Over Half of Corporate Subscribers in Russia May Be Disconnected Due to “Gray SIM Card” Law

More than half of corporate mobile numbers in Russia could be blocked starting December 1. According to Kommersant, this situation has arisen due to non-compliance with the law on “gray” SIM cards.

Konstantin Ankilov, CEO of TMT Consulting, stated that over half of corporate clients of telecom operators have not submitted information about the end users of these numbers to the Unified Identification and Authentication System (ESIA) on the Gosuslugi portal. This information was confirmed by a source close to one of the major operators. The Mobile Research Group clarified that there are about 32 million corporate SIM cards in use in Russia.

In December 2020, amendments to the “On Communications” law were adopted, requiring companies to register data about the end users of SIM cards in the ESIA. If a company signed a contract with a telecom operator before June 1, user data must be submitted by November 30; otherwise, the operator must suspend services starting December 1. If the contract was signed after July 1, user data must be entered into ESIA immediately.

Ankilov suggests that operators will temporarily see a decrease in revenue due to the disconnections, and businesses themselves will also incur losses, as some companies may be left without communication services.

Denis Kuskov, CEO of Telecom Daily, believes that small and medium-sized businesses will be hit the hardest. According to him, these companies account for the majority of unregistered corporate clients, and as of now, there are about 11 million “gray” SIM cards in Russia. About half of them are listed as corporate with operators, while the rest are registered to individuals, Kuskov noted.

The Ministry of Digital Development stated that the registration of corporate SIM cards is proceeding on schedule via the Gosuslugi portal. The ministry also reported that since June 1, 2021, a total of 13.3 million corporate SIM cards, including those for M2M devices, have been successfully verified through the portal.