Useful USSD commands for four mobile operators

List of codes

List of involved mobile codes:

900 901 902 903 904 905 906 907 908 909 910 911 912 913 914 915 916 917 918 919 920 921 922 923 924 925 926 927 928 929 930 931 932 933 934 935 936 937 938 939 940 941 942 943 944 945 946 947 948 949 950 951 952 953 954 955 956 957 958 959 960 961 962 963 964 965 966 967 968 969 970 971 972 973 974 975 976 977 978 979 980 981 982 983 984 985 986 987 988 989 990 991 992 993 994 995 996 997 998 999

Operator and region by phone number:

Operator by code:

Of the 100 possible cellular codes, 79 are used and 21 are free. Free codes: 907, 935, 940, 942, 943, 944, 945, 946, 947, 948, 949, 957, 959, 972, 973, 974, 975, 976 , 979, 990, 998. They are in reserve and do not yet belong to any operator. The Big Three operators own entire series of numbers:

• MTS - 910..919, 980..989 (26 codes in total);
• MegaFon - 920..929, 930..939 (25 codes in total);
• Beeline - 902..906, 960..969 (24 codes in total).

See also operator codes by region and other operator codes:

• Rostelecom - 901, 902, 912, 930, 939, 955, 958, 970, 971, 991, 992, 993 (12 codes in total);
• Tele 2 - 900, 901 ... 996, 999 (19 codes in total);
• MTT - 901, 904 ... 996, 999 (36 codes in total);
• Tinkoff Mobile - 995 (1 code);
• SberMobile - 901, 930 ... 995, 996 (14 codes in total).

What is a cell phone number

A ten-digit identifier consisting of a provider code and a unique set of numbers is a mobile phone number. In the international format there is also a country index (for Russia +7). Def codes (operator identifiers) consist of three digits; numbering starts from nine. These are non-geographic telephone indexes, thanks to which it is possible to determine the subscriber's communication service provider, but companies no longer have a monopoly on them. You can switch, for example, from MTS to Megafon while maintaining the same set of numbers.

The transfer service is still available to a small number of people, and it is still possible to find out where an unknown person is calling from. For the same reason, number codes of Russian mobile operators remain in demand. Def are not considered classified information and are located in open databases. They encode not only information about the provider, but also about the region in which the number is registered (within a range of regions, and not a specific city or region).

Mobile operator codes

The Federal Communications Agency (Rossvyaz) distributes codes for Russian cellular operators. A table with a list of def identifiers is posted on the official website of the institution and is updated regularly. It is available for download to any Internet user. To make your search easier, you can enter the code into a special form on the website and quickly find information about the corresponding network provider and region.

Russian cellular companies

The leaders of the list are Megafon, MTS and Beeline. Besides them, there are other companies in the TOP. The most popular mobile operators in Russia:

• Megaphone. A leading company covering all regions of the Russian Federation, as well as the republics of Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Tajikistan. Megafon's subscriber base includes more than 75 million active numbers. This is a leader in providing mobile Internet.
• MTS. Belongs to the list of leading providers. Provides high quality voice communication services, cable television, and Internet access. Has its own retail network.
• Beeline. A brand owned by, which is part of a concern that serves more than 235 million subscribers. The company provides a wide selection of tariffs and high-quality coverage.
• TELE 2. The work of this group of companies is highly appreciated by users. It serves more than 38.9 million subscribers.
• Iota. It has gained popularity as an innovative company providing voice mobile communication services and high-speed 4G Internet.
• Rostelecom. Leader in providing cable television and broadband Internet access. Reviews about the quality of the services provided are positive, but many clients criticize the work of technical support.
• MTT. Large cellular provider. Serves 2 million subscribers.

Mobile operators of Russia

In 2021, according to Rossvyaz, more than 80 companies are registered that provide cellular communication services in Russia. Many cellular operators in Russia are public and provide communication services to the population on a commercial basis. Any citizen can become their client. Small operators were created exclusively to provide cellular communications between employees of government organizations and institutions. An ordinary citizen cannot become their client.

There are four major cellular operators: MTS (Mobile TeleSystems), Beeline (Vympel-Communications), Megafon, Tele2 (T2-Mobile). They have the largest number of subscribers and operate in all regions of the country (Tele2 operates in most regions). In some regions of the country, coverage is provided by renting a network of local operators. In the 2000s, the name “Big Three” (MTS + Beeline + Megafon) was popular; in recent years, the concept of “Big Four”, which included Tele2, has been used more often.

Currently, the owner of Tele2 Russia is Rostelecom.

Other cellular companies have a much smaller customer base and coverage area in the Russian Federation. Among them are the famous SberMobile, Rostelecom, Yota. The latter was previously known as an Internet provider with a 4G network in Moscow, but since 2014 it has been actively advertised as a new cellular player. In October 2013, MegaFon completely acquired Scartel/Yota, which holds 4G/LTE licenses. Since September 2021, Yaroslavl-GSM JSC has been merged with MegaFon PJSC.

