The Hidden Cost of Going Offline on Business Trips
When companies send executives, sales leaders, engineers, or consultants abroad, the focus is usually on flights, hotels, and meeting agendas. Connectivity is assumed to just work. Until it does not.
That is the premise behind SureSIM’s upcoming webinar, “Disconnected Abroad: Reducing Connectivity Risks for Travelling Teams”, taking place on Wednesday, January 21, 2026. It is positioned as a rerun, but the topic feels more urgent than ever. In a world where mobile data is effectively the office, losing connectivity for even 30 minutes can undo weeks of preparation.
For Alertify readers who follow enterprise mobility, roaming, and eSIM trends, this session hits directly at the intersection of productivity, cost control, and risk management.
Why this conversation matters now
The timing is not accidental. International business travel is back, but the connectivity model many companies still rely on belongs to another era. Traditional roaming plans were designed for occasional use, not for teams who live on Teams, Slack, VPNs, cloud dashboards, and real-time collaboration tools.
The webinar highlights a stat from Cox Business that cuts through the noise: 60 percent of business travellers say fast, reliable internet is their number one requirement. That is not about convenience. It is about being able to work at all.
From a telecom perspective, the risk is no longer just bill shock. The real cost shows up elsewhere: missed approvals, delayed negotiations, failed MFA logins, or employees resorting to insecure public Wi-Fi because their corporate SIM is unusable or capped.
What makes this an enterprise issue, not a travel one
One of the strongest angles of this session is how clearly it reframes connectivity as an enterprise risk, not a travel perk. The agenda goes beyond pricing and into operational exposure.
When a senior employee cannot access documents, email, or navigation tools in a foreign country, the impact ripples outward. Projects stall. Security policies are bypassed. Compliance frameworks are weakened. Reputational risk increases when teams appear disorganised or unresponsive.
This is where enterprise eSIM platforms differ fundamentally from consumer travel eSIMs. The discussion is not about buying data for a trip. It is about visibility, control, and resilience at scale.
Enterprise eSIM explained simply
For readers less familiar with the distinction, enterprise eSIM is not just a digital SIM. It is a managed connectivity layer designed for organisations, not individuals.
Platforms like SureSIM focus on multi-network access across 200-plus countries, centralised dashboards, real-time usage monitoring, and policy enforcement. IT and finance teams can see who is connected, where, and at what cost, without waiting for a surprise invoice weeks later.
That is a very different proposition from consumer eSIM apps, which optimise for ease of purchase and short-term travel rather than governance, security, and long-term cost optimisation.
Who should actually attend
This webinar is clearly not aimed at casual travellers. It is designed for decision-makers who feel the pain when connectivity fails.
CIOs and IT leaders will recognise the security and support challenges discussed. CFOs will appreciate the focus on eliminating excess charges and unpredictable roaming bills. Security and compliance teams will see the relevance in reducing reliance on unsecured public networks. Mobility and travel managers will find practical guidance on pre-travel activation and proactive monitoring.
If your organisation sends people abroad regularly and still treats mobile connectivity as an afterthought, this session is for you.
Voices with real telecom credibility
The fireside chat format works because the speakers bring lived experience, not marketing slides.
Andrew Grill brings a long-view perspective that is rare in this space. Having worked through every mobile generation from 1G to 5G, his framing of mobile data as the new default network edge feels particularly relevant. Enterprises are no longer operating inside fixed perimeters. Connectivity is the perimeter.
Matt Atkinson adds the practitioner angle. With decades spent helping large enterprises optimise mobile budgets and reduce compliance risk, his insights are grounded in real procurement, policy, and deployment challenges. This is not a theoretical digital transformation. It is about fixing what breaks every week.
What stands out in the agenda
Several elements of the agenda reflect where the enterprise eSIM market is heading.
Multi-network resilience is a big one. Single-network roaming fails more often than companies admit, especially in high-risk or congested regions. Enterprise platforms increasingly prioritise automatic network switching to maintain uptime.
Real-time insights and alerts are another. Waiting for a monthly bill is no longer acceptable when usage can be tracked live and anomalies flagged instantly.
Pre-travel activation may sound simple, but it is one of the most effective ways to reduce support tickets and employee frustration. When connectivity works the moment someone lands, the entire trip starts differently.
How does this fit into wider market trends
Zooming out, this webinar aligns closely with broader industry signals. GSMA has repeatedly highlighted eSIM as a foundational technology for enterprise mobility, particularly as workforces become more distributed. Gartner has also pointed to unified endpoint and connectivity management as a growing priority for CIOs managing hybrid and mobile teams.
Compared to other players in the enterprise connectivity space, SureSIM’s positioning is pragmatic. Some providers lean heavily into global IoT narratives. Others focus on consumer-first travel experiences. SureSIM sits firmly in the enterprise mobility lane, alongside platforms that prioritise governance, predictability, and operational control.
That clarity matters. As the market matures, enterprises are becoming more selective. Flashy apps are less interesting than reliability, compliance, and support models that actually work at scale.
Registration details worth noting
The webinar is hosted on BigMarker, a platform familiar to many B2B audiences, which makes access straightforward. The session runs on January 21, 2026, at 2:30 p.m. Zagreb time, or 1:30 p.m. GMT. For teams spread across regions, that timing is workable without being intrusive.
Why Alertify is watching this closely
From Alertify’s perspective, this webinar reflects a shift we have been tracking for some time. eSIM is no longer just a consumer convenience. It is becoming a strategic layer in enterprise risk management.
Companies that get this right will travel smarter, spend less on roaming, and reduce exposure across security and compliance. Those that do not will keep firefighting the same issues trip after trip.
This session does not promise a silver bullet. What it offers instead is something more valuable: a realistic framework for understanding where connectivity fails and how enterprise eSIM platforms can close those gaps.
Conclusion
The most important takeaway is not that roaming is expensive or that eSIM is digital. It is that connectivity is now a business-critical infrastructure.
Compared with traditional roaming providers and consumer eSIM brands, enterprise-focused platforms like SureSIM reflect where the market is heading: toward resilience, visibility, and accountability. As international travel normalises and hybrid work becomes permanent, enterprises can no longer afford to let connectivity be the weak link.
Webinars like this matter because they move the conversation away from anecdotes and toward strategy. For organisations serious about protecting productivity, reputation, and people on the road, this is not just another virtual event. It is a signal of how enterprise mobility is evolving, and why the old roaming playbook is no longer enough.


