The Russians tried out virtual SIM cards Business RusLetter

Russians from July 2022 to July 2023 connected 1 million virtual SIM cards (eSIM). At the same time, since the official launch of the technology in 2019, operators have gained about 3 million virtual subscribers. This was reported to Vedomosti by a source in one of the telecom operators and confirmed by interlocutors in three other television companies. A sharp revival of interest is associated with a compromise between law enforcement agencies, the Ministry of Digital Transformation and telecom operators, which were allowed to use remote registration of SIM cards and confirm the identity of the subscriber on the State Services and through the State Key, Vedomosti’s interlocutors explain.

The total number of SIM cards of the Big Four telecom operators – Tele2, Beeline, Megafon, MTS – is, according to the companies themselves, 255 million (according to Telecom Daily, 14% of them are Internet of things devices).