At the end of 2021, a new cellular operator Tinkoff Mobile was added. The operator was created in partnership with Tele2: it works as a virtual operator and uses the technical equipment of Tele2. The operator is related to Tinkoff Bank and is actively advertised by it.

In 2021, SberMobile, a mobile operator from Sberbank, launched. Licenses were received back in 2021, in fact, advertising began in 2021, the operator’s services became available to any Russian.

Popular mobile operators

We consider popular mobile operators to be: 1) operators with the largest subscriber base, 2) operators that advertise frequently and are actively increasing their subscriber base.

* Information on the number of subscribers is taken from official company reports. Last data check - early 2021.

List of all mobile operators

We list all mobile operators in alphabetical order, indicating the codes and the number of telephone numbers allocated to the operator. The allocated numbers constitute the number of numbers that the operator can use. It does not mean the actual number of subscribers of the company.

In Crimea, cellular communication services were provided by Ukrainian operators, whose mobile numbers corresponded to the Ukrainian numbering system (+380 ХХХ ХХХ ХХ ХХ). After the annexation of Crimea to Russia, there were no technical capabilities to quickly switch to Russian operators and switch to the +79xx number format. Organizational and legal issues also arose. The transition process took a long time, new codes were allocated. Until now, in the Crimea, a number of services of cellular operators are provided with restrictions.

In the early to mid-2000s, there was an active attraction of new numbers due to the rapid emergence of new subscribers. Operators' ranges were expanded and new codes and series of codes were issued. Now there is an increase in the number of registered numbers among subscribers due to the use of SIM cards in various devices - phones, smartphones, tablets, routers. Up to 3-5 registered numbers per subscriber is the norm. Thus, the trend of increasing the number of numbers remains, so new numbers and codes are used.

Russian cellular market

As of 2021, more than 80 companies provide cellular communication services in the Russian Federation. Some of them work with clients without restrictions, that is, anyone can become a subscriber of such an operator. But there are companies that serve only certain corporate networks. These are small mobile operators, to which any Russian cannot become a subscriber.

The lion's share of mobile subscribers in Russia comes from the so-called “Big Four” companies. These are the operators MegaFon, MTS (Mobile TeleSystems), Beeline (Vympel-Communications) and Tele2 (T2-Mobile). The latter only relatively recently became one of the largest mobile operators, providing coverage to most Russian regions (the remaining members of the Big Four operate in all regions without exception). At the same time, in a number of regions, coverage is provided through the rental of equipment owned by regional operators. The Big Four codes are listed above.

Other companies cannot compete with market leaders. They have small coverage and a small number of subscribers. And some operators are eventually absorbed by large players. Thus, at the end of 2013, the Yota company, which previously specialized in providing 4G Internet services, was acquired by MegaFon. Now it is not only an Internet provider, but also a participant in the cellular communications market. Another small operator, Yaroslavl-GSM, also became part of the company in the fall of 2016.

3g coverage map in Russia

New mobile operators trying to occupy their niche appear in the country regularly. Among the companies not included in the Big Four, the most famous are Rostelecom, SberMobile, and Tinkoff Mobile. Sberbank received a license to provide cellular communication services in 2016, but the operator SberMobile began operating only in 2018. Tinkoff Mobile started working a little earlier. This is the brainchild of another well-known bank in Russia - Tinkoff. Tinkoff Mobile is a virtual operator operating on the technical base of one of the cellular giants - Tele2.

The full register of Russian mobile operators is available to everyone. It allows you to find out what codes are allocated to each of them and how many numbers are at their disposal. It should be taken into account that the number of numbers is the total number of numbers allocated to the operator, and not the number of subscribers.

For a long time there were difficulties with the spread of Russian mobile communications in Crimea. This required solving a lot of technical, organizational and legal issues. Previously, cellular communications in the region were provided by Ukrainian companies. The telephone numbers had the format +380-ХХХ-ХХХ-ХХ-ХХ. It was not possible to immediately convert them to the Russian standard and assign Russian codes. Even today, cellular communications in Crimea are not of sufficient quality.

The beginning of the 21st century was marked by the rapid development of mobile communications in Russia. The number of subscribers of cellular operators grew at a high rate. This required the allocation of additional codes and numbers. When the number of physical subscribers stabilized, the demand for new numbers continued due to the fact that people bought themselves additional SIM cards for their gadgets. Today, several mobile numbers for one person have become a common thing. Therefore, new codes of Russian mobile operators continued to be used.

