The Ministry of Digital Development proposes to ban the sub-dealer scheme for selling SIM cards, leaving the right to register numbers only to direct dealers — legal entities with an agency agreement directly with the operator. This was reported by Vedomosti. The measure will be included in the third package of measures to combat cyber fraud, "Antifraud 3.0".

Currently, an operator has the right to transfer to a third party the right to conclude contracts on its behalf. The intermediary is obliged to identify the buyer, but the contract itself arises between the subscriber and the operator. If the ban is adopted, individuals and individual entrepreneurs will no longer be able to act as intermediaries. According to an analyst's estimate, almost half of all offline SIM card sales in Russia go through sub-dealers.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs also advocates for abandoning the sub-dealer model. T2 believes it is more effective not to completely ban intermediaries, but to tighten requirements for their work — the company claims that it already controls subscriber identification and SIM activation. Excluding sub-dealers could affect thousands of retail outlets and reduce the availability of SIM cards in certain localities. A final decision has not yet been made; the package is being discussed with agencies and the market.