Travel Tech: KnowRoaming returns for the eSIM era. South African investment group DNI has invested in the travel SIM pioneer to help expand its consumer reach and international footprint, writes ARTHUR GOLDSTUCK. Share. Published on 18 September 2026 The power of an eSIM always amazes me when I land in another country and switch off flight mode. A data package bought before departure connects my phone to a local mobile network for data access almost instantly, while the home SIM remains in place for regular voice calls - if I even receive those anymore. Maps and messaging work before I've got to passport control, and the ancient tradition of expensive data roaming recedes further into history with every trip. KnowRoaming gave travellers an early version of that freedom long before the eSIM became a standard smartphone capability. South African entrepreneur Gregory Gundelfinger and his co-founder Mathew Stein developed what they called the world's first Global SIM Sticker more than a decade ago. The wafer-thin chip was attached to an existing SIM card, and connected the phone to partner networks abroad. At the time, it was my first real global mobile solution. Travellers could use voice and data across more than 200 countries without replacing their home SIM, while an app tracked usage and managed credit. The technology looks quaint beside today's instant downloads, but it anticipated the central promise of eSIM: one device able to adopt a new mobile identity as its owner crosses a border. KnowRoaming piggybacked on global licensing deals made possible by Gundelfinger's US-based telecoms group Telna. In 2024, the business and brand was sold to eSimplified, and executive director Michael Roffey led the rebuilding of the company around consumer and enterprise traveleSIMs. This week, South African investment group DNI announced that it has invested in KnowRoaming as part of more than R2.1-billion committed across its connectivity and technology portfolio. DNI says its investment will help KnowRoaming expand its consumer reach and international footprint, supported by the group's telecommunications expertise and industry relationships. Africa is a primary target for that expansion. In effect, KnowRoaming is very much a global company, but with a large staff contingent based in South Africa. "We see this as a real advantage because it means decisions get made close to one of the fastest-growing travel and eSIM markets in the world," Roffey told Gadget. "DNI's investment strengthens that local anchor and puts Gadget in a strong position to build for the realities of this market. "It comes down to distribution, speed and depth in emerging markets. With DNI alongside us, we can put KnowRoaming in front of customers through far more channels than we could on our own, while accelerating investment in our platform and our marketing." The company is embedding its eSIM service in banks and telecoms businesses, along with travel platforms that can sell connectivity as part of a trip. It has also launched an enterprise service through which companies can provide eSIMs to employees and lower the cost of employee travel data. Of course, the consumer market is overflowing with eSIM brands. Holafly has been especially relentless in its marketing, this week distributing a Travel eSIM Value Index that found, surprise, Holafly offered the best value. Its comparison included Airalo and Saily, but excluded KnowRoaming and my preferred provider, eTravelSIM. In my own travels, eTravelSIM has usually beaten Holafly and Airalo on cost in every country. The latter two usually win on comparisons of unlimited packages for a specific number of days, but that is usually overkill for the typical trip in which the traveller flips between hotel and conference Wi- Fi and an eSIM. "Holafly and Airalo are strong global players, but both are built around a single-purchase model and a largely direct-to-consumer footprint," says Roffey. "KnowRoaming differs both in terms of distribution and product." "We are launching features such as KR.One, whereby a customer buys one eSIM and adds plans to that installed eSIM for every trip. That shifts travellers away from today's disposable model, where you buy a new eSIM for the US and another for the UK, to installing once and simply adding a plan for each trip." That feature takes KnowRoaming back to the principle behind Gundelfinger and Stein's original sticker: install the technology once and use it wherever one travels. And it offers one rare advantage, says Roffey: it treats Africa as a priority region. "We understand the market's realities first-hand, and DNI brings distribution and operating expertise across the continent that no global competitor can easily replicate." * Arthur Goldstuck is CEO of World Wide Worx, editor-in-chief of Gadget.co.za, editor of GadgetWings, and author of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to AI - The African Edge".

