With roaming revenues forecast to reach $70 billion by 2030, investment in real-time testing and monitoring is essential for any roaming-first 5G strategy. Here’s why.
The roaming revenue opportunity
Growth in data roaming, driven by 5G adoption and the rapid expansion of eSIMs, is reigniting optimism around roaming revenues. Recent forecasts from Juniper Research and Kaleido Intelligence highlight how material the 5G roaming revenue opportunity is:
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Roaming revenues are projected to reach $70 billion by 2030, representing a 55% increase over 2025 levels.
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Roaming revenue from IoT connections will approach $2 billion globally by 2028, accounting for 10% of the global wholesale roaming market.
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5G roaming spend will surpass 4G by 2028.
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Wholesale roaming will grow to $20 billion by 2028.
But it comes with its challenges
Beneath these headline numbers, however, is a more complex story that underpins why real-time testing and monitoring are important for 5G roaming:
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Growing revenue at risk from the rise of travel eSIMs: While inbound roaming traffic will increase from eSIMs, there is a flipside. Juniper warns that the potential revenue loss from MNOs to travel SIMs/eSIMs will increase by 777% between 2023 and 2028, demonstrating that operators must take ownership of the customer experience of their roaming customers while they are abroad, or risk losing roaming revenue to travel SIMs.
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5G use cases: As 5G Standalone (SA) networks expand, true 5G use cases – such as low latency services and network slicing will rise. Operators must implement mechanisms that detect device connections immediately, steer traffic to the right partner, and monitor their performance in real-time.
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5G roaming complexity: Most roaming partnerships will span multi-technology scenarios, from 3G and 4G to VoLTE, 5G, and 5G SA, each with its own interoperability complexities. The time and cost of validating that mix manually, partner by partner, highlights why automated, continuous testing is no longer optional.
So, how can operators capture 5G roaming revenues?
The primary challenge operators face in maximizing roaming revenue is the lack of efficient visibility and control over roaming connections, which leads to revenue leakage. Closing this gap requires real-time testing and monitoring capabilities that allow operators to proactively manage roaming performance and resolve issues before they impact customers.
As roaming environments grow more complex, operators also need faster and easier access to actionable intelligence. AI-driven assurance platforms are beginning to simplify how operations teams interact with roaming data, helping engineers and business teams identify issues, analyze partner performance, and take corrective action without relying on fragmented tools or manual analysis. This shift toward more intelligent and user-centric operations reflects a broader industry transition toward AI-native telecom networks.
For inbound roaming, this means operators can compete on network quality, secure preferred partner status, consistently deliver high performance during peak periods, and maximize roaming revenue opportunities.
For outbound roaming, real-time testing and monitoring allow operators to validate partner performance, refine steering policies at a granular level, and ensure reliable service for all subscribers, including high-value customers.
Real-time testing and monitoring for roaming is not a pipe dream, operators are using it today. For example, Azercell partnered with Mobileum’s ahead of COP29 in Baku to conduct a multi-phase testing and 24/7 monitoring campaign that ensured exceptional roaming performance for more than 50,000 visitors to the event, including high-profile delegates. And they are not alone. Recognizing the high stakes of large-scale events, operators are increasingly conducting similar testing and monitoring campaigns for UEFA EURO, the Olympics, and the FIFA World Cup to ensure their roaming customers enjoy a high-quality experience.
👉 Read the full Azercell COP29 Case Study here 👈
While events like COP29 and the Olympics create high-pressure environments where roaming performance is highly visible and reputational risk is significant, the value of real-time testing and monitoring extends far beyond these scenarios. Ultimately, in a 5G world, operators will need to deploy these capabilities at a global scale to ensure that the roaming experience consistently meets expectations.
As networks expand and 5G roaming traffic increases, operators can no longer rely on slow, manual, and costly processes (such as shipping physical SIMs) to validate roaming partnerships. Instead, 5G roaming demands continuous, end-to-end visibility into partner performance across voice, data, and messaging services. Without robust real-time testing and monitoring, operators risk service disruptions, degraded user experience, interoperability challenges, and, ultimately, customer churn.
End-to-end testing and monitoring address these challenges by enabling operators to:
- Validate roaming performance before launch across partner networks
- Reduce the complexity of bilateral testing through virtual SIM testing
- Fast-track international partner verification
- Ensure 5G and VoLTE readiness
- Benchmark performance during high-traffic events
- Continuously monitor and optimize the experience for travelers and IoT devices
Together, these capabilities deliver continuous KPI tracking, fewer SLA breaches, consistent service quality, and fewer customer complaints. To fully capture 5G roaming value, however, monitoring must extend beyond basic coverage to performance indicators like latency and power efficiency, both of which become critical as IoT roaming scales.
Real-time roaming assurance is becoming one of the foundational operational capabilities of the AI-native telco.
With 5G roaming revenue set to overtake 4G by 2028, the operators that win will be the ones that take their real-time roaming testing and monitoring to a global scale. Contact Mobileum to learn more about GlobalRoamer® and how it can maximize your 5G roaming revenues.
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