs one step further, by working directly with travel operators. This helps you give visitors to the World Cup easy access to what they want - a high quality, flexible mobile service at the stadium and throughout their stay in the country or region - while you take advantage of wholesale pricing and high yields.

eSIM Go is a full spectrum eSIM solution for businesses, encompassing everything from mobile connectivity to infrastructure and full end-to-end app development. It can be easily integrated into travel firms’ existing applications, or there’s a full app development service available too if you’re starting from scratch.

Everything is managed in one single, simple interface via the world-leading eSIM Go management portal, and the eSIM can be downloaded at checkout point through a QR code scanner or iPhone/Android app store.

Giving football fans a seamless mobile service experience during the Qatar World Cup in November is crucial if you want to score in the data roaming game. eSIM rates from eSIM Go deliver the best value, easiest access to connectivity all over the world. Find out more at https://esim-go.com/