Airalo and 50+ eSIM Stores Are Blocked in Turkey — Here's What Still Works (2026)

Around 10 July 2025, BTK — Bilgi Teknolojileri ve İletişim Kurumu, Turkey's telecom regulator — started blocking access from Turkish networks to the websites and apps of more than 50 foreign travel eSIM sellers. Who exactly is affected is in the table above: the list runs from Airalo, Holafly and Saily to Nomad, Yesim and Ubigi. As of mid-2026, the block is still in force.

The regulatory logic, stripped of jargon: Turkey expects companies selling eSIMs for use on its territory to provision them through Turkish operators, store user data in Turkey, and not operate on 'permanent roaming'. Foreign sellers that haven't localized are treated as unauthorized telecom services — and their sites get blocked.

This isn't a rumor that needs debunking. Holafly confirmed the block in its own announcement, and Saily published its own post saying the same: their sites and apps are unreachable from inside Turkey.

This is the nuance most panicked forum threads miss. The block targets the sellers' storefronts — their websites and apps — not the eSIMs themselves. An eSIM you installed before arrival connects to Turkish mobile networks and keeps working for its full validity. Data roaming was never blocked.

The technical reason: the ban is enforced by Turkish consumer ISPs. Turk Telekom, Turkcell and Vodafone TR filter the providers' domains at the DNS/SNI level. Your eSIM's data traffic doesn't pass through that filter, so it's untouched. If your plan is active and has data left, there is nothing to fix.

Three things stop working the moment you're on Turkish Wi-Fi or mobile data. You can't buy a new eSIM from a blocked store — the site or app simply won't load. You can't complete a fresh install if it requires the provider's app. And you can't top up when your data runs out mid-trip, which is exactly when most people discover the block exists.

A VPN gets around all of this — the block is a network filter, nothing more. But treat it as a workaround, not a plan: you need a VPN installed and working before you need it, and VPN websites themselves are sometimes throttled in Turkey. Doable, not dependable.

Option 1: VPN plus your existing provider. If you already have a working VPN, you can reach your provider's site and top up as usual. Fine for the technically patient; frustrating on hotel Wi-Fi when the VPN site itself crawls.

Option 2: an airport or operator counter. Turkish operators sell tourist SIM packages over the counter. They work, but the tourist pricing stings — packages commonly run 1,900+ TL — and airport queues eat an hour of your trip.

Option 3: buy from a store that's reachable from Turkey. Full disclosure: LimitSim is our store. It isn't on any published ban list and loads from Turkish networks without a VPN as of July 2026. Plans start at €0.50 and the QR code lands in your email within minutes, so hotel Wi-Fi is enough to get back online. To be precise about when we're the right choice: if you're already inside Turkey and your provider's site won't load, a reachable store is the fastest fix. If your current eSIM still works and has data left, keep using it — it's fine.

The entire problem disappears if you sort your eSIM before departure. Every provider — including every blocked one — works normally in Turkey if you buy and install while still on your home network. Install at home, switch the line on after landing, done.

One detail decides how early you can buy: when validity starts. Some plans start the clock at purchase, so buying a week ahead burns a week of your package. Plans whose validity starts on activation — the first time the eSIM connects to a network — can be bought days or weeks in advance without losing a single day. Check that line in the product description before you pay; it matters more than a euro of price difference.