Global Prepaid Sim Cards Market Research Report 2023-Competitive Analysis, Status and Outlook by Type, Downstream Industry, and Geography, Forecast to 2029

Global Prepaid Sim Cards Market Research Report 2023-Competitive Analysis, Status and Outlook by Type, Downstream Industry, and Geography, Forecast to 2029

A prepaid SIM card is a SIM card that is pre-loaded with a set dollar amount. This amount acts as a credit balance with the service provider, and the provider charges against that amount for talk, text, and data use.

Market Overview:

The latest research study on the global Prepaid Sim Cards market finds that the global Prepaid Sim Cards market reached a value of USD 228068.0 million in 2022. It’s expected that the market will achieve USD 310014.0 million by 2028, exhibiting a CAGR of 5.25% during the forecast period.

Influence of COVID-19 Outbreak on Prepaid Sim Cards Industry Development

The COVID-19 pandemic is a serious and sudden global crisis, and overall, the post-pandemic world is unlikely to be fundamentally and radically different. However, it is clear that the pandemic will bring about many major changes in the world. It will exacerbate some negative trends and accelerate some positive ones. Its impact cannot be generalized.
The pandemic has led to a global economic recession The pandemic has sharply reversed expectations of modest world economic growth in early 2020. The global economy faces the risk of recession as economic activity is depressed, hitting production and consumption. According to the International Monetary Fund, the global economy will shrink by 4.9% in 2020. Since the outbreak of COVID-19, the employment situation in various countries has become more severe. The outbreak has hit global stock markets and international oil markets hard. Investors around the world panicked, triggering an unprecedented three circuit breakers in the U.S. stock market in the space of a week.
The epidemic has caused huge losses to related industries and international trade The outbreak has hit tourism, catering, accommodation and other services as well as many small and medium-sized enterprises hard. Global tourism lost at least $22 billion. The pandemic has led to restrictions in 96% of the world's tourist destinations. According to relevant reports of UNCTAD and the World Trade Organization, the pandemic seriously disrupted the global economy, leading to a sharp decline in international trade in 2020 and almost collapse at one point, a record decline. According to the UNCTAD report, global trade in goods fell by 5.6% year on year in 2020, which is the biggest year-on-year decline in trade in goods since the international financial crisis in 2008. Compared with trade in goods, trade in services has been hit harder by the epidemic. Trade volume has fallen to the level of the 1990s, down 15.4 percent year on year, which is the biggest decline since 1990. According to the WTO report, among the indicators of trade in services, the air passenger transport index and the container transport index declined the most, while the financial transaction index, the information and communication technology services index, the construction index and the purchasing managers' index of the service industry were all below trend levels.

More cost-effective services

For those who like to travel, pre-paid sim cards are more cost-effective than other communication mobile options. For people traveling in a foreign country, due to differences in national policies, languages, and regions, using data services in a foreign country will lead to expensive roaming fees. How to maintain data connection to keep in touch with others and easily access services is crucial. First, buying a prepaid SIM card is one of the cheapest options when compared to other options for getting an Internet connection, as there is no minimum monthly usage and no extra cost. Users can pay as they go, deactivate at any time, and discard the SIM card at any time after a trip or visit. Second, it is very easy to use, online or offline enough to buy a SIM card, just need to install directly on the mobile phone card slot, activate the SIM card, activation time takes only a few minutes, once set up, you can use smart phones as usual. For users, pre-paid SIM cards are cheap, easy to use, no additional contracts, and simple procedures, and their advantages are the driving factors for the development of this industry.

The Internet of Things is widely used

In addition to being widely used on smartphones, pre-paid SIM is also widely used in the Internet of Things. The Internet of Things is a technology that connects the digital world and the physical world, the Internet of Things is mainly through data transmission, and the pre-payment SIM card is mainly a data transmission service card. The Internet of Things is widely used. It can be applied to human health, including wearable or ingested devices for monitoring or maintaining health and wellness, assisting in the management of diseases such as diabetes, etc.; Can be applied in the home, such as voice assistants, monitoring security devices, can be applied in retail environments, in stores, banks, restaurants, and arenas, to facilitate self-checkout, expand in-store offers, or help optimize inventory; Can be applied to urban governance, traffic control, smart meters, environmental monitoring or managing resources; It can be applied to vehicles, helping cars and trucks, ships, planes and trains with condition-based maintenance, usage-based design or pre-sale analysis, among others. In human production and life, the Internet of Things is everywhere. The downstream demand of the Internet of Things is strong, driving the growth of the Internet of Things market, thus driving the development of the industry.

