in Ukraine will turn off "gray" mobile phones

[Адвокат]

05/06/2010
Anatoly Voronin

The Russians, who are going on vacation to Ukraine this summer, can expect an unexpected "surprise". When buying a local SIM card, their phones may appear in the gray list and be disconnected after 90 days. Of course, as a rule, the time spent on vacation is less than 90 days, but on the next visit the phone may no longer work.

At the end of April, the press service of the Ukrainian State Center of Radio Frequencies (UCRF) reported that mobile phones that have been on the gray list for more than three months (more precisely, more than 90 days) will be disconnected without additional warning. Currently, technical issues are being resolved for this step, including work is underway on a mechanism for terminating customer service, the legality of the origin of which phones has not been established.

The UCRF warns that citizens who intend to purchase mobile phones need to buy only those mobile terminals (including GSM mobile phones, automation devices, alarm devices that contain a GSM module), IMEI codes of which are entered into a generalized database Ukrainian State Center of Radio Frequencies. This happens if the phone is brought into the country "white", with payment of all necessary customs duties, from the IMEI numbers of such devices and a "white" list is formed. There is also a blacklist that makes up stolen terminals. In total, the database contains more than 85 million codes? ME? mobile communication devices. The UCRF does not provide current statistics on gray mobile phones, but at the beginning of the fourth quarter of 2009 there were about 2.9 million devices, which is about 3.5% of the total.

The problem arises for those citizens who, for example, bought a phone abroad, received it as a gift or purchased a model that is not officially delivered to the country. If such a system existed in Russia, then most of the iPhone would appear in the gray list. In Ukraine, the owners of such devices have already begun to receive shutdown warnings on their phones. After that, they must independently apply to the Ukrainian State Center of Radio Frequencies and confirm the legality of owning a telephone. The application (it can be found on the agency’s website) must be accompanied by the original customs declaration that was filled out when crossing the customs border. If at the border crossing the customs declaration was not completed (as most tourists do, following the "green corridor"), copies of documents proving their stay abroad and the legality of acquiring the telephone must be attached to the application. In the same way it is necessary to do with the phones received as a gift.

Unfortunately, this procedure does not describe in any way what should be done for tourists coming to Ukraine and wanting to use their phones, but using a local SIM card in them. Such a simple move allows you to significantly save on local telephone communications between family members or friends, and on additional services, including SMS and mobile Internet. However, since the IMEI number of such a device is not included in the white list, it automatically becomes gray. Most likely tourists will not have time to submit an application.

Ukrainian mobile operators without much enthusiasm took this news. Back in February, when the program was supposed to work, they announced that they were not ready. So, Ukrainian Mobile Communications (MTS-Ukraine) complained that the National Communications Regulatory Commission (NCCR) too late handed them the technical specifications of a system that would carry out such a procedure, and therefore they had not had time to prepare. Other companies, such as Astelit ("life ") and Kyivstar, believe that these actions should occur simultaneously with all operators. Otherwise, such actions may harm the first one to start the shutdown.

According to VimpelCom, the best way to deal with "cloned (gray)" phones would be to fight against their import and sale. At the moment, Beeline in Ukraine is technically ready for the implementation of a mobile phone accounting system in the IMEI code bases. An SMS-mailing with notifications about the need to register terminals has not yet been carried out, this solution is now being finalized and agreed upon.

According to the Russian operator, for a subscriber arriving, for example, from Russia, with his telephone, in case of intention to purchase a local SIM-card, there are two options. The first - "active" - is to enter your telephone set and its IMEI number in the customs declaration. Code? ME? such a phone will be entered into the general database and will be serviced by any mobile operators in Ukraine. And the second, "passive." After registering the phone in the Ukrainian network, owners of devices not listed in IMEI should receive a warning SMS reminding them that the phone needs to be entered into the database. After receiving a warning SMS, the subscriber will be able to use the device for another three months, during which he has the opportunity to register his phone. If you didn’t register anything in Ukraine and are on the gray list, the phone will work when you return home and in other countries, VimpelCom experts emphasize.

The article is cited from the site: /www.finiz.ru/LF/article1266712

 

[Матушкин Андрей Николаевич]

Thanks for the interesting article. +1

 

[Матушкин Андрей Николаевич]

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