A mobile phone with many applications and Internet access has long ceased to be something unusual. In the daily “battle for the customer” mobile operators are inventing ever new “super-profitable” tariffs and offers. Until recently, our compatriots could in most cases be prevented from switching from one cellular company to another by the upcoming inevitable troubles associated with changing the phone number.
Since January 2013, Russians have the opportunity to save a phone number when changing their mobile operator. The Russian government’s decree, enthusiastically described by the press as the Law on the Abolition of Mobile Slavery, obliged Russian mobile operators to provide MNP with its Mobile Number Portability service, which makes it possible to apply for a change of company to maintain a valid phone number.
How is the change of operator with saving the number? What documents do you need to provide? Can there be difficulties when changing one mobile operator to another?
General transition rules
Regardless of which company’s SIM card the operator exchanges with saving the number, there are general principles for the transition:
- This service is always paid. The cost of the transition will cost the subscriber 100 rubles. You should immediately clarify the additional costs. It is necessary to find out, for example, how much a SIM card and a package of connected services will cost.
- Using the MNP service too often fails. The law “hedges” mobile operators, allowing you to switch over with the preservation of the phone number no earlier than two months after the start of service by a new mobile company.
- Only the owner, that is, the person, but whose name is issued a SIM card with this phone number, can transfer to another cellular company with saving the number. He must personally submit an application by presenting his passport. In exceptional cases, the transition can be carried out by an authorized person having the appropriate notarized power of attorney from the owner of the number.
- Transfer to another company without changing the number is limited to one region. This means that changing the operator while maintaining the number in Moscow will be possible only in the capital or region. Changing the Moscow number in any other region will fail.
- The phone number remains the same, but the operator issues his SIM card after concluding a service agreement with the subscriber. Services and services connected to a mobile phone number, after moving to another company in most cases will have to be reconnected.
- Blocked phone numbers are not subject to the MNP service.
Is the subscriber obliged to notify the operator of a number change?
It is logical to assume that the "Law on MNP" is primarily on the side of consumers of cellular services, that is, subscribers. But are the rights of a cellular operator losing a subscriber protected by this regulation? For example, if the operator is changed while maintaining the number from MTS to Megafon, is the subscriber obliged to notify MTS about this in advance?
In order to change the operator, the owner of the number must leave a request only in the company where the transition will be carried out. It is not obligatory to warn the company in advance where the subscriber is going to switch from.
Translation terms
Legislators have set specific deadlines in which the mobile company should change the operator while maintaining the number. For any legal entity that has left an application for this service, all numbers indicated in the application are renewed within 29 days.For an individual, this period is even shorter - only 8 days. During this time, operators must conduct the necessary reconciliation of the subscriber’s personal data.
How does the subscriber use cellular communication until the change of operator with saving the number is made? During this period, having both SIM cards in hand - a new and an old one, the subscriber continues to use the services of a “donor" until receiving an SMS indicating the time and date of the transition.
Subscribers who have already completed the transfer procedure with saving the number often warn that it is very important not to allow “zero” or negative balance on the SIM card of the “donor” operator during the transfer. The lack of money in the cell phone account may well serve as an excuse for the operator to refuse to transfer.
Transition to Beeline
What needs to be done by the subscriber in order to keep the Beeline subscriber by retaining the existing cell phone number of another operator company? For example, consider how to change the operator step by step with saving the number from Megafon to Beeline.
A subscriber who wants to change the SIM card served by Megafon to a Beeline SIM card without changing the previous phone number will need to contact any new operator’s office with an identity document. An employee will help a future customer fill out an application for a change of operator while maintaining the existing number. In addition to a personal appeal to a communication salon or office, subscribers now have the opportunity to leave a corresponding application online in a special section on the operator’s website.
The next step is to conclude an agreement with Beeline and receive a SIM card from this company. A subscriber for a new SIM card will need to choose any tariff for a new operator. If the application was executed online, you can order courier delivery of a SIM card and contract for free.
Next, you need to pay 100 rubles for NMP and additionally for a new SIM card, according to the selected tariff. An application for NMP service will be reviewed by the company within 8 days. Throughout this period, the subscriber can use the Megafon SIM card, while avoiding a zero or negative balance. The Beeline SIM card can also be used immediately after hand-out - it will be connected to a temporary number.
The subscriber will be notified about the current status of the abandoned application and about all operations by SMS messages. A day before the number is transferred, the subscriber should receive a message with information about the time when it is necessary to rearrange the Beeline SIM card to your phone.
