According to Kaleido Intelligence, 89% of travelers place mobile operators among the top three types of providers they would consider buying an eSIM from.
It gives MNOs a strong starting point, but they can no longer afford to rely on a single route to market. There are now too many opportunities for travelers to buy convenient eSIM packages through travel platforms, fintechs, and other digital brands for operators to ignore.
The misconception is that this creates competition and tension between MNOs and these digital alternatives. But these third parties can offer operators new ways to reach customers by providing the connectivity that underpins the service.
The question is how to make that work in practice.
Be There When the Customer Needs Connectivity
Maintaining customer relationships increasingly depends on reaching customers through the channels they use, at the point when they are considering travel connectivity. The customer will not always come to you, so you need to go to them.
Travel platforms and fintechs already engage customers when they are planning a trip and looking for related services. Rather than seeing this as a lost opportunity, MNOs can use these brands as additional routes to market.
A multi-channel approach allows the operator to build beyond its direct channel by appearing in more customer journeys. The aim is to maintain a strong direct channel alongside new routes that enable customers to discover and purchase connectivity, thereby extending their wholesale reach.
What Does a Multi-Channel Model Look Like?
There are principally two ways for an MNO to offer services via a third party:
- A co-branded offer so the MNO is visible while using the partner’s position in the travel journey to support discovery and manage purchase.
- A white-label or embedded offer that allows connectivity to sit naturally inside the partner’s service, for example, in a booking flow or as a loyalty reward.
The right model will depend on the audience and the partner relationship. But for MNOs, the challenge is how to roll this out as an additional route to market alongside the direct channel, without adding significant complexity.
Build Once, Configure for Each Channel
Each new partnership can bring different requirements for branding, pricing, provisioning, billing, support, and integration. A fintech might want to include a set amount of travel data in a premium account, while an airline might want to offer destination-specific plans at booking.
The key is to make the proposition flexible for the partner while keeping delivery as streamlined as possible.
Managing every partnership separately can make wider distribution slow and resource-intensive. If every new channel requires its own connectivity agreements, provisioning process, and technical integration, it limits the number of partners an operator can support. It puts a ceiling on how far it can realistically expand its reach.
Instead, MNOs need a shared connectivity layer that can support different partner propositions without requiring the underlying connectivity model to be rebuilt each time.
Core processes such as plan management, eSIM provisioning, activation, billing, and lifecycle management can be built on the same foundation. However, there are configurable elements: branding, pricing, bundles, and point of purchase, that can then be changed to suit the needs of each partner.
It means the model can support multiple offers using the same underlying infrastructure and exponentially increase MNOs' reach via third-party channels.
How This Works in Practice
Separating the offers created for each third-party brand from the connectivity foundation that powers them not only gives a repeatable model but makes the lines of the wholesale relationship very clear.
The MNO can focus on shaping the connectivity proposition and partner relationship. The digital brand can decide how eSIM fits into its customer experience. Between the two sits an enablement layer that handles the underlying processes and connectivity infrastructure needed to deliver and manage the service.
This is where Telna fits between MNOs and their distribution partners. Our platform provides the eSIM management layer, while its APIs and white-label capabilities allow the proposition to be adapted for different brands and channels. For example, APIs allow the partner’s existing app, website, or booking platform to access elements such as available plans, prices, eSIM activation, and usage information. It’s what allows experiences to sit within a service the customer already uses, rather than requiring them to move into a separate connectivity journey.
Instead of establishing a separate technical and operating model for each partnership, Telna helps MNOs build a foundation they can reuse again and again. Operators are unburdened by the complexity of managing each partner relationship individually, making it easier to launch and scale new channels.
Building on a Headstart
The growing role of digital brands in travel connectivity is huge. Our latest whitepaper, in partnership with Kaleido Intelligence, found that:
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24% put airlines or airports in their top three provider choices.
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17% include travel-booking sites or apps.
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12% include a bank or financial app.
But MNOs already have a valuable advantage. Customers know and trust them to provide connectivity. To drive success, they have to move beyond their own direct channels in an efficient and strategic way.
The value of reaching customers in the moments where they are ready to purchase cannot be underestimated. A repeatable multi-channel model gives operators a practical way to meet them.
With the right underlying infrastructure, MNOs can add new distribution partners without having to create a new connectivity model each time. They can maximize their wholesale growth at scale by expanding the number of customers they reach and maintaining ownership of these new relationships.
-> Reach out to discover how Telna can deliver the enablement layer to scale your wholesale reach.
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