GSMA Warns Rising Memory Prices Are Pricing People Out of Smartphones in 2026 - and Why Your Travel eSIM Still Works on Your Current Phone
A new GSMA Intelligence report, The State of Mobile Internet Connectivity 2026, is warning of what it calls an emerging "AI divide": memory chip prices more than doubled between Q3 2025 and Q1 2026, then jumped another 80 to 90% in Q2 2026 alone, driven largely by AI data-center demand competing for the same components that go into phones.
The knock-on effect lands hardest on the cheapest handsets. By the end of 2025, GSMA found, an entry-level internet-capable phone already cost the poorest 20% of people in low- and middle-income countries the equivalent of 44% of their average monthly income, and 76% in Sub-Saharan Africa. The report names handset affordability as the single biggest barrier to mobile internet adoption in the markets it surveyed, ahead of digital skills gaps. Globally, 4.8 billion people now use mobile internet on their own device, but growth is slowing: about 160 million people came online in 2025, down from 190 million in 2024, leaving roughly 3.4 billion people still offline.
Why this matters beyond the emerging markets the report focuses on
The headline numbers are about affordability in lower-income regions, but the underlying trend, memory and component costs rising faster than phone budgets, touches every traveler holding onto an older device for one more trip, one more year. If replacement phones get more expensive and rollouts of the newest hardware slow down, more people worldwide will be traveling with the phone they already have rather than the newest model.
That is good news for one specific piece of travel tech: eSIM. Unlike a physical SIM card, an eSIM does not require new hardware at all, it is a software profile that installs on infrastructure most phones have carried since 2018. Every iPhone since the XS, every Samsung Galaxy from the S20 on, and every Google Pixel from the 3rd generation onward already has an eSIM-capable modem built in. None of that requires the newest chip generation the GSMA report is worried about.
The travel eSIM market is growing precisely because it does not need new hardware
Separate industry data backs this up: travel eSIM package revenue is projected to reach $1.8 billion by the end of 2025, an 85% jump from 2024, growth achieved almost entirely on devices travelers already owned. eSIM-capable devices worldwide passed 1.5 billion in 2026, with 73% of mobile operators now offering eSIM commercially. None of that adoption curve depended on people buying new phones; it rode on phones already in pockets.
This is the model HolaSIM and other travel eSIM providers are built around: a QR code or an in-app profile that turns an existing phone into a connected device anywhere in the world, without asking the traveler, or, in the GSMA report's broader context, someone in a lower-income market trying to get online for the first time, to absorb the cost of new silicon.
Practical takeaway
If you are planning international travel and wondering whether your phone is new enough for a travel eSIM, the answer for the overwhelming majority of phones sold since 2018 is yes. The GSMA's warning is about component costs reshaping who can afford a first smartphone; for existing travelers, it is a reminder that the smartphone already in your pocket remains the most valuable piece of travel technology you own, no upgrade required, just the right eSIM installed before you go.
For a closer look at how fast eSIM-capable devices are spreading and which carriers already support them, see our eSIM Devices Hit 1.5 Billion in 2026 report.