The customs office should address the issues of “grey” imports of mobile terminals, not mobile communications operators.
“As for IMEI codes [international mobile equipment identity], we oppose to disconnecting subscribers due to the fact that an unscrupulous seller sold them a ‘grey’ phone. The fight against illegal import and sale of mobile phones is a function of customs authorities and law enforcement agencies. Shifting this work to telecom operators is wrong,” Kyivstar President Alexander Komarov said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
He also said that in order to solve the problem of stolen telephones there is a so-called “black list of devices,” into which the “phones” get under a statement of the owner about theft or loss and after that they can no longer be used in the networks of operators of a particular country.
At the same time, Komarov said that the identification of subscribers is needed. However, it should be carried out sequentially, in several stages, with certain incentives for subscribers from the operators and the state, he said.
“Identification is, first of all, protecting the subscriber himself from the fact that someone can “steal” the phone number and withdraw money from the card. For some reason, our people are not afraid of this, they think about mythical surveillance, and not about basic security principles of their funds,” the president of Kyivstar said.
According to him, today, up to 15% of the subscribers in the Kyivstar network are identified customers.
