“The industry is discovering that ‘200+ destinations’ is not a personality.”

For years, travel eSIM marketing had a simple formula: cheap data, instant activation, no roaming bill, 150 countries. Then 180. Then 200+. Add a globe icon, an airport photo and perhaps “5G” in large font. Coverage itself was proof of credibility. That era is ending.

Today Airalo, Holafly, Nomad and Saily all promote availability in 200+ locations or destinations. Vodafone’s newer travel eSIM goes further, advertising 206 destinations across 700 networks. When a global operator and a long list of specialists can put the same number in the hero banner, the number stops telling customers much.

The industry has reached a healthy point: connectivity is easier to sell and harder to differentiate.

The coverage arms race

Destination numbers are also surprisingly elastic.

“Countries”, “locations”, “regions” and “destinations” are not interchangeable, yet eSIM marketing often treats them as if they were. Territories may be counted separately. Islands may become destinations. Sometimes a destination is a commercial SKU rather than a sovereign country.

I once came across a provider marketing 180+ destinations where nearly ten entries were Greek islands or island groups. Greece was apparently having an excellent quarter.

READ MORE: Vodafone Launches Global Travel eSIM Platform for 200+ Destinations

That is not unique. Current Orange-based eSIM lists include Greece alongside Corfu, Crete, the Cyclades and Rhodes as separate entries. Similar treatment appears for Sardinia and Sicily, the Balearic and Canary Islands and Madeira.

None of this means the coverage is fake. A traveller going to Rhodes wants to know it works. But it does show why “we cover X destinations” is a weak proxy for network quality.

A provider with 160 strong markets can beat one with 200 dots on a map.

What customers cannot see

The difficult part is no longer producing a QR code. The difficult part begins after it works.

Which network does the user attach to? Is there a second network if the first performs badly? Where does traffic break out? How far does it travel before reaching the internet? Can the platform steer a user away from congestion? What happens when provisioning fails in Bangkok? Can support identify the problem, or merely resend installation instructions?

These are increasingly the product.

READ MORE: More Countries ≠ Better eSIM — Here’s What Actually Matters

GSMA/Ookla analysis has shown how roaming can introduce much higher latency because traffic may be routed back through a home network. BICS now explicitly markets local and regional roaming breakout to keep traffic closer to users, improve latency and enable real-time traffic steering.

The customer sees none of it. They notice that Maps loads instantly, a Teams call does not stutter, or their banking app suddenly thinks they are somewhere unexpected.

“Coverage” says the eSIM can connect. It does not say what kind of connection the customer will experience.

Reliability becomes the brand

This is where stronger eSIM brands are moving.

Airalo still has the giant footprint, but its scale—more than 30 million users according to the company—is now part of the proposition. Holafly has pushed hard around unlimited data and longer-term subscriptions. Saily differentiates with security features including malicious-site blocking and tracker limiting. Nomad competes with plan structures, regional products and aggressive per-GB pricing.

Those are positions. “We also work in France” is not.

READ MORE: Why Two eSIMs on One Network Feel Different?

Another competitor is arriving from the opposite direction: the mobile operator. Vodafone’s travel platform matters because it shows how quickly the old distinction between operator roaming and travel eSIM company is blurring. GSMA Intelligence reported that 12% of international travellers surveyed in 2025 had used an eSIM abroad; more than 70% of those users chose a travel eSIM provided by a mobile operator.

Operators already own networks, roaming relationships, billing systems and huge customer bases. Specialists therefore need to be better at something else: experience, price, flexibility, transparency, support, routing, recovery, product design or distribution.

Preferably several.

The recovery test

The most revealing moment in travel connectivity is failure.

A traveller who buys 10GB for Spain and connects immediately will never ask how the service works. A traveller whose phone shows LTE but passes no data will discover the provider’s real product in three minutes.

Can support see the profile status? Can it diagnose APN, network selection and provisioning issues? Can the customer switch networks? Is a replacement profile issued quickly? Is unused data refunded without an argument?

That recovery layer matters more to repeat purchase than another seven countries on a coverage list.

READ MORE: Alertify eSIM Trust Index 2026

It also separates products designed for occasional leisure use from those credible enough for frequent travellers and business users. Someone buying the cheapest 1GB plan for a weekend may care mostly about price. A consultant landing before a client meeting, a remote worker crossing three borders or a company managing hundreds of travellers has a different tolerance for “please restart your phone and try again.”

For them, reliability is not a feature. It is the reason for buying.

Final thoughts

The next eSIM winners will probably look less impressive on a coverage map and more impressive when something goes wrong.

Airalo has scale. Holafly has made unlimited data part of its identity. Saily is building around security. Nomad keeps pressure on value. Operators such as Vodafone can bring network depth into the same retail battlefield. Infrastructure players such as BICS are making routing, breakout and traffic steering more sophisticated behind the scenes.

So a new eSIM brand launching with “200+ destinations, instant activation and affordable data” is not necessarily launching a differentiated product. It may simply be announcing that it has entered the category.

The more interesting metrics now sit one layer deeper: usable networks per country, latency, local breakout, failover, time to recovery, refund friction, support resolution, repeat purchase and retention.

Coverage still matters. Nobody wants an eSIM that works beautifully in three countries.

But once everybody has the map, the map stops being the story.

And if your competitive advantage depends on counting Crete separately from Greece, perhaps the industry has already told you what needs fixing.