MTS and Region-South

Scandal in the Krasnodar Territory over blocking up to 30,000 phone numbers. The case is typical and is a good example, because the services of "service providers" are used by many hundreds of thousands of subscribers. And, of course, not only in the Krasnodar Territory.

An interesting coincidence: literally three days before the event, we published a general overview of corporate tariff offers for individuals, you can read it here. And in the review, I separately warned about potential troubles, including the possible loss of the number. By and large, this is not a coincidence and the material was published for a reason, but as a warning. In times of economic troubles, service providers (colloquially "collective farms") often go bankrupt and cease to exist, as was the case in 2009-2010. Now this topic is again relevant and the trouble with the Region-South provider confirms this.

Continuation of the "literacy program on" collective farms "

According to the multi-page discussions on the net, people have no idea about the trap into which they voluntarily drive themselves into when “buying” a phone number from a service provider. Although everyone signs the Treaty and some even read it. Note that this is an agreement with a service provider, not with the operator directly. Giving a lot of money for a beautiful number, you do not buy a number for yourself, but pay for the right to use someone else's property. The number remains registered with the service provider and you also conclude an agreement with him, you do not have legal relations with the mobile operator. And the operator has no obligations towards you either. In general, there are none, you are not a subscriber for the operator, but a user. And I also wrote about this subtlety of the "Law on Communications", you can read it here. Quote:

"The difference between a 'subscriber' and a 'user'." As a reminder that the subscriber is a user who has entered into an agreement with the operator. Having presented, sold or given a SIM card to a child, you remain a subscriber with all his rights and obligations. Including obligations to pay for services rendered. And vice versa: having bought a SIM card from one of the numerous service providers, you do not become a subscriber. That is, you do not dispose of your number and the money on the balance sheet does not belong to you. If the service provider goes bankrupt, then you will deal with him, and not with the operator. Which, in fact, happened many times.”

In the event of force majeure, you are almost guaranteed to lose the rest of the money on your balance, connection fees and, possibly, a favorable tariff. And you get a couple of weeks of hassle and running around and a non-working phone. Plus, you pay for re-registration, but 340 rubles. – already a trifle. This is in the most beautiful case and with the good will of the operator and service provider. With a less favorable outcome, you also lose your number and, of course, the money paid for it. A fresh example before my eyes, an excellent illustration of the fact that these are not abstract "horror stories".

Region-South: End, or what?

Obviously, a rather large “Service Provider” serving (served?) About 15,000 or even 30,000 subscribers in the Krasnodar Territory. Including, according to some information, about 3,000 "beautiful" numbers, many of which were used as advertising. Which provoked a wave of active "showdowns" in the network.

On March 19, subscribers received an SMS about blocking the number "due to your violation of the terms of service," photos and screenshots quickly spread across the network. During three days of heated discussions (more than 15 pages were dashed off on Vkontakte), no amount of hypotheses, assumptions and conspiracy theories were expressed! For example: “For users of the Region-South, MTS applies the same strategy as in the Crimea with the voluntary-compulsory transfer of MTS-Ukraine subscribers to K-Telecom. First, block everyone, and then slowly issue new SIM cards to everyone. And, since there is no big choice, everyone wants to get them.

Misunderstanding of what was happening also reigned on the city portal, and, ironically, the discussion thread was crowned with a hefty advertising banner with beautiful mobile numbers as contact numbers. I can imagine how this banner angered people who suddenly lost their numbers bought for business. And again, theories with assumptions. Judging by the discussions, most of the victims had no idea before that they were being served not in MTS, but in the mysterious "Region-South".

Region-South itself set out its version of events in a lengthy complaint against the insidious MTS, which, on a far-fetched pretext, turned off the numbers out of revenge for Region-South's "obstinacy", which six months ago offended a relative of a local MTS employee. And they complained to Roskomnadzor about MTS, now they are being avenged for this too. In general, "intrigues, scandals, investigations" in full.

The MTS also reacted to the discussion, but reacted in a peculiar way. Quote:

“MTS suspended the service of a number of numbers that bought SIM cards from the Region-South legal entity. This company violated the legislation of the Russian Federation in terms of providing communication services – in particular, paragraphs. "d" clause 25 of the Rules for the provision of telephone services, approved by Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation dated December 09, 2014 No. 1342, as well as the Conditions for the provision of mobile communication services MTS and MTS have already filed lawsuits against Region-south.

