Up to 16 million SIM cards may be blocked. What to do to avoid losing mobile communications?

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Beeline service failure 11/26/2021

Today, November 26, 2021, there are interruptions in the operation of the Beeline application and the web version of the moskva.beeline.ru website.

Up to 16 million SIM cards may be blocked. What to do to avoid losing mobile communications?

In just two weeks - by December 1 of this year - more than half of corporate numbers in Russia may be disconnected from communication services. This will affect not only companies and individual entrepreneurs, but also individuals who at different times bought “gray” SIM cards with corporate numbers at kiosks, near the metro or on radio markets. According to experts, up to 16 million corporate numbers may be disconnected from communication services throughout Russia. They talked about whether this is legal and what needs to be done to avoid being left without communication in an interview with a mir24 correspondent. lawyers.

“Employees of many companies already use corporate SIM cards. From June 1, 2021, such SIM cards must be registered on the State Services portal in the ESIA. It will be necessary to submit information to the unified identification and authentication system with the help of which the telecom operator will be able to identify the subscriber or equipment of a legal entity or individual entrepreneur,” says Polina Gusyatnikova, senior managing partner of the law firm PG Partners

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According to the expert, in accordance with the Federal Law of December 30, 2020 No. 533-FZ “On Amendments to the Federal Law “On Communications”, if the operator does not find all the information necessary for identification in the Unified Identification and Authentication System or they turn out to be unreliable, then he sends it to a legal entity or individual entrepreneur notification. If there is no response to this notification, the operator is obliged to exclude the corresponding subscriber number from the contract.

Is it legal to cut off communications from millions of users?

According to the leading lawyer of the European Legal Service Gennady Loktev

, from the point of view of the current legislation Federal Law-126 “On Communications”, these requirements are legal, since it has already been established that when providing communication services, the subscriber must provide complete and reliable information about him. If it turns out that the operator does not have complete data about the subscriber to whom services are provided, administrative liability is provided for in Article 13.30 of the Administrative Code - a fine for legal entities of up to 200 thousand rubles.

According to experts, this is done in order to:

• remove the shadow market for the provision of communication services on the territory of the Russian Federation;
• obtain complete control and reliable information about subscribers who use communication services (that is, all citizens of the Russian Federation who have a telephone);
• eliminate abuses when shell companies buy out many SIM cards and then illegally distribute them or use them to organize telephone fraud.

“Of course, amendments of this kind are aimed at strengthening control and combating anonymous SIM cards,” says Sergei Borodin, managing partner of the Borodin and Partners law firm.

. – A large part of the reason is widespread telephone fraud. In practice, subscribers - legal entities and individual entrepreneurs - when using corporate tariffs through State Services are now required to provide the telecom operator with information about each actual user, that is, about the employee who uses this corporate number. Information about all corporate numbers must be entered into a special register at State Services. To do this, the organization must have a registered account with State Services.”

Will all subscribers be disconnected overnight?

“It is difficult to answer how mobile operators will react to the “Letter” of the Ministry of Digital Development of Russia dated November 2, 2021 N P24-2-070-49831. Since the number of unconfirmed SIM cards is significant, it is unlikely that there will be a mass blocking by December 2, 2021, says Sergei Borodin. – Although mobile operators were ordered to stop servicing these SIM cards, it is unlikely that the operator will be able to do this instantly. I assume that the blocking of SIM cards will take several months. Perhaps there will be some clarifications (clarifications) on these issues after December 1, 2021.”

What should users do to avoid being blocked?

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“In order not to be left without communication, users must enter all the necessary information into the unified identification and authentication system (clause 2 of Government Decree No. 844), says Polina Gusyatnikova. – For users of equipment, for example, online cash registers, the specified information must be entered into the system no later than September 1, 2021. For corporate mobile users, the deadline for entering information is November 30, 2021. In addition, users will now be required to make all changes to information in the Unified Identification and Autonomous Activity within three working days from the date of change of such information.”

According to Gennady Loktev, all individuals who have purchased “gray” SIM cards at different times should contact any branch of their operator and find out whether the operator has all the necessary data about him as a subscriber. Since the tariffs are individual (in our case for commercial activities), and the citizen uses it as an individual (consumer), then, of course, private individuals can expect changes in the terms of service. Anyone who encounters such a problem should tell the company representative that he (the consumer) is ready to continue to cooperate with him (the telecom operator), but on similar conditions (tariffs), otherwise he will go to a more profitable operator. Many telecom operators, in order not to lose their customers, under such circumstances offer individual tariffs on more favorable terms in relation to official tariffs.

Why doesn't Megafon work? What kind of glitch happened on November 26th?

Megafon is not working in most of Russia today, November 26, 2021. Failures were recorded in the following regions of the country:

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MegaFon crashes today

The most common problem that MegaFon subscribers complain about is a problem with the mobile Internet. Here we can add the inability to make calls and send SMS messages, since numerous failures have been recorded when using cellular communications.

