Is eSIM banned in Turkey? What is actually blocked in 2026

On 10 July 2025 the websites of thirteen international eSIM sellers stopped opening on Turkish connections — Airalo, Holafly, Saily and Nomad among them. There was no announcement. The block came to light because the Freedom of Expression Association (İFÖD), which tracks blocking orders in Turkey through its EngelliWeb project, published the decision number; the Turkish technology press picked it up the next day.

The decision came from the authorisation department of BTK, the Information and Communication Technologies Authority, which regulates telecoms in Turkey. It was an administrative decision, not a court order, and BTK has never published it or explained it. A second decision followed a week later, and a third in September:

Nothing has been reversed since. As far as public sources show, no blocked seller has been unblocked, and no new policy has been announced.

The decisions block domain names. That is the whole mechanism, and it explains everything a traveller experiences: a seller's website does not load, and its app does not work either, because the app talks to the same addresses. The mobile network, the eSIM in your phone and the technology itself are untouched.

The sellers say the same thing themselves. Saily tells customers there is no way to top up or buy a plan from inside Turkey; Holafly says that without a VPN you cannot manage your eSIM, check usage or reach support; Ubigi and Airalo confirm that an eSIM activated before arrival keeps working.

Officially, nobody knows: BTK has given no reason. Anything you read that says “Turkey cited data localisation” is reporting an inference as a statement.

The inference is a reasonable one, though. In February 2019 a BTK board decision on “remotely programmable SIM technologies” set out how eSIMs must work in Turkey: the systems that provision them have to be located in the country and run by Turkish operators, an eSIM used here should carry a Turkish operator's profile, a foreign profile is meant to be loaded outside Turkey, and roaming on one is treated as temporary — the same 120-day window as the handset registration rule. International travel-eSIM sellers meet none of those conditions, and commentators link the 2025 blocks to that decision.

Critics, including the academic who runs EngelliWeb, read it more simply — as protection for the revenue Turkish operators earn from visitors. Both readings can be true at once.

The UK Foreign Office added a short section on eSIMs to the safety and security page of its Turkey travel advice. It says: “Access to some e-sim services is restricted in Turkey”, and advises checking with your provider before you travel. The page was last updated on 18 September 2026.

Canada's and Australia's advisories do not mention eSIMs. Australia's does mention the separate rule that a foreign phone used with a Turkish SIM has to be registered within 120 days.

• Buy and install before you fly. Whatever eSIM you choose, do it at home. Installing does not start a plan: validity normally begins at the first connection in Turkey.
• Buy enough data the first time — or buy from a shop you can reach. With a blocked seller, the plan you land with is the plan you have. Running out on day five is the most common way this block catches people.
• Keep a fallback. Know your home operator's daily roaming charge for Turkey before you go, so that switching it on for a day is a decision and not an accident. Roaming charges in Turkey has the figures.
• Already in Turkey with nothing working? Buying an eSIM after you land walks through it, starting from airport Wi‑Fi.

• “eSIMs do not work in Turkey.” They do. The block is on websites, not on the mobile network.
• “Eight providers were blocked.” That was the first day's press coverage. The first decision named thirteen sellers, and two more decisions brought the total past fifty.
• “Turkey said it was about data localisation.” Turkey has said nothing. The link to the 2019 decision is analysis, not an announcement.
• “It is the same thing as the 120-day phone rule.” It is not. That rule is about registering a foreign handset that is used with a Turkish SIM, it predates the block by years, and it does not affect a holiday. We explain it in the 120-day IMEI rule.
• “Just change your DNS.” The sites resolve and connect normally; the connection is dropped afterwards. A DNS change does not get round that.