Mobile number format

Mobile operators in Russia have telephone codes in the 9xx format. Telephone numbers of mobile operators are ten-digit and start with +79xx or 89xx. A common option for recording a Russian mobile phone number is: +7 (9хх) ххх-хх-хх. If a call is made from abroad to a mobile phone of a Russian operator, then the number is dialed from +7. Since mobile codes are not tied to a specific geographic location (unlike landline codes), they are also called non-geographic dialing codes or def codes.

In total, cellular operators can use 100 codes: from 900 to 999. Currently, 79 codes are used, 21 codes are in reserve. Select the code of interest from the list to view detailed information: names of mobile operators, regions of presence of operators, volume and range of allocated telephone numbers.

Check if the number has gone to another operator

If you have access to the official database of ported numbers, then it’s easy.
We check whether the subscriber has changed the operator, throwing off the shackles of “mobile slavery”. The Institute of Communications uploads the BDPN to the SFTP server, in three folders.

The first folder contains a complete reference book. The second includes incremental updates. And the third stores the numbers returned to the “owners”

• PortAllNew
  folder contains the full version of the directory. This is one file that is updated daily at 00:00 Moscow time;
• PortIncrementNew
  - for incremental updates. Every two hours a file with the latest transferred numbers is added here;
• ReturnIncrementNew
  are numbers that were returned to the “owners” according to the Rossvyaz numbering plan. Here, too, a new file appears every two hours.

Inside the folders, data for all operators of all regions is stored without dividing into files. The files are needed to differentiate between updates.

The date and time of the update are inserted into the name of the increments. If you want to receive ported numbers as quickly as possible, here you go. If there is no urgency, it’s easier to download the full directory once a day

The file format is CSV compressed in ZIP. Inside, it couldn’t be simpler.

There are three fields in directory files: number, operator and number of lines. Moreover, the third field is filled in only for the first line - an elegant solution

The BDPN does not store history: every day all transferred numbers are uploaded to the server. If the phone is not in the full directory or in the daily increments, then it is subject to the Rossvyaz plan. Therefore, for our purposes, the folder with the returned numbers is ReturnIncrementNew

- need not.

Every day we download fresh BDPN from the server. Any SFTP client is suitable for this: WinSCP or FileZilla FTP Client is suitable for Windows, Nautilus is suitable for Ubuntu. The classic mistake in this case is to leave the default FTP in the settings instead of the default SFTP. You can suffer like this for a long time, don’t repeat our mistakes.

When the directory of ported numbers is at hand, all that remains is to look for the number being studied in it. Option two:

• The number was found in the BDPN. In this case, we change the operator from the Rossvyaz plan to a new one;
• the number is not in the BDPN - we leave the operator as is.

That's all the wisdom.

Changing operator while maintaining number

In Russia, until the spring of 2014, subscribers had to change their phone number when changing mobile operators. Subscribers who did not want to part with their usual number were forced to stay with the old operator. Thus, they were tied to him and were "in bondage." In the USA, Canada, and a number of European countries, the concept of “mobile slavery” has long been gone - people can change their mobile operator while keeping their phone number. Now this exists in Russia too. Since April 2014, when it was about, subscribers can switch from one mobile operator to another, leaving behind their favorite phone number.

This fact means that it is not always possible to unambiguously determine the mobile operator by phone number. Electronic directories, balance replenishment terminals, cellular payment sites and other services may display inaccurate information, since it is often shown based on a table of codes corresponding to operators. For example, a subscriber with a phone number at +7 (903) xxx-xx-xx moved from Beeline to MTS, and the terminal, when replenishing the balance, can identify the number as belonging to Beeline. It is worth noting that changing a mobile operator in Russia is not widespread, so determining an operator by mobile phone number or code is generally correct and is in demand.

See also how to call from abroad and how to call emergency services.

Information about Russian mobile operator codes is presented based on open data from Rossvyaz. The date for updating the codes on the website “kodificator.ru” is 02/18/2020.

Get access to the database of ported numbers

This is a bureaucratic step, and therefore the most difficult.
And for most companies, it’s completely impassable, unfortunately. Numbers that have changed operators are stored in the database of transferred subscriber numbers (BPDN). Its operator is no longer Rossvyaz, but the Central Research Institute of Communications.

The problem is that it is very difficult to access BDPN. Of course, if you are not a mobile operator, a subject of the national payment system, a law enforcement agency or another department.

All that an ordinary user can do is manually check a specific number

We gained access to BDPN back in 2013 as an “other organization.” But since then the rules appear to have been tightened. Even the application form has changed a lot; the latest one is on the Institute of Communications website. Therefore, I can’t advise anything here, unfortunately.

UPD. In the comments they write that with access everything is not so severe: “I worked in an energy sales company, without any problems I got access to the bdpn in a few days. <…> filled out the application, signed it by the director, stamped it and sent it electronically. Then I called to be sure.”