Russians who choose eSIM over a traditional SIM tend to use voice services less, while their Internet use climbs, especially when roaming. The largest share of digital SIM card users remains among younger adults, yet the highest traffic volumes now come from the newest generations. MegaFon analyzed anonymous subscriber data for the periods June–August 2022 and 2023 to reach these conclusions, and the company’s press service shared the findings.
MegaFon notes that today over 98% of eSIM subscribers rely on it as their primary SIM. On average, a standard SIM user makes about 15% more voice minutes per month than a Russian with an eSIM.
Subscribers using eSIMs have shown heightened online activity over the past year. While their mobile data use in 2022 was nearly the same as that of regular-SIM users, the current period reveals that the eSIM group consumes 17% more data than the standard-SIM group. In roaming, digital-SIM users not only generate 1.7 times more Internet traffic than others, but they also spend about 61% more time on calls.
When it comes to content consumption, those with regular SIMs still spend more gigabytes on video and music than eSIM users. However, MegaFon explains the gap is narrowing rapidly and now sits at around 3%, a sharp decline from over 20% a year earlier.
Across other activities, digital-SIM subscribers show markedly higher engagement: they use 26% more data on social networks and 26% more on instant messengers. Additionally, they show a notable increase in web browsing at roughly 6% higher levels.
eSIM users also demonstrate 2.7 times greater engagement with cloud services.
Igor Glebov, director of MegaFon’s development department, describes eSIM as a regular SIM in which the chip is embedded into the phone during production. He offers a simple explanation for the rising popularity: eSIM cannot be broken or lost easily, and it allows a subscriber to maintain an additional number on a device that supports this technology. For example, one number can be used for work and another for personal life. This is especially helpful for iPhone users who lack more than one physical SIM slot. Moreover, if the smartphone is password protected and the device is stolen or lost, an attacker would not be able to remove the eSIM to access banking services, a key advantage according to Glebov.
MegaFon adds that zoomer users, aged 17–25, represent the second-largest share of the audience at 25%, and they lead in terms of the volume of content consumed via eSIM, accounting for 40% of traffic, compared with 39.5% for millennials in total traffic.