How to switch to another cellular operator. How to change mobile operator while keeping your number

Let's start with the fact that now everyone cell number in our country has become significantly longer and begins, for example, on D7799. D - this means that this 15-digit number cannot be dialed from a regular mobile phone. Then the area code (77), then the operator code (99).

CDB - general database of Russian operators

When MNP (number portability) was first introduced, the last three weeks were simply enchanting. Why? It’s just that throughout the world such a procedure is implemented on average in 2 years, but in Russia it was only 5 months.

Normal number porting process

There are 4 different processes transfers that differ in conditions and time. They all imply that the subscriber comes to the recipient operator (from whom he wants to be serviced) and writes a transfer application indicating when he wants to switch. You can still make an application from the website from personal account both for individuals and legal entities, so as not to fill out paperwork in the office. There is a courier who delivers everything at once along with SIM cards.

Immediately after the application we provide a temporary SIM card(not all operators do this). During the first part of the number transfer, there is simply a random number on it from among the free ones from the number capacity, and after transferring your number to our number capacity, we simply rewrite the number on this SIM remotely. And the subscriber can safely call his old number without another trip to our office.

After you have submitted your application, we contact the central database through which all operators communicate. Communication goes like this:
- Base, are we the only ones who are porting numbers now?
- Yes, there are no two simultaneous processes.
- Base, ah new number And old number in one subject of the Federation?
- Yes, zonal addressing is the same.
- Database, does the subscriber have any debt to the old operator at the time of submitting the application?
- No, everything is clear, you can connect.
- Database, just in case: what exactly is the number of this operator from which we are going to transfer?
- Don’t worry, let’s bear it.

This is what it looks like for the subscriber

Having gone through everything possible checks status, the application goes to the donor operator for validation(we call it “mother” in slang). Now " big three» verification operations for individuals are performed automatically, which saves a lot of time. Full name and passport details are checked. In our experience, approximately 30% of applications are eliminated at this stage.

If the validation of the questionnaire was successful, a pause is made for 2 days, and the current debt is determined. If it exists, another 3 days are given to repay it, during which the subscriber is told 2 times that he has not paid. Not repaid - the application is rejected. There is no debt - the transfer date is confirmed. There is an opportunity to refuse this transfer for 2 more days, then it will not be possible.

A day before the transfer, the subscriber receives an SMS with instructions that he must remember to change the SIM card, and so on, while he can still receive them, because then the connection will be interrupted.

During the procedure, you can lively monitor the process. Here we have it:
*444*1# - this is the command for the status of your application.
In your personal account temporary number- the status of the application and the progress of all procedures regarding it.
For each important event- SMS with an explanation of what this means.
There is 8-800-700-4004 where you can call for the status of your application.

Point X

The transfer itself begins. Interruption of communication for 6 hours is allowed by law. Here we have it: if all systems (ours and other operators) are working normally, then the subscriber is unavailable for about 20 minutes. More precisely, like this (the timing for us, for other operators will be different):
The outgoing connection connects almost immediately.
Incoming Beeline - 15–20 minutes.
Incoming from the donor operator - within an hour, usually also 15–20 minutes.
Incoming from other mobile operators in the country - about 2 more hours.
Incoming from fixed operators- about the same, for rare regional operators - a little longer.

At moment X, when the transfer begins, a new number is written to the SIM card, and it is also updated in billing. It must be said that the SIM card contains only IMSI (international identifier mobile subscriber). Your IMSI is assigned a new Russian subscriber number.

In order to be able to define new routing, the entire addressing scheme in Russia had to be changed. As I said, numbers inside routing systems are now written in a 15-digit format starting with something like D7799. This means that now the ownership of a number is determined not by the first numbers like 903, as was the case when a specific number capacity was assigned to an operator, but by the region prefix and operator in this 15-digit “routing” number. Well, and also according to the “where to route” parameter, which may also be in the database (or may not be). This is important for clients of virtual operators.

After X

Information about the ported number is received payment systems and begin to route payments correctly. Not everyone does this at the same speed, so a common request on the first day after the transfer is “When will my payment arrive?”

On the first day, it is better to deposit directly through the new operator. It is optimal to pay by card from the new operator’s website or in the operator’s salon manually.

There may be cases when a subscriber begins to complain about a lack of communication in some areas. What is typical is incoming. And, naturally, he believes that the new operator is to blame.

