Russians may be required to register their phones for a fee

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Russians may be required to register their phones for a fee
December 7, 2018 05:09

The Federation Council has prepared a bill to introduce a system for monitoring phones and tablets by their identification numbers (IMEI) to prohibit operators from registering stolen devices on the network. This was reported by the chairman of the commission of the Federation Development Council for the Information Society.

The bill is planned to be submitted to the State Duma in the near future, in addition, it has already been supported by relevant ministries and departments. Operators will be asked to connect only owners of devices with IMEI enabled to the network.

In this case, stolen or lost phones, as well as identical numbers or failed registration will begin to suspend access to the communication network, writes TASS . The procedure for challenging such decisions will be established by the government’s communications rules.

Registration of IMEI in the database will be required and its cost for an individual will not exceed 100 rubles. A similar practice already exists in 32 countries of the world, is noted in the explanatory note.

Registration of phones via IMEI can be introduced from 2023.

On November 12, employees of Roskomnadzor and the radio frequency service summed up results of quality control of services of telecom operators The Big Four in Vologda, Perm and Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky.
Russians may be required to register their phones for a fee

 

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Phones Control

New bill: operators will not be allowed to register stolen mobile phones in their network. Each phone has a unique IMEI code, which operators will now check before allowing the phone to call somewhere.

Someone will say: "IMEI can be changed to another." Can. However, the senators also envisaged this - “devices that have not passed the appropriate registration or have the same or not assigned by the device manufacturer’s number, as well as stolen or lost phones” will be classified as unauthorized:

The Federation Council proposed to ban telecom operators from registering stolen phones on the network

As far as I understand the essence of the idea, each phone will need to be registered: either when imported into the country, or at the manufacturing plant. If a phone with a randomly generated IMEI appears on the network, it will immediately become clear that this phone is either stolen or smuggled. All old telephones of operators will also be required to register, while the cost of registration should not exceed 100 rubles.

The objectives of the bill are quite transparent.

Firstly, it will become more difficult to legalize stolen phones.

Secondly, it will be much more difficult to legalize phones that are smuggled into Russia, including used ones.

Thirdly, now not only each SIM card, but also each phone will have a specific name of the owner, which will greatly please the relevant authorities.

At the same time, I was born under Brezhnev, and therefore in my head there are various schemes that can be used to circumvent the new law.

To begin with, a thief can buy some broken phone for 50 rubles and transfer the IMEI from it. I will not be surprised if the Internet even starts selling bases of such "retired" phones. It will be possible to partially try to solve the problem by creating an open base on the Internet, which, according to the IMEI introduced, will issue the model and serial number of the phone.

Then, young people are increasingly using the phone for chatting in Internet messengers. In large cities, the owner of a stolen phone may now not need to insert a SIM card into it at all, costing only Wi-Fi. This is somewhat stupid, but buyers of stolen phones in general, you know, are not the intellectual elite.

In addition, stolen phones can leave for the republics of the BSSSR, in which there is no control over IMEI yet. I doubt that border guards will find the time to check the IMEI of each cellphone crossing the border, especially given the fact that having a phone with an unregistered IMEI is not a crime.

Finally, expensive phones can be disassembled into parts, like cars. This is not as profitable as selling them in their entirety, but much more safely.

In general, the new law is unlikely to be able to eradicate the problem of theft of phones at the root. Nevertheless, I believe that he will be able to reduce the volume of theft, including because criminal elements will have less desire to wear stolen phones - if they fall into the clutches of the police for any other reason, a phone with the wrong IMEI will instantly give them out.

By the way, I would hang up another duty on mobile operators: the obligation to receive phones found on the streets. Now an attempt to do so often ends in scandal on the part of a bewilderment - a good Samaritan who just wanted to return the lost mobile phone to the owner, is accused of theft. It would be much more convenient if everyone knew: if I found a phone - bring it to the nearest pavilion of a mobile operator.

Have you, colleagues, lost cell phones? Was it precisely loss, or theft, or maybe drowning? It would be, in general, interesting to know the statistics for Russia - which percentage of phones is quietly and peacefully becoming obsolete, and which percentage is leaving the owner’s hands in a more or less violent way.

PS . And more about the laws. Petersburg deputy Vitaly Milonov proposed to legally ban the punishment of cats. In his opinion, cats are not to blame and, therefore, it is unfair to punish them:

Milonov proposed to legally ban the punishment of cats

Perhaps many will agree with this judgment. While many people are afraid or hate dogs, or both together, cats are almost always treated well or with indifference ... except in those cases, of course, when the cat belongs to one relative and terrorizes the other living in the same place.
Phones Control