In Russia, sales of SIM cards of foreign telecommunications operators, which are used to access the Internet, including electronic ones (eSIM), are growing. The sale of eSIM for Internet access abroad increased by 770% in January-August 2024, if compared with the same period last year, Forbes was told in the press service of the combined company Wildberries and Russ: “Including solutions in the format are in demand digital key. which are featured on Wildberries.”

Ozon reported that the sale of SIM cards for using the Internet abroad during the summer increased more than 12 times in artificial terms compared to the same period last year, 90% of them are eSIMs. “Such growth dynamics is largely related to the effect of a low base,” the company explained. Yandex Market declined to comment.

Serhiy Stavropoltsev, general director of the Telwel eSIM service for travel, confirms the high demand for SIM cards from foreign operators with a minimum Internet package, but with a number to be able to receive SMS messages. “There are a lot of applications, both from individuals directly and from B2B partners. But we do not provide this service, he said. — Most of our cards are only for the Internet, for this you do not need a number. And if there is a number, it works only in the country for which the package of services is purchased. After the package expires, the user number is not saved.”

Since the beginning of the year, 5.3 million smartphones with eSIM support have been sold in Russia, of which 67.6% were Apple devices, and another 23.9% were Samsung phones, according to data from Marvel Distribution. Honor (3%), Redmi (1.7%), Xiaomi (1.5%), Google (1.4%), and Huawei (0.7%) have small sales of devices with eSIM.

Many vendors support eSIM in their devices, such as Apple and Samsung (not in all models), but this does not apply to Chinese manufacturers, says analyst and author of Telegram channel abloud62 Oleksiy Boyko. According to him, foreign profiles in eSIM are convenient for registering in foreign messengers and social networks, as well as in cloud services. “They allow you to have access to an account in a foreign bank, for example,” he says. At the same time, there are no restrictions on the right of Russian citizens to connect to foreign cellular operators, Boyko notes.

The main purpose of SIM cards of foreign operators is to receive two-factor authentication SMS codes for registration in various popular services: for example, TikTok or ChatGPT, according to TelecomDaily analyst Ilya Shatilin. Many foreign services do not send SMS messages to Russian numbers or send them, but they do not arrive, he adds.

From the point of view of the law, it is not prohibited to sell SIM cards of foreign operators in Russia, while they are under the jurisdiction of foreign countries, and the requirements for authorization may be less strict than in Russia. “That’s why such sevens can be bought for criminal purposes,” the analyst concludes.