The violation concerns the legal entity Region-South, not subscribers. In order not to be left without communication, customers can contact MTS and draw up direct contracts with the operator.

Respectfully, Anna V.
MTS OJSC.

Guess how the owners of blocked numbers understood this clarification? That's right, they rushed to the MTS salons to re-register the numbers for themselves. Now guess what they were offered in the salons? That's right, they offered to buy new sim cards with other numbers. Formally, there are no complaints against the author of the clarification, but it is written “to issue”, and not “to re-register”. But, taking into account the topic of discussion, they could have formulated it more clearly.

Now let's see what the "Region-South" provider is charged with and for which they blocked the phones of 15,000 (according to other sources, 30,000) users. Quote from "Rules":

"25. Subscriber must:

a) pay a fee for the rendered telephone services in full and within the terms specified by the contract;

b) use equipment that meets the established requirements to connect to the communication network;

c) inform the telecom operator about changes in the last name (first name, patronymic) and place of residence for subscribers – individuals, name (company name) and location for subscribers – legal entities within a period not exceeding 60 days from the date of such changes;

d) quarterly submit to the telecom operator a duly certified list of persons using the equipment of a subscriber – a legal entity, containing last names, first names, patronymics, places of residence, details of the main identity document of these persons, and in case of a change in the actual users of the equipment of a legal entity – provide information about new users no later than 15 days from the day it became known.

According to the text of the required subparagraph "d", the company was guilty of the timing or form (not properly assured?) of reporting data on users. Believable? In my opinion, not really. Surely there are less "crushing" ways to deal with this kind of violation. Used as a legitimate reason? Maybe. If so, then we are unlikely to know the true reason. And the reason must be good, since losing 15,000 subscribers in one fell swoop (as stated) and spoiling your regional karma is a bad policy. The real reason lies in the field of finance, or something else, but they didn’t want to pull out the real reason “into the light of day”? Everything is possible, but there is no point in fantasizing.

What will happen and what to do

According to the statements made by both parties, the situation has "went into disarray": both MTS and Region-South are writing statements to the prosecutor's office and preparing lawsuits against each other. Although, they may well declare to calm the angry public. In any case, the very fact of blocking and the subsequent voice acting of the confrontation hint that a full return to the "pre-crisis" situation is unlikely. Users are already writing complaints and statements to the prosecutor's office at MTS, although there is not much point in this. As I wrote above, they do not have contractual relations with MTS and complaints are not addressed.

According to the experience of "resolving" similar situations with service providers in MTS, there was hope for a more or less favorable outcome. If the service provider agrees to the re-assignment of numbers, then they make lists of users and MTS re-registers them as full-fledged subscribers, charging 340 rubles from each. for the change of ownership procedure. There is a fair amount of trouble and everyone has to visit the MTS office, but they manage it in two weeks. If you are really lucky, they even leave the previous tariff, drawing up individual contracts according to the “Your Circle” template. There have already been such precedents (and far from one).

And what will happen in our particular case with the Region-South provider? The official response of the press service of MTS:

“We are talking about numerous violations by this company

MTS suspended the service of a number of numbers that bought SIM cards from the Region-South legal entity – we are talking about several thousand numbers. This company violated the legislation of the Russian Federation regarding the provision of communication services.

A legal entity subscriber is obliged to quarterly provide the operator with a certified list of persons using its subscriber equipment, containing last names, first names, patronymics, places of residence, details of the main identity document of these persons. Repeated requests from MTS to provide this information were ignored by Region-South.

Why are anonymous sims bad?

Anonymous SIM cards can be used to create a threat to national and economic security, and used by terrorists, financial scammers, spammers. In addition, such SIM cards can be used to access the Internet in order to incite religious and ethnic hatred, drug trafficking, weapons or prohibited content. In the event of such a threat, the lack of reliable information from the operator about the persons using the data of the SIM card may interfere with the conduct of operational search activities and investigative actions.

Subscribers will not be able to keep their previous numbers, however, our retailer selects the most similar ones with other prefixes."

According to the official response, the companies failed to reach an acceptable compromise. Let's not "stir up inter-regional strife" and guess which of the two is "stubborn" and for what reason. Let's take note and evaluate the consequences:

Restoration of purchased numbers to users "does not shine" with a probability of 90%. They promise "as similar as possible" in another DEF, but I wouldn't flatter myself too much.
MTS will not refund fees for "beautiful numbers". The price of the room, the cost of connection, etc. are the subject of contractual relations between Region-South and the user who paid for the services of "information and advisory services of Region-South" (this is a quote from the Agreement).
The rest of the money on the balance sheets, most likely, will not be returned either. The total amount will be taken into account in the process of settling mutual financial claims between MTS and Region-South. Theoretically, users can try to sue Region-South, but you understand the prospects.
Will MTS retain "Region-South" corporate tariffs for its "new" subscribers? Here I can only recall an ancient anecdote about the chance to meet a dinosaur on the street: “Probability is 50%. Either you meet or you don’t.”

