Mobile roaming is no longer a niche telecom event that happens when a small slice of subscribers goes on holiday. It is becoming a larger, more frequent and more data-heavy part of everyday mobile usage — and the latest numbers make that difficult to ignore.

Juniper Research estimates that more than 1.7 billion mobile subscribers roamed internationally in 2025, with the figure forecast to approach 2.2 billion by 2029. That growth is happening alongside a travel market that has fully moved beyond its pandemic recovery phase. UN Tourism counted 1.523 billion international tourist arrivals in 2025, up 4% year on year and 4% above 2019.

The roaming map is changing

Juniper’s country data shows where the volumes are concentrated. China was forecast to generate the highest average monthly number of outbound roaming subscribers in 2025 at 12.4 million, followed by the United States at 11 million. The UK reached 8.4 million, France 7.8 million and Germany 7.1 million.

Those figures matter because roaming economics are corridor-driven. An American operator does not need the same strategy as a British or Chinese one. Juniper expects Canada and Mexico to account for more than 65% of US outbound roaming in 2025, while European destinations dominate UK travel patterns. Pricing and roaming bundles increasingly need to reflect where customers actually go.

Europe offers a useful view of subscriber behaviour because roaming there has become routine rather than exceptional. BEREC’s latest benchmark, published in March 2026 and covering more than 150 operators representing about 95% of EEA mobile subscribers, found that 29% of roaming-enabled subscribers used roaming at least once during Q3 2025. The share was 19% in Q1, but the summer figure has held at roughly 29% for three consecutive years.

Roamers are using more

What subscribers do while roaming is changing too. In Q3 2025, an active Roam Like at Home subscriber consumed an EEA average of 2.32 GB per month while abroad. Estonia exceeded 6 GB, while several markets remained below 2 GB. A “roaming subscriber” is clearly not one type of customer. A weekend traveller checking maps behaves differently from someone streaming video, working remotely or repeatedly crossing borders.

The economics have also become less forgiving of old roaming premiums. BEREC put the average EEA retail price for data roaming outside the EEA at €4.42 per GB in Q3 2025, down from €5.05 one quarter earlier. At wholesale level, the average intra-EEA data price was only €0.57 per GB. Regulation explains much of the European gap, but the direction is broader: data is getting cheaper while customers expect more of it.

The revenue is still substantial

That helps explain why operators are defending roaming through better bundles, automatic day passes and more predictable pricing rather than accidental bill shock. Juniper expects global retail roaming revenue to rise from $13.4 billion in 2025 to $20.9 billion in 2029. Wholesale roaming revenue is forecast to grow from $9 billion in 2024 to $20 billion by 2028, helped by 5G and IoT connections.

Yet subscriber growth does not automatically belong to traditional roaming. Travel eSIMs are creating a second connectivity market around the same traveller. Juniper values global travel eSIM revenue at $1.8 billion in 2025 and expects it to reach $8.7 billion by 2030. GSMA Intelligence adds another signal: in its 2025 Global Consumer Survey, 12% of consumers who had travelled internationally in the previous year used an eSIM abroad, and more than 70% of those users obtained a travel eSIM from a mobile operator.

That shift puts pressure on every layer of the roaming value chain.

The competitive divide is therefore not simply “operators versus eSIM companies.” Operators can sell eSIM-based travel connectivity themselves, while travel eSIM specialists increasingly buy access through the same wholesale roaming ecosystem. The customer may see a different app and tariff; underneath, much of the infrastructure is shared.

The battle behind the screen

This is why sponsored roaming providers remain strategically important. Juniper’s 2026 assessment ranked BICS, Telna and Vodafone Procure & Connect as leading sponsored roaming vendors and argued that roaming support will remain critical for MNOs and MVNOs despite travel eSIM growth. Network steering, VoLTE availability, fraud controls, real-time monitoring and wholesale pricing increasingly determine whether a roaming offer feels modern.

For travellers, traditional roaming still wins on something surprisingly difficult to beat: zero setup. Keep the home SIM active, land, and the phone connects. That convenience is valuable for short trips, regulated regions such as the EU, or plans that already include generous international allowances.

It is less attractive when the destination sits outside an inclusive zone, the operator charges expensive daily fees, or a traveller needs substantial data for several weeks. In those cases, a travel eSIM, local prepaid SIM or multi-country regional plan can make more sense. The smart choice is becoming situational rather than ideological.

Europe shows where roaming can go when regulation removes fear from using the phone abroad. Roam Like at Home expanded on 1 January 2026 to include Ukraine and Moldova, extending domestic-style mobile pricing across another pair of borders. It is a strong consumer model, although it depends on regulated wholesale conditions that cannot simply be copied into every global corridor.

Conclusion: The subscriber is no longer captive

The bigger change is not that roaming subscribers are disappearing into eSIMs. They are multiplying while their options multiply with them.

For operators, the job is no longer merely to make roaming technically available. It is to make staying with the home operator feel as rational as switching to an alternative.

Travel eSIM providers have pushed the market toward clearer pricing, faster digital onboarding and destination-specific offers. Traditional operators still own the subscriber relationship, phone number and default connection. Wholesale specialists sit behind both worlds, helping connectivity move between networks.

A roaming subscriber in 2026 may use a domestic plan in the EU, buy an operator travel pass in the US, install a travel eSIM for Asia and keep the home SIM alive for calls and authentication. That is not customer disloyalty. It is the new roaming behaviour.

The subscriber count is growing. The more important metric now is who captures the connection when that subscriber lands.