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In Russia, the fight against “gray” SIM cards, for which there is no reliable information about the owner, continues. At the end of 2023, several hundred thousand numbers were blocked, and the number of incorrectly issued SIM cards is in the tens of millions.
No information - no number
At the end of 2023, up to 43 million active SIM cards were identified in Russia that were registered with violations, that is, with inaccurate or unreliable information about the owner. According to Vedomosti, the inspection was carried out by Roskomnazor, and many of these SIM cards were forcibly blocked.
If you compare 43 million with the population of Russia, then this is slightly less than a third of the number of Russians. But in fact, there are much more mobile numbers in the country - more than 351 million, since Russian legislation does not provide for restrictions on the number of SIM cards that an individual or organization can issue. Taking into account these statistics, it turns out that operators issued about 12.5% of all valid numbers with some kind of violation.
Punishment is inevitable
The authorities’ fight against “gray” SIM cards, as CNews reported, entered an active phase in the spring of 2023. Operators began to force their subscribers to send them their personal data, and not all of them provided convenient ways for Russians to do this. For disobedience, operators threatened to block the number, and, as it turned out, these were not empty words.
As a representative of Roskomnadzor told the publication, in just the fourth quarter of 2023 (September 1 – December 31), over 600 thousand mobile numbers “with unknown owners” were blocked in the country. This is more than the population of many large Russian cities.
But the regulator did not limit itself to this alone. To implement additional measures, he needed the help of people in uniform. “To suppress violations in the distribution of SIM cards without identifying the buyer in 2022-2023. Roskomnadzor, together with the Ministry of Internal Affairs, carried out about 200 events, during which more than 78 thousand “gray” SIM cards were seized,” a Roskomnadzor representative told Vedomosti.
The regulator began mass blocking of numbers with incorrect owner data in August 2023. It follows that by the end of 2023, blocked numbers could be significantly more than 600 thousand.
Where do Russians get “gray” SIM cards?
Experts interviewed by the publication gave several examples of how tens of millions of SIM cards appeared in Russia that were issued incorrectly. Boris Yedidin, deputy chairman of the commission for legal support of the digital economy of the Moscow branch of the Russian Bar Association, said that one of the options is cards that were issued for stolen, lost or expired documents. He also gave an example when a huge number of rooms were booked for one person. “There are known cases of owners of thousands of SIM cards. Secondly, these are the so-called corporate SIM cards; some time ago, proposals for the use of corporate tariffs were actively spreading, while the requirements of the law to identify their owners were not met,” he told the publication, adding that often SIM cards issued in one person are used by another, for example, a relative or acquaintance. “Some corporate SIM cards are used after the termination of the employment relationship, but previously they could have been issued to another employee. In these cases, mobile operators have procedures for resolving disputes,” concluded Edidin.
Everything is within the law
Owners of rooms registered incorrectly cannot complain to Roskomnadzor, because there is no arbitrariness in this case. Regularly operates in accordance with the current law “On Communications,” which received the necessary amendments in 2018.
Since 2018, telecom operators are required to independently verify the authenticity of subscriber information before providing them with communication services. And from the summer of 2021, legal entities and entrepreneurs are required to submit information about end users of corporate SIM cards to the Unified Identification and Authentication System (USIA). Since the same period, Roskomnadzor has the right to block “gray” SIM cards, that is, cards issued with violations.
What operators say
Telecom operators, at least the largest ones, are trying to mitigate as much as possible the potential negative consequences of identifying an incorrectly issued number. For example, when faced with blocking of his number, a Megafon subscriber can “save” it if he provides the operator with up-to-date information about the owner. “We comply with all regulatory requirements. In accordance with the Law “On Communications”, the operator cannot provide communication services to subscribers with unconfirmed personal data. We inform customers of the need to update their data in order to avoid service interruption. If the client’s data has not been updated for a long time, or has not been verified in government information systems and the number has been blocked, the subscriber can still confirm his data and the number will be unblocked,” Megafon representatives told CNews.
Tele2 told the publication that the operator is trying to inform subscribers as widely as possible about the need to update data about the owner of the number. To do this, he uses SMS, notifications in his personal account and push notifications. “We tried to make this procedure as simple as possible, including a method of remote verification,” noted a Tele2 representative. He also gave several possible examples of an incorrectly issued number when data updating is required: when the SIM card is registered to a relative, when the full name is indicated with a typo, when the last name has changed (for example, after marriage). Another option is that when registering, the operator’s employee did not enter all the data about the subscriber, for example, he did not indicate the middle name.