According to complaints from users of MegaFon services, the following are common:

• cases of connection failure for several days,
• there is a high ping when exchanging data on the network,
• There are difficulties in finding a signal to make calls.

The reason for such cases may be a shortage of towers transmitting the signal, as well as the constantly growing base of new MegaFon subscribers due to the popularity of the operator and advertising.

To maintain MegaFon's service at the proper level, technical work is being carried out to improve the quality of services.

Large-scale failure of mobile communications in different regions of Russia

The largest cellular network outage in recent memory occurred today. Part of the capacity of , one of the members of the “Big Three” operators, has failed. Messages that calls to and from Megafon numbers could not be reached came from Moscow, Kazan, Nizhny Novgorod, Samara, Ryazan.

It has long been impossible to imagine life without mobile communications, and for many the problems came as an unpleasant surprise. Some were unable to reach their loved ones, some were connected every other time, others did not receive an important SMS. Banking services, work of couriers, taxi drivers... Problems grew like a snowball. IT specialists immediately suspected hackers of the attack. The company assures us that it’s all about the equipment and that everything will be fixed soon.

A universal catastrophe—there’s no other way to describe it. After all, many people haven’t even had a home phone for many years, and there are hundreds of cell numbers in their cell phone notebooks.

The network's rolling disappearances began at about 11 Moscow time. At first we were talking about all major cellular operators. But it soon became clear that only Megafon and .

The shutdown affected all of Central Russia. Some were completely unlucky - no Internet, no calls, no SMS. Some were still given the opportunity to access the Internet for an inexplicable reason.

Attempts to reach the call center and find out the prospects for resuming communication turned out to be futile for tens, and maybe hundreds of thousands of subscribers.

On her social network page she first announced a 30% loss of communication due to a technical problem. But then she reported massive difficulties and was forced to respond to the righteous anger of subscribers:

- “We are waiting for compensation for not providing communication services, you take the money in advance.”

“This possibility will definitely be considered upon completion of the work.”

Due to communication failures, someone's business was stopped.

“I have two SIM cards, but one of them is a MegaFon one, which is working. My clients and I simply couldn’t reach each other, so to speak. The phone is silent, and clients, of course, get lost,” says the girl.

Someone simply got lost and was unable to meet with friends and loved ones. And someone, without waiting for the repair, changed the operator.

In the meantime, the office of the affected operator only reports that they are working to fix the problems - in some places the connection is already returning. But the operator has not yet named the exact reasons for the network shutdown, however, clarifying that there is no connection with the attack of the WannaCry virus.

No network in this area

In large cities, MegaFon communications cover the entire area, so this problem rarely arises. However, if the user lives in a small city or outside the central region, then it is worth considering that MegaFon’s coverage area does not extend everywhere. There is a map on the operator’s official website that demonstrates the territorial coverage of MegaFon communications. You can access this page using the “Search” line, where you need to type “Coverage map” and click on the magnifying glass icon.

Coverage varies by region.

There are different communication channels: 2G, 3G, 4G, and their coverage area is significantly different:

1. The most common is 2G; having such an icon on the device (sometimes it is designated as “E”), the subscriber will not be able to access the Internet, but calls and SMS messages will still be available. If there is not a single antenna among the icons on the phone, then you can try to reboot the device. Otherwise, only emergency services are available for dialing and calling.
2. The presence of 3G ensures the operation of instant messengers, but the connection will be unstable, visual and audio content may load with long delays. Search engines also do not perform well.
3. But having discovered 4G on the screen, the user will be able to quickly make all the necessary downloads, access social networks, watch movies and listen to music. This is the fastest Internet connection. However, this channel is not available everywhere and its coverage area is not so large.

It is worth checking the available channel on the device and determining from which point in the room the reception is best. Sometimes a difference of just 1 m determines the quality of the connection.

Despite the fact that all the symbols are on the map, the information is for informational purposes only and does not claim to be accurate, since the data changes and is updated quickly. In addition, the quality of the signal can be affected by precipitation, storm warnings, characteristics, terrain and the capabilities of the device itself (some phones do not have a 4G function, so the maximum channel will be 3G. Changes in functionality will not occur even in places where other gadgets there is high-speed Internet, since the device itself cannot detect such a signal).

The room does not transmit the signal

MegaFon communications may not work properly due to the building material of the room. For example, the elevator and its walls completely block any signals. It is also necessary to take into account that similar problems are observed in the subway, underground pedestrian crossings, and in any buildings where the walls are made of dense material (concrete, metal, or the presence of a metal mesh).

With such isolation, the MegaFon operator will not be able to influence the signal in any way; all that remains is to look for a place where a connection may be accidentally detected. Alternatively, it is recommended to go out onto the balcony; most likely, the signal will be restored there. Then you will have to keep your smartphone or telephone within range of the signal so that the subscriber can receive SMS messages and calls from other mobile users.