Kommersant: Russia mulls tighter controls on IoT SIM cards — and a ban on registering eSIMs from abroad
Russia’s government is weighing a package of measures to tighten controls on SIM cards used in the Internet of Things and on eSims, the Russian business daily Kommersant reported on June 23, citing sources.
TL;DR
- Russia is considering new measures to tighten controls on IoT SIM cards and eSIMs.
- Proposals include classifying M2M SIM cards distinctly and imposing additional user identification requirements.
- Voice calls and SMS messages from M2M SIM cards may be barred.
- Registering eSIMs while abroad could be prohibited for Russian citizens.
- These measures are being considered as part of anti-fraud amendments.
- The IoT SIM card market is reportedly exploited for spam calling.
- Russia had over 300 million active SIM cards as of August 2025, with about 20% being M2M SIM cards.
- eSIM technology launched in Russia in 2019, with mass sales starting in 2020.
- By July 2023, Russia had three million virtual subscribers and over 255 million eSIMs.