In reality, everything is simpler. The fact is that with correct routing through the normal route, the call comes directly from the operator caller to the called operator without additional loops. If suddenly the caller’s operator switch decides that it is necessary to give the call to the “mother”, then the “mother” (as the original owner of the capacity) is obliged to route through herself. For money, by the way, which encourages many small operators to immediately register routes correctly. And of course, a regular problem arises: a subscriber comes to us, he does not have an incoming long-distance connection and part of the fixed line. The "mother" was unable to correctly forward the call to the routing node - and hung up. This is due to inaccurate implementation of the specification on the nodes of the calling operator and, sometimes, to bugs in the routing of the “mother”.

Today, several thousand subscribers are transferred per day, and only 1-2 may encounter such problems. In the first 10 days or so after the start of the migration, we rolled out software releases every day, correcting both our own mistakes and achieving compatibility with the releases of our colleagues. We had to update 25 subsystems. It was decided this way: we immediately decided not to rewrite our standard CRM, but to make separate solutions that worked on the gap between the incoming data and the rest of the “internal kitchen”, and were responsible for converting numbers. A kind of universal connectors.

Number of transfers

The number of subscriber transitions from operator to operator is open data. On average, from the very beginning we have had a constant and large influx of legal entities, and in the last month there has been a stable plus for individual subscribers. At the beginning of MNP, we had a clear influx in the south of the Russian Federation and fluctuations back and forth in a number of regions, later the delta began to decrease, and now we are in a stable plus in terms of the subscriber base every day.

Other transfer procedures

For individuals the period is 9 days. For legal entities, the period is 29 days, in particular, because manual verification of documents is mandatory. They also have an extended payment period; they can pay off the debt in weeks. You can indicate any number of numbers in the application, for example, only half of the corporate numbers from the entire contract with the old operator. Each number is transferred individually - at the end the statement is broken down into lines.

For small legal entities with the number of rooms 5 or less - also 9 days.

For the B2G market (state-owned companies) - 9 days, but there is no debt verification. The contract is checked, when the competition is completed, it is verified that the person submitting the application is the winner of the competition.

There is also a procedure for emergency number return. For example, the subscriber changed his mind on time, took the application to the office at 21:59, but they did not have time to enter it into the database. In general, you can return the number back within 24 hours if there are compelling technical reasons. For example, one large plant was transferred from us, which suddenly changed its mind and wrote a statement of refusal. The operator he transferred to delayed the registration of the application, and the numbers changed. At this point, the employees had already thrown out the SIM cards of the failed new operator. And the next day after consideration of the claim, an emergency refund was made.

Increase your process: 10 times 25 centimeters

The length of the process with all steps in Visio is 250 centimeters. We started with 4 steps, and then began to write exceptions.

For example, the “nurse operator” has the right to say after 45 days that the subscriber owes him money. Firstly, a couple of rubles can come after last check debt. Secondly, there are a lot of details on postpaid, and the invoice may arrive in a month or two. Thirdly, late roaming data may only arrive. At this moment, the subscriber has 10 days to reach the old operator and pay off the debt (it won’t work through regular machines - the routes are already new). Further, if it does not extinguish, a block is placed through the central base (this prerequisite standard). Several dozen numbers are blocked this way every day.

One more thing. Since at moment X the number moved from the “mother’s” number capacity to our number capacity, at the moment of the end of the contract we need to return the number to the base. Specifically, when the subscriber decides to end the contract, the number is returned. Now there are about 50–100 such returns per day.

FAQ

- Why can’t I transfer a number from one geographical area to another?
Because Russia uses a zone routing system. Abandoning such a system would mean restructuring the architecture of almost all fixed-line operators. But even if it is technically possible to register new routing in this way, legislative changes are needed - numbering capacity is now issued to the subject of the Federation.

- My girlfriend's free calls on Beeline, will she be able to call the new number for free?
Yes, when you transfer to us, the new number will be considered “ours”, and calls to her will be free. However, there is a nuance: when the “mother” or recipient is an MVNO without an MNC, then a special table of exceptions must be made. Not everyone does it, or some operators update it manually. This means, for example, that for a number of small regional operators the number may be “nobody’s”, and you will not be able to use bonuses for calling your own.

- How do you find out whose number then?
We have a USSD command: *444*NUMBER#, for example, 444*9031111111#. In response, a message comes with what kind of operator it is (Beeline or not) and what region (if it is different). Other operators have similar means (by calling on IVR or requesting via SMS or USSD), which should, according to the standard, give at least the operator. It is not necessary to give away the region, but we do.

- What should I check before transferring?

1. Make sure that the “mother operator” has recorded your full name and passport data without errors.
2. Check through the office of the “mother operator” or his call center that there are no debts of 2 kopecks on all old contracts. They will definitely remember the SIM card that you bought in another city 10 years ago and threw away at the station - pay an extra ruble to the cashier, or the “mother” will reject the application.
3. If you go to a small regional operator or a virtual operator, keep in mind that a lot can be entered there manually. You may not have a connection for 20 minutes, but a little more, plus there will be difficulties with billing and payment in the first days.
4. If your phone is the only access to the Internet, write down the call center number of the new operator in advance - it will come in handy. All short numbering is routing within your operator's network. For example, we made aliases for “strangers” short numbers support at home, but not everyone does this.