Pre-paid SIM card usage limits

Pre-paid SIM cards also have some drawbacks. First, it can only be used on one device, and it can't connect multiple phones to get an Internet connection like WiFi devices. Second, pre-paid SIM cards generally have a daily data limit, if social media users or heavy Internet users need to watch a lot of video online, heavy gaming, for them, the traffic may not be enough. Third, it's not compatible with all phones, and the service usually doesn't refund if a phone isn't compatible. Although pre-paid SIM cards come in a variety of sizes, some SIM cards are only suitable for certain phone models, and buyers need to be careful to purchase them because SIM cards are disposable and service providers generally do not offer refunds if the phone model is incompatible. The shortcomings or limitations of these pre-paid SIMS have hindered the development of the industry to some extent.

Region Overview:

Geographically, China held the largest market share – 56.31% in 2022.

Company Overview:

China Mobile is one of the major players operating in the Prepaid Sim Cards market, holding a share of 24.14% in 2023.

China Mobile

As the leading ICT services provider in the mainland of China, the Group provides communications and information services in all 31 provinces, autonomous regions and directly-administered municipalities throughout the mainland of China and in Hong Kong SAR, and boasts a world-class telecommunications and information operator with the world’s largest network and customer base, a leading position in profitability, brand value and market value ranking. Its businesses primarily consist of voice, data, broadband, dedicated lines, IDC, cloud computing, IoT and other services in the Customer, Home, Business and New (“CHBN”) markets.

China Telecom

China Telecom Group Limited is a large telecommunications operator in China, mainly engaged in mobile communications, Internet access and application, fixed telephone, satellite communications, ICT integration and other comprehensive information services. China Telecom Group Limited has operations in 31 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government) and in the Americas, Europe, Hong Kong, Macau and other places.

Segmentation Overview:

Among different product types, MNO segment is anticipated to contribute the largest market share in 2028.

MVNO

A mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) is a wireless communications services provider that does not own the wireless network infrastructure over which it provides services to its customers. An MVNO enters into a business agreement with a mobile network operator to obtain bulk access to network services at wholesale rates, then sets retail prices independently. An MVNO may use its own customer service, billing support systems, marketing, and sales personnel, or it could employ the services of a mobile virtual network enabler (MVNE).

MNO

MNO (Mobile Network Operator) is a telecoms organization that provides wireless communication services to end-users. Also referred to as a cellular company, mobile network carrier, or wireless service provider, it delivers voice and data services to mobile subscribers.

Application Overview:

The market's largest segment by application is the segment Mobile Phone, with a market share of 90.74% in 2022.

Mobile Phone

A mobile phone is a portable device that can make and receive calls over a wireless network. It can also transmit and receive other data, such as web browsing, video, games, and navigation. Mobile phones may connect to the network through cellular telephone systems or global satellite-based telephony. They may also be called cellular phones or handsets.

IoT

The internet of things, or IoT, is a system of interrelated computing devices, mechanical and digital machines, objects, animals or people that are provided with unique identifiers (UIDs) and the ability to transfer data over a network without requiring human-to-human or human-to-computer interaction.

Key Companies in the global Prepaid Sim Cards market covered in Chapter 3:

China Mobile
Orange
China Unicom
AT&T
Vodafone Idea
Lycamobile
Deutsche Telekom
Verizon
BT Group
China Telecom
Telefónica
Vodafone

In Chapter 4 and Chapter 14.2, on the basis of types, the Prepaid Sim Cards market from 2018 to 2029 is primarily split into:

MVNO
MNO

In Chapter 5 and Chapter 14.3, on the basis of Downstream Industry, the Prepaid Sim Cards market from 2018 to 2029 covers:

Mobile Phone
loT
Others

Geographically, the detailed analysis of consumption, revenue, market share and growth rate, historic and forecast (2018-2029) of the following regions are covered in Chapter 8 to Chapter 14:

North America (United States, Canada)
Europe (Germany, UK, France, Italy, Spain, Russia, Netherlands, Turkey, Switzerland, Sweden)
Asia Pacific (China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, India, Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia)
Latin America (Brazil, Mexico, Argentina)
Middle East & Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, South Africa)