Russia ‘s Ministry of Digitalisation, the Federal Security Service and the state-owned Radio R&D Institute are discussing the opportunity to implement a local system of eSIM ‘s in the country in view of the international sanctions against the country, reports Izvestia.ru. russia domestic esim platform

It, in particular, will allow you to install virtual SIM cards if foreign vendors deactivate the software necessary for this.

On the territory of NIIR, it is planned to deploy a pilot zone with a Russian software and hardware complex, to which operators will be able to connect, the Ministry of Digital Development told the publication.

The functionality and timing of the deployment of the eSIM platform were not specified by the Ministry of Digital Development.

Domestic equipment will be tested on the platform (primarily various sensors, meters, tablets, etc.). Either our eSIM chips or foreign ones that comply with our information security specification can be built into it, the NIIR press service noted.

Foreign software is used to connect new virtual SIM cards to cellular networks, and under pressure from sanctions or on their own initiative, developers can revoke certificates for it, and it will be impossible to download eSIM profiles to smartphones.

“If the software stops working when buying a new device, losing or breaking the old one, you will not be able to restore the number linked to the eSIM. In addition, the iPhone 14 intended for the US market is supplied to the Russian Federation through parallel imports, and they can only connect to cellular networks via eSIM, the same applies to some models of smartwatches, ”said Denis Kuskov, CEO of TelecomDaily.

But the main problems in the future may not even be related to smartphones, but to various Internet of Things devices: sensors, and industrial equipment controllers. Many of these devices use eSIM, a regular SIM card simply cannot be inserted into them, which means that the inability to activate virtual ones will create serious problems for the industry, the expert fears.

Due to the lack of Russian communication and subscriber equipment and the state of the production base, it is unlikely that it will be possible to deploy the domestic eSIM ecosystem within the proposed time frame, that is, until 2025–2027, one of the market participants doubts.

At the end of 2022, the Russians had 12-13 million such devices in their hands. Last year alone, about 2 million eSIM-enabled smartphones were sold in Russia, said Eldar Murtazin, a leading analyst at Mobile Research Group.

In the future, there will be much more of them – devices that cannot work without eSIM in principle enter the market, experts say.

EU sanctions against Russia russia domestic esim platform

The EU has imposed massive and unprecedented sanctions against Russia in response to the war of aggression against Ukraine, which started on 24 February 2022, and the illegal annexation of Ukraine’s Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions.

They add to existing measures imposed on Russia since 2014 following the annexation of Crimea and the non-implementation of the Minsk agreements.

Sanctions include targeted restrictive measures (individual sanctions), economic sanctions and visa measures.

The aim of the economic sanctions is to impose severe consequences on Russia for its actions and to effectively thwart the Russian ability to continue the aggression.

Sanctions on individuals consist of travel bans and asset freezes. Sanctions on entities consist of asset freezes.

Travel bans prevent listed individuals from entering or transiting through EU territory, by either land, air, or sea. Asset freezes mean that all accounts belonging to the listed persons and entities in EU banks are frozen. It is also prohibited to make any funds or assets directly or indirectly available to them.

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