Turkey’s Information Technologies and Communication Authority (BTK) has blocked access to at least 35 e-SIM providers, the local Freedom of Expression Association’s EngelliWeb (@engelliweb) has reported.

BTK issued two separate rulings on the blocking, namely E-98966759-450.08-36681 released on July 10 and E-98966759-450.08-37512 released on July 17.

Yaman Akdeniz (@cyberrights), a local academic working on cyber law, wrote on X that the legal basis of the ruling is unknown.

The list of the blocked e-SIM providers that have so far been identified by EngelliWeb is as follow:

• Saily,

• Airalo,

• Holafly,

• Nomad,

• Instabridge,

• Mobimatter,

• Alosim,

• BNESIM,

• Holiday eSIM,

• FlexiRoam,

• Airhub,

• GlobaleSIM,

• Roamless

• Maya,

• Yesim,

• esims.io,

• CMLink,

• Ubigi,

• Keepgo,

• BetterRoaming,

• USIMS,

• AIRSIMe,

• EnjoyeSIM,

• eSIMtr,

• NumeroeSIM,

• GoMoWorld,

• eTravelSIM,

• Eskimo,

• RedteaGO,

• SimOptions,

• Sim Local,

• GigSky,

• OneSimCard,

• Voye and

• DENT.

CMLink is owned by China’s state-owned China Mobile Communications Group while Ubigi is a unit of Transatel, owned by NTT Group (in which the Japanese government has a stake).

Turkey’s sovereign wealth fund (TWF/TVF) is the dominant player in the local telecoms market as it controls Turkcell (TCELL) and Turk Telekom (TTKOM).

According to the EngelliWeb project, Turkey has blocked millions of websites, social media accounts and web pages, offering news and a wealth of other material, since the 2007 introduction of the country’s "Internet law".

Virtual private network (VPN) services, which allow access to blocked web content, are widely used in Turkey.

In 2024, Roamless, a San Francisco-based company with a leadership team in Turkey, raised $5mn in a seed funding round led by UAE-based Shorooq Partners.

Amsterdam-based and Turkey-focused Revo Capital, Istanbul-based Paribu Ventures (launched in 2022 by Paribu, a cryptocurrency exchange launched in 2017, with an investment budget of $30mn), Finberg (the venture capital investment unit of Turkish conglomerate Fiba Holding’s small-cap lending unit Fibabanka) and Luxembourg-based Deba Ventures (led by Turkish investors, including Barbaros Ozbugutu (co-founder of fintech Iyzico)) are also among the investors of Roamless.

The e-SIM market was really born in 2018 after Apple started using e-SIM technology in its iPhone 11 model, Roamless CEO Emre Demirel told bne IntelliNews in June 2024. 

Roamless thought that 20-25% of all devices globally could support e-SIM at that time and it expected the number to quickly approach 100% over the next 10 years.

On July 10, Delaware and Singapore-based Airalo, launched in 2019 by Turkish entrepreneurs, became the first e-SIM unicorn after raising $220mn in a Series C round.