PRESS: Russia mulls eSIMs in case West blocks activation

MOSCOW, Mar 28 (PRIME) -- Russia’s Digital Development Ministry and the Federal Security Service are discussing introduction of a platform for virtual SIM cards, or eSIMs, in case of blocking by the West, daily Izvestiya reported on Tuesday quoting the ministry.

The platform will enable the users to install eSIMs if foreign vendors deactivate the necessary software programs, the scenario that the mobile operators are worried about.

A pilot zone will be unrolled on the territory of Radio Research and Development Institute (NIIR) with a Russian software and hardware complex, to which the operators can get connected to test the infrastructure in work of eSIMs, a ministry representative told the daily.

A NIIR representative said that the pilot zone is created to choose the optimal variant of architecture and elements of the eSIM national ecosystem.

According to experts, about 2 million devices with eSIMs were sold in the country in 2022, and the virtual card was activated by hundreds of thousands people.

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