No information - no number
At the end of 2023, up to 43 million active SIM cards were identified in Russia that were registered with violations, that is, with inaccurate or unreliable information about the owner. According to Vedomosti, the inspection was carried out by Roskomnazor, and many of these SIM cards were forcibly blocked.
If you compare 43 million with the population of Russia, then this is slightly less than a third of the number of Russians. But in fact, there are much more mobile numbers in the country - more than 351 million, since Russian legislation does not provide for restrictions on the number of SIM cards that an individual or organization can issue. Taking into account these statistics, it turns out that operators issued about 12.5% of all valid numbers with some kind of violation.
Punishment is inevitable
The authorities’ fight against “gray” SIM cards, as CNews reported, entered an active phase in the spring of 2023. Operators began to force their subscribers to send them their personal data, and not all of them provided convenient ways for Russians to do this. For disobedience, operators threatened to block the number, and, as it turned out, these were not empty words.
As a representative of Roskomnadzor told the publication, in just the fourth quarter of 2023 (September 1 – December 31), over 600 thousand mobile numbers “with unknown owners” were blocked in the country. This is more than the population of many large Russian cities.
But the regulator did not limit itself to this alone. To implement additional measures, he needed the help of people in uniform. “To suppress violations in the distribution of SIM cards without identifying the buyer in 2022-2023. Roskomnadzor, together with the Ministry of Internal Affairs, carried out about 200 events, during which more than 78 thousand “gray” SIM cards were seized,” a Roskomnadzor representative told Vedomosti.
The regulator began mass blocking of numbers with incorrect owner data in August 2023. It follows that by the end of 2023, blocked numbers could be significantly more than 600 thousand.
Where do Russians get “gray” SIM cards?
Experts interviewed by the publication gave several examples of how tens of millions of SIM cards appeared in Russia that were issued incorrectly. Boris Yedidin, deputy chairman of the commission for legal support of the digital economy of the Moscow branch of the Russian Bar Association, said that one of the options is cards that were issued for stolen, lost or expired documents. He also gave an example when a huge number of rooms were booked for one person. “There are known cases of owners of thousands of SIM cards. Secondly, these are the so-called corporate SIM cards; some time ago, proposals for the use of corporate tariffs were actively spreading, while the requirements of the law to identify their owners were not met,” he told the publication, adding that often SIM cards issued in one person are used by another, for example, a relative or acquaintance. “Some corporate SIM cards are used after the termination of the employment relationship, but previously they could have been issued to another employee. In these cases, mobile operators have procedures for resolving disputes,” concluded Edidin.
Everything is within the law
Owners of rooms registered incorrectly cannot complain to Roskomnadzor, because there is no arbitrariness in this case. Regularly operates in accordance with the current law “On Communications,” which received the necessary amendments in 2018.
Since 2018, telecom operators are required to independently verify the authenticity of subscriber information before providing them with communication services. And from the summer of 2021, legal entities and entrepreneurs are required to submit information about end users of corporate SIM cards to the Unified Identification and Authentication System (USIA). Since the same period, Roskomnadzor has the right to block “gray” SIM cards, that is, cards issued with violations.
What operators say
Telecom operators, at least the largest ones, are trying to mitigate as much as possible the potential negative consequences of identifying an incorrectly issued number. For example, when faced with blocking of his number, a Megafon subscriber can “save” it if he provides the operator with up-to-date information about the owner. “We comply with all regulatory requirements. In accordance with the Law “On Communications”, the operator cannot provide communication services to subscribers with unconfirmed personal data. We inform customers of the need to update their data in order to avoid service interruption. If the client’s data has not been updated for a long time, or has not been verified in government information systems and the number has been blocked, the subscriber can still confirm his data and the number will be unblocked,” Megafon representatives told CNews.
Tele2 told the publication that the operator is trying to inform subscribers as widely as possible about the need to update data about the owner of the number. To do this, he uses SMS, notifications in his personal account and push notifications. “We tried to make this procedure as simple as possible, including a method of remote verification,” noted a Tele2 representative. He also gave several possible examples of an incorrectly issued number when data updating is required: when the SIM card is registered to a relative, when the full name is indicated with a typo, when the last name has changed (for example, after marriage). Another option is that when registering, the operator’s employee did not enter all the data about the subscriber, for example, he did not indicate the middle name.