Recently I came across a link on the forum, an announcement on Avito. Not quite “on topic”, more “for your information”. The mysterious “promo codes” put up for sale are targeted for retail employees. If the employee for whom the promo code was issued did not pass the certification and quit, then the tariff will be taken away. Taking into account the average period of work of employees in MTS / RTK retail (5 months), 8,000 rubles. fees for a "promo code" are unlikely to pay off. If you want to play tariff roulette, then to your health. But here at least the number is not going anywhere.

MTS and Region-South

Continuation of the "literacy program on" collective farms "

"The difference between a 'subscriber' and a 'user'." As a reminder that the subscriber is a user who has entered into an agreement with the operator. Having presented, sold or given a SIM card to a child, you remain a subscriber with all his rights and obligations. Including the obligation to pay for services rendered. And vice versa: having bought a SIM card from one of the numerous service providers, you do not become a subscriber. That is, you do not dispose of your number and the money on the balance sheet does not belong to you. If the service provider goes bankrupt, then you will deal with him, and not with the operator. Which, in fact, happened many times.”

Region-South: End, or what?

The MTS also reacted to the discussion, but reacted in a peculiar way. Quote:

The violation concerns the legal entity Region-South, not subscribers. In order not to be left without communication, customers can contact MTS and draw up direct contracts with the operator.

Respectfully, Anna V.
MTS OJSC.

Guess how the owners of blocked numbers understood this clarification? That's right, they rushed to the MTS salons to re-register the numbers for themselves. Now guess what they were offered in the salons? That's right, they offered to buy new sim cards with other numbers. Formally, there are no complaints against the author of the clarification, but it is https://tonaton.com/c_watches/t_richard-mille written “to issue”, and not “to re-register”. But, taking into account the topic of discussion, they could have formulated it more clearly.

Now let's see what the "Region-South" provider is charged with and for which they blocked the phones of 15,000 (according to other sources, 30,000) users. Quote from "Rules":

"25. Subscriber must:

a) pay a fee for the rendered telephone services in full and within the terms specified by the contract;

b) use equipment that meets the established requirements to connect to the communication network;

What will happen and what to do

And what will happen in our particular case with the Region-South provider? The official response of the press service of MTS:

“We are talking about numerous violations by this company

Why are anonymous sims bad?

Subscribers will not be able to keep their previous numbers, however, our retailer selects the most similar ones with other prefixes."

Restoration of purchased numbers to users "does not shine" with a probability of 90%. They promise "as similar as possible" in another DEF, but I wouldn't flatter myself too much.
MTS will not return the fee for "beautiful numbers". The price of the room, the cost of connection, etc. are the subject of contractual relations between Region-South and the user who paid for the services of "information and advisory services of Region-South" (this is a quote from the Agreement).
The rest of the money on the balance sheets, most likely, will not be returned either. The total amount will be taken into account in the process of settling mutual financial claims between MTS and Region-South. Theoretically, users can try to sue Region-South, but you understand the prospects.
Will MTS retain "Region-South" corporate tariffs for its "new" subscribers? Here I can only recall an ancient anecdote about the chance to meet a dinosaur on the street: “Probability is 50%. Either you meet or you don’t.”

MTS and Region-South

Continuation of the "literacy program on" collective farms "

Region-South: End, or what?

The MTS also reacted to the discussion, but reacted in a peculiar way. Quote:

The violation concerns the legal entity Region-South, not subscribers. In order not to be left without communication, customers can contact MTS and draw up direct contracts with the operator.

Respectfully, Anna V.
MTS OJSC.

Now let's see what the "Region-South" provider is charged with and for which they blocked the phones of 15,000 (according to other sources, 30,000) users. Quote from "Rules":

"25. Subscriber must:

a) pay a fee for the rendered telephone services in full and within the terms specified by the contract;

b) use equipment that meets the established requirements to connect to the communication network;

What will happen and what to do

And what will happen in our particular case with the Region-South provider? The official response of the press service of MTS:

“We are talking about numerous violations by this company

Why are anonymous sims bad?