- Why were there so many errors in the first time after MNP was introduced?
Colleagues will understand: we worked 15–17 hours a day back then due to very tight deadlines for specifications. Plus, naturally, few people outside the Big Three actually documented their technical processes in detail. As a result, for the first 4–5 months we caught bugs. It was not possible to test: all other operators immediately entered production, so the first 10 days (and about three to four hundred first subscribers) were actually beta testers. There were difficulties with encryption: each operator encrypts on its own side. The interaction took about a month to establish. Now we and other large operators have everything more or less debugged and automated, but out of two or three thousand subscribers, something will still go wrong for one. We'll sort it out with our colleagues, document it, and roll out a new patch.

- When are 100 rubles charged for transfer?
The amount specified in the regulations is charged for number transfer - 100 rubles. We write it off only when the transfer is successfully completed; some other operators take it upon submission of the application. This is important because from half to a third of applications are rejected, and these 100 rubles are not returned.

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Any subscriber may need to change mobile operator, for example, if in home region or the city has very poor reception or, simply, the conditions of another operator have become much more favorable. What can you do in in this case, how to switch to another operator and at the same time keep your old number, already known to a large circle of friends?

In this article we will discuss in detail the issue of switching to Tele2 while maintaining the number, indicating specific examples for all major mobile operators - Megafon, MTS, Beeline.

Is it possible to switch to Tele2 while keeping your number?

Tele2 is a relatively new but well-established operator that operates throughout our country and the CIS countries. Coverage areas are constantly expanding, 4G technologies are being introduced, and new tariffs are being introduced for subscribers on preferential terms. Therefore, many users prefer to use this particular operator to make calls and other services.

Since 2013, Tele2 has been accepting applications to transfer subscribers from other operators. That is, any user who is on at the moment makes calls from MTS, Beeline, Megafon and other mobile operators, without special problems can transfer his number to Tele2 and already make all payments in their system.

How to switch to Tele2 service and save your number

You must submit an application to one of the company's offices. To do this, we recommend that you open the official website tele2.ru in your browser or call toll free number 88005550611 to find out the nearest offices in your city or region.

As a rule, switching to Tele2 is possible only if the following conditions are met:

1. You must contact the office of the company where your SIM card was issued and find out who the number is registered to. The fact is that all data will be exactly transferred to another operator, accordingly, contact service center Only the owner of the SIM card will be able to use Tele2. A re-registration procedure with pre-certified documents is also possible if the SIM card was issued to another person and he is not able to come with you.
2. As soon as you find out the address of the nearest Tele2 office, take your passport and come to the office. Our specialists will help you draw up a contract and tell you about all the nuances of this procedure. After signing the contract you will be given new SIM card, most likely with 4G support and Nano SIM technology.
3. Even if you have been issued a new SIM card, the transition is not yet complete. First, a check will be carried out to determine whether there are debts to the previous operator. We recommend that you disable all services from subscription fee, restore zero or positive balance. The transition is usually completed within a week.
4. Tele2 will check for debts, and if everything is in order, a notification will soon be sent to the number of the old SIM card indicating that you can switch to the services of the new operator. You rearrange the SIM card (which was given to you by Tele2) and you can use all the tariffs and options of the new mobile operator.

Sometimes the transition process takes more than a week, because... The transfer affects two companies and a subscriber at once.

In some cases, the new SIM card may be out of coverage for 30-60 minutes after the transition. We recommend that you restart your phone so that the SIM card detects new type networks.

Switch to Tele2 while maintaining the number of MTS, Beeline, Megafon

The principle of transferring your number is identical for all mobile operators. To switch to Tele2 while keeping your number, you must write an application at any nearest Tele2 office!

A prerequisite is that you should not have any debts to the old operator, because in this case the transition will be impossible. We recommend that you check whether you have the “Trusted Payments” option enabled, when the number can go into the red. If the option is enabled, then you will have to top up your account in order for the balance to be restored to a positive one.

How to independently switch to Tele2 with your number using the company’s website

You can contact not only through the company’s office, but also through the official website, which is available at http://mnp.tele2.ru. This separate page, which describes the entire transition procedure, and also contains special form to apply.

What you need to know after the transition

As a rule, some services automatically determine the phone code and mobile operator when entering the number. Therefore, problems are possible, for example, when you select “Megafon” in the list and enter your Tele2 number, previously transferred from Megafon. This is where a little confusion arises.

