SIM cards online sale may be launched in Bashkiria from 2021

Bashkiria is considered as one of the pilot regions of the country, where they can start selling SIM cards online, the press service of the Ministry of Digital Industry of the republic informs.

Other pilot regions include Moscow and the Moscow region, St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region, Krasnoyarsk, Perm and Primorsky regions, Nizhny Novgorod, Novosibirsk, Rostov, Samara, Sverdlovsk regions and Tatarstan.

In 2021, the Ministry of Economy intends to launch a three-year experiment on the remote conclusion of contracts for communication services. It will be launched as part of the regulatory sandbox law, which is due to take effect next year.

Currently, a contract for communication services can be concluded in the salon or using an electronic signature with a confirmed identity in the Unified Identification and Authentication System.

"If the government approves the experiment, then for a specific company in a certain territory it will be possible to buy a SIM card at any point of sale, including grocery stores, pharmacies, gas stations, pick-up points and kiosks, as well as online," the press service of the Ministry of Digital Affairs of Bashkiria explained. ... "The buyer will receive a free Internet package to download the application, in which they will need to register and take a picture with a passport."

A large-scale experiment on online sales of SIM cards will be implemented as part of the Digital Economy national project, developed on behalf of Russian President Vladimir Putin.