Transition to Megaphone
For those subscribers who decided to use the services of another major operator - Megafon, there are also two ways to fill out an application: in a communication salon or on the company's official website. What does it look like, for example, changing the operator with saving the number from Tele2 to Megafon?
- To inform Megafon of its decision to change the operator without changing the Tele2 number, the client must either apply for a passport (identification document of the owner of the number) to a communication salon or company office or fill out an application in a special section on the Megafon website . Here, on the company's official website, it is possible to get free delivery of a contract and a new SIM card with a visit to the subscriber’s address of a company specialist to conclude a contract and consult on the proposed tariffs.
- Further, an agreement is concluded, a tariff is selected and a Megafon SIM card is received.
- Payment is made for the NMP service (100 rubles) and the package of a new SIM card in accordance with the tariff chosen by the subscriber.
- After an eight-day period after receiving an SMS notification of a change, the operator needs to change the Tele2 SIM card to Megafon in the phone.
Transition to MTS
The process of transferring to MTS with a telephone number is almost the same. But it is worth paying attention that this company does not have the service of filling out an application online.Changing the operator with saving the number from Tele2 to MTS includes the following actions:
- The subscriber’s appeal to the MTS salon or office with a passport or other identification document. To change the operator, you will need to fill out the appropriate application.
- Signing an agreement, choosing a tariff and receiving a MTS SIM card.
- Payment for NMP services and a SIM card package in accordance with the tariff.
- After an eight-day period after receiving an SMS notification of a change in operator, you need to change the Tele2 SIM card in the phone to MTS.
Transition to Tele2
Separately, it is worth mentioning the transition with the preservation of the number to Tele2, an operator that is not part of the Russian three leaders, but has already gained some fame in our country for a relatively affordable pricing policy.
To go to the service of this operator with his phone number, the subscriber will have to personally write a statement at the Tele2 office (communication salon). Further, the procedure is not much different from the examples already given: the subscriber to whom the SIM card is registered needs to come to the communication salon with a passport and write a statement, sign an agreement with the company. On the same day he will be given a SIM card of the Tele2 company.
After that, within 8 days, the subscriber should receive an SMS indicating when the transfer of the phone number will occur, and you will need to rearrange the SIM card in your phone. During this period, the subscriber is obliged to liquidate debts to the donor company, if any.
After turning on the “Tele2” SIM card, the subscriber’s number may be unavailable for some time, but no more than half an hour - this is usually warned in advance when concluding an agreement.
Responsibility of operators
Changes in the Federal Law “On Communication”, namely, in article 46 of this law, stipulate the liability of a mobile company for violation of the terms for transferring a telephone number. Thus, if the transfer of the subscriber’s phone number is still not completed within the prescribed 8 days, the operator, who has violated the terms of transferring the number to another company, is obliged to provide the client with the opportunity to use mobile communication free of charge until the change of operator with the preservation of the number is actually made.
Customer Reviews
Perhaps the best way would be to characterize such a service as changing the operator with saving the number, feedback from subscribers who have already gone through the process of transferring the number to another mobile company.
Today, if we analyze the latest reviews of people moving from one cellular company to another operator while maintaining the existing number, it can be noted that the quality of this process is gradually getting better. About operations such as changing the operator with saving the number from Megafon to Beeline, the reviews are rather positive. Subscribers note the convenience of filling out an application for a change of operator through a special section on the company's official website, the availability of free delivery of a new SIM card and a client agreement by courier.
Another positive point is that the operators, according to reviews, have become more responsible for observing the deadline for transferring a phone number established by law. An insignificant number of complaints comes about the occurrence of confusion in the statements or when reconciling the personal data of the subscriber between the companies-operators.
There are also negative reviews. The most common observations are:
- When you connect a new SIM card for several days, you may experience problems with communication, SMS delivery or Internet access. As a rule, to solve the problem, subscribers have to contact the technical support of the operator serving the SIM card.
- Employees of the subscription department, filling out an application for the transition with the preservation of the number, do not warn about the need to maintain a positive balance of the "donor" SIM card for an eight-day period provided for the transfer of the telephone number.
- In certain regions, donor companies often slow down the process by not providing information on the confirmation of the client’s personal data.
- Online filling in the application for the provision of NMP services of the existing number is still valid only for some large cities. In other settlements, the subscriber has to apply to fill out an application to the operator’s communication salon (office).