The phone switch that could prevent a nasty holiday roaming bill (cloned). Affiliates Editor Published 2nd Sep 2026, 16:06 BST This article contains affiliate links. We may earn a small commission on items purchased through this article, but that does not affect our editorial judgement. A travel eSIM can have your phone connected from the moment you land, without hunting for a local SIM or risking an unexpectedly expensive roaming bill when you return home. Most holiday spending is painfully visible. You pay for the flights, accommodation and airport parking before you even leave home. However, one of the nastier expenses can arrive after you return. Using your normal mobile data abroad can become surprisingly expensive, particularly if your network charges a daily roaming fee or you travel beyond the destinations included in your contract. That is the problem Holafly's travel eSIMs are designed to solve. Instead of searching for a mobile shop after landing or attempting to prise a tiny physical SIM from your phone, you can arrange your overseas data before departure. An eSIM is a digital SIM installed directly on a compatible smartphone. Holafly lets travellers choose their destination and the length of their trip, buy a suitable data plan online and receive the installation instructions electronically. Nothing needs to arrive through the post, and there is no physical card to lose in the bottom of your hand luggage. The important part happens when you land. After installing the eSIM using the Holafly app or a QR code, you can select it as your phone's mobile-data connection and activate the overseas plan at your destination. This gives you internet access for everything that suddenly becomes essential when you are standing in an unfamiliar airport, including digital boarding passes, hotel directions, translation apps, taxi bookings and messages from whoever was supposed to meet you. Holafly currently offers travel eSIMs for more than 200 destinations, with individual country packages and wider regional plans covering areas such as Europe, Asia, Africa and the Caribbean. Regional coverage could be particularly useful on a multi-country trip. Rather than purchasing another SIM each time you cross a border, one compatible plan may keep your phone connected across several stops. Many of Holafly's destination packages include unlimited mobile data, allowing travellers to use maps, browse websites, upload photographs and stream content without watching a small data allowance rapidly disappear. Coverage and available speeds depend on the local mobile networks, while hotspot allowances can differ between destinations and products. It is therefore worth checking the complete details of the plan before purchasing, particularly if you intend to connect a laptop or share data with another traveller. The eSIM will usually handle data rather than ordinary mobile calls and texts. However, you can continue using services such as WhatsApp with your existing number, while many dual-SIM phones allow the normal physical SIM and travel eSIM to remain installed together. Care is still required here. Leaving roaming enabled on your usual SIM could allow your home network to charge for calls, texts or data, so check the settings carefully before heading abroad. One of Holafly's more unusual extras is called Always On. Once the eSIM is installed, it provides 1GB of backup data every 30 days in more than 150 destinations, even after the main travel package has ended. That small reserve could be enough to retrieve a booking, send a message or access a map during an unexpected stopover. Unused Always On data does not roll over, and the eSIM must remain installed for the monthly allowance to continue. People spending longer periods overseas can also explore Holafly's monthly global plans. These cover 160 destinations and include a 25GB Light option alongside an unlimited-data package, with the ability to cancel rather than commit indefinitely. Before buying, travellers should confirm that their phone supports eSIM technology and is not locked to a particular mobile network. Holafly provides a device compatibility checker, and it makes sense to install the eSIM using reliable Wi-Fi before leaving the UK. The company also provides round-the-clock support through online chat and WhatsApp. Its refund policy allows customers up to six months to request their money back in certain circumstances, including an unused eSIM that is no longer required or a compatible-device problem, although conditions apply. A travel eSIM will not automatically be cheaper than every roaming pass, especially if your existing tariff already includes the country you are visiting. The sensible approach is to compare both prices before travelling. However, for anyone facing expensive daily roaming charges, visiting several countries or simply wanting mobile data ready for the moment the aircraft doors open, checking the Holafly options for an upcoming trip could prevent an unpleasant surprise later.