Subscribers will not be able to keep their previous numbers, however, our retailer selects the most similar ones with other prefixes."

Restoration of purchased numbers to users "does not shine" with a probability of 90%. They promise "as similar as possible" in another DEF, but I wouldn't flatter myself too much.
MTS will not refund fees for "beautiful numbers". The price of the room, the cost of connection, etc. are the subject of contractual relations between Region-South and the user who paid for the services of "information and advisory services of Region-South" (this is a quote from the Agreement).
The rest of the money on the balance sheets, most likely, will not be returned either. The total amount will be taken into account in the process of settling mutual financial claims between MTS and Region-South. Theoretically, users can try to sue Region-South, but you understand the prospects.
Will MTS retain "Region-South" corporate tariffs for its "new" subscribers? Here I can only recall an ancient anecdote about the chance to meet a dinosaur on the street: “Probability is 50%. Either you meet or you don’t.”

MTS and Region-South

Scandal in the Krasnodar Territory over the blocking of up to 30 thousand telephone numbers. The case is typical and is a good example, because the services of "service providers" are used by many hundreds of thousands of subscribers. And, of course, not only in the Krasnodar Territory.

Scandal in the Krasnodar Territory about blocking up to 30 thousand phone numbers. The case is typical and is a good example, because the services of "service providers" are used by many hundreds of thousands of subscribers. And, of course, not only in the Krasnodar Territory.

Continuation of the "literacy program on" collective farms "

"The difference between a 'subscriber' and a 'user'." As a reminder that the subscriber is a user who has entered into an agreement with the operator. Having presented, sold or given a SIM card to a child, you remain a subscriber with all his rights and obligations. Including the obligation to pay for services rendered. And vice versa: having bought a SIM card from one of the numerous service providers, you do not become a subscriber. That is, you do not dispose of your number and the money on the balance sheet does not belong to you. If the service provider goes bankrupt, then you will deal with him, and not with the operator. Which, in fact, happened many times.”

Region-South: End, or what?

The MTS also reacted to the discussion, but reacted in a peculiar way. Quote:

The violation concerns the legal entity Region-South, not subscribers. In order not to be left without communication, customers can contact MTS and draw up direct contracts with the operator.

Sincerely, Anna V. OJSC "MTS".

Now let's see what the "Region-South" provider is charged with and for which they blocked the phones of 15,000 (according to other sources, 30,000) users. Quote from "Rules":

"25. Subscriber must:

a) pay a fee for the rendered telephone services in full and within the terms specified by the contract;

b) use equipment that meets the established requirements to connect to the communication network;

What will happen and what to do

And what will happen in our particular case with the Region-South provider? The official response of the press service of MTS:

“We are talking about numerous violations by this company

Why are anonymous sims bad?

Subscribers will not be able to keep their previous numbers, however, our retailer selects the most similar ones with other prefixes."

Restoration of purchased numbers to users "does not shine" with a probability of 90%. They promise "as similar as possible" in another DEF, but I wouldn't flatter myself too much.
MTS will not refund fees for "beautiful numbers". The price of the room, the cost of connection, etc. are the subject of contractual relations between Region-South and the user who paid for the services of "information and advisory services of Region-South" (this is a quote from the Agreement).
The rest of the money on the balance sheets, most likely, will not be returned either. The total amount will be taken into account in the process of settling mutual financial claims between MTS and Region-South. Theoretically, users can try to sue Region-South, but you understand the prospects.
Will MTS retain "Region-South" corporate tariffs for its "new" subscribers? Here I can only recall an ancient anecdote about the chance to meet a dinosaur on the street: “Probability is 50%. Either you meet or you don’t.”

MTS and Region-South

Continuation of the &#34;literacy program on&#34; collective farms &#34;

Region-South: End, or what?

What will happen and what to do

MTS and Region-South

Continuation of the &#34;literacy program on&#34; collective farms &#34;

Region-South: End, or what?

What will happen and what to do

MTS and Region-South

Continuation of the &#34;literacy program on&#34; collective farms &#34;

Region-South: End, or what?

What will happen and what to do

MTS and Region-South

Continuation of the &#34;literacy program on&#34; collective farms &#34;

Region-South: End, or what?

What will happen and what to do

Continuation of the "literacy program on" collective farms "

Continuation of the "literacy program on" collective farms "

Continuation of the "literacy program on" collective farms "

Continuation of the "literacy program on" collective farms "