KT M Mobile wins ICT Award for smarter eSIM roaming. KT M Mobile's eSIM roaming service, mobi, has won the Grand Prix at the ICT Award Korea 2026, taking the top prize in the digital experience innovation category. On the surface, it is another award for another travel eSIM. Look a little closer, though, and the reason it won is more interesting than the trophy itself. The judges recognised mobi for tackling one of the least glamorous but most persistent problems in travel connectivity: the uncertainty around whether an eSIM will actually work when the aircraft lands. The ICT Award Korea ceremony was held on August 26 at the Science and Technology Convention Center in Seoul's Gangnam district. The programme is hosted by the Korea Information Science Promotion Association and Sungkyunkwan University, with support from South Korea's Ministry of Science and ICT. The feature that mattered. At the centre of mobi's award was its "Activation Check" feature. It allows travellers to confirm before leaving South Korea that their eSIM has been installed and is ready to work, without consuming the plan's data allowance or starting its usage period. That sounds simple. In practice, it addresses a surprisingly important weakness in the travel eSIM journey. Buying an eSIM is now easy. The difficult moment comes afterwards. Was the profile installed correctly? Is roaming switched on for the right line? Will the phone connect to the intended network abroad? Has the plan already started? For experienced eSIM users, these questions are manageable. For someone using an eSIM for the first time, they create friction exactly where a digital product is supposed to remove it. KT M Mobile has built the surrounding journey around that problem. mobi provides guided registration, one-tap installation on supported devices and step-by-step setup instructions. Customers can also purchase without creating a separate membership account, monitor remaining data, top up, and access customer support throughout the year. There is also a gifting feature, allowing an eSIM product to be sent using a contact number. That may sound secondary, but it makes the service more useful for families and for people buying connectivity for someone less comfortable setting up an eSIM themselves. From QR codes to reassurance. The wider travel eSIM market is already moving in the same direction. Airalo supports direct installation on compatible Android devices alongside QR-code and manual installation methods. Saily similarly pushes users to install and prepare their eSIM before travelling, while Holafly has introduced app-based installation flows designed to reduce the amount of manual setup involved. So mobi is not alone in trying to remove eSIM friction. Where it stands out is in turning reassurance itself into a product feature. Most providers tell customers to install before departure. mobi goes a step further by giving them a specific check that confirms the setup has been completed correctly while they are still at home. For a category in which customer anxiety often appears only after purchase, that is a meaningful distinction. It also hints at where travel eSIM competition is heading. Coverage maps and gigabyte pricing still matter, but they are becoming easier to copy and compare. The harder advantage to reproduce is a better customer journey: fewer steps, clearer activation, easier troubleshooting and less uncertainty. That may explain why mobi also received a main prize in the brand and communication design category at the 2026 Red Dot Design Award in July. KT M Mobile said the service was recognised there for simplifying registration, installation and activation, as well as for features including one-tap registration, real-time data tracking, gifting and customer support. More on Alertify Follow the latest KT M Mobile news MVNO market trends, budget phone plans, eSIM activations, international roaming services, and affordable mobile connectivity updates from KT M Mobile. Price still matters. Good UX does not remove the importance of price, and KT M Mobile is clearly using both. Through August 31, the company is promoting unlimited mobi plans for Japan, China, Vietnam and Taiwan at 990 won per day. Three-day packages are priced at 2,970 won and four-day packages at 3,960 won during the promotion. That is aggressive pricing, particularly for short-haul Asian travel from South Korea. But it also comes with an obvious limitation: the headline offer is promotional and concentrated on four destinations. Travellers heading elsewhere still need to compare mobi's regular pricing, network availability and plan conditions against larger global eSIM platforms. mobi currently covers dozens of countries rather than trying to be everything to every traveller. That makes it a compelling option for its target market, especially South Korean users who value local-language support and a familiar domestic brand, but less relevant for travellers who want one account spanning a very large number of destinations or who are buying outside Korea. Kim Ui-hyeon (김의현), CEO of KT M Mobile, said, "It is meaningful that services designed from the customer's perspective, including the Activation Check feature, led to this award." He added: "We will continue to build an eSIM roaming service that customers can use easily and with peace of mind." Why this award matters. The interesting part of mobi's win is not that another eSIM service has collected an industry award. It is what the award rewards. Travel eSIMs have spent years competing on destination count, data volume and price. Those remain important, but the market is maturing. Airalo, Saily, Holafly and other major platforms are increasingly investing in direct installation, app-led setup and pre-travel preparation because the next competitive battle is not simply getting an eSIM onto a phone. It is removing the possibility that the customer lands abroad and discovers something was configured incorrectly. mobi's Activation Check is a smart response to that shift. It does not reinvent eSIM technology. It improves the moment when users are most likely to distrust it. That is a useful lesson for the wider market. As travel connectivity becomes more embedded and less technical, the strongest services may not be the ones offering the most plans. They may be the ones that make travellers think about connectivity the least.