The personal account that was created for your number with the old operator will be automatically deactivated and inaccessible. It can be re-registered with a new mobile operator on the official website. Today, all popular companies provide their subscribers with access to their personal account to manage services.

For more than 10 years I have been a subscriber of the Tele2 mobile operator. The SIM card was purchased when I was a young ninth grader. And although the quality of their communications suffered at that time, the range of tariffs was very attractive, as always. This is an ideal option for a student. But time makes its own adjustments. Information Technology leaked into all spheres, and constant access to global network is already an integral attribute of civilized life. And it’s not only, and not so much, the ability to post bows every minute social media(although it depends on who) how many practical benefits there are, especially if life is closely connected with IT. Apparently, the management of Tele2 does not agree with this. While other operators are already getting 4G coverage, Tele2 subscribers are still using GPRS. I can’t say anything bad about this operator, they just have their own sector of the market, and they work well in it. For me, the only problem was access to the Internet, so I had been thinking about switching to MegaFon for a long time. True, I didn’t really want to change my number, which was already many years old, which was recorded by all my friends and linked to all online services. And about a year ago, it became possible to change mobile operator without changing the number. From other people's feedback, I knew that after such a transition there may be problems with communication and receiving SMS from online services, so I decided to take this step with some apprehension and moral readiness for intimate conversations with operators of all kinds of technical support. :) In this short article I will tell you how everything went in my case (“Tele2” -> “MegaFon”) and what problems I had to face - perhaps this information will be useful to someone else. For those who are already impatiently twitching their legs after reading this far, I’ll say, looking ahead, that overall the transition went well, and at the moment I don’t see any problems. A short list of recommendations is provided at the end of the article.

Transition procedure

First of all, it is necessary to eliminate any debt to the old operator. Next, you should make sure that your current SIM card is linked to your relevant passport details, that is, to those that you will provide to the new operator. If suddenly the SIM card is registered to your parents, who in the distant past bought it for you as a gift along with a phone, or you registered it with your old passport, which you later changed at the age of 20 (just my case), then you need to go to the office to your operator and write an application to clarify your passport data. I was able to find out that the passport data in the database did not match my current passport data by calling help desk"Tele2". What happens if you initiate the procedure if there are debts or outdated passport data in the database? I don’t know this for sure, but stories on the Internet suggest that the transition could then last for many weeks. Once all this is settled, your business with the old operator is over. Now you need go with your passport to the office of the new operator and write an application for switching. In my case it cost 100 rubles. and took 10 minutes of time in the office. Based on the results, you are given a new SIM card and informed on what day it will start working (in about a week). You hide it in your desk drawer and continue using your old SIM card as usual for a few days. On the appointed day, the old SIM card becomes inactive. In my case, the phone continued to “catch the network”, calls and SMS simply stopped working. We replace the SIM card. Voila? It's not that simple. :)

Problems

The first significant inconvenience I encountered can be safely chalked up to MegaFon. The fact is that the 100 rubles paid at the office. This is the cost of the transition service, they are not credited to the account. If you have chosen a service package with a monthly subscription fee (“all inclusive”), then when the new SIM card becomes active, the balance on it will be negative. In other words, subscription fee for the first month is immediately written off from the already zero balance. And although this means that the package of services for a month in advance has already been paid, when negative balance your phone turns into useless firewood, so you need to immediately deposit money into your account (the office warns about this). At that moment the fun begins. Nowadays, going outside to pay mobile communications, - sin. But personally, for me all payment systems are tied to mobile phone with authentication via SMS. I had to pull up my pants and stomp to the nearest terminal. And in the payment terminals at that moment the information about my number had not yet been updated, and the terminals continued to believe that the number was tied to the old operator. That is, despite the fact that I selected “MegaFon”, after entering the phone number the terminal automatically changed the payment recipient to “Tele2”. Two payments total amount for 150 rubles, which I deposited at random from two different terminals, went nowhere. Is the only way out to go to the MegaFon office? In desperation, I went to their website with the hope of finding a payment form there - after all, it would be strange if through it money went past Megafon to the old operator. Having found the form, I had to, apologizing and explaining myself in every possible way, turn to a friend with a request to make a payment through this site. Only after this I was able to make calls and became available to other subscribers. Thus, new subscriber MegaFon almost inevitably finds itself in a situation in which it is without communication for several hours. I wanted to deposit money into the account in advance, when I was still writing an application for transfer at the MegaFon office, but they said that this was impossible. Thus, there are the following ways out of this whole situation:

1. Before making the transition, be careful to unlink your number from some payment system, i.e. switch to payment mode by simply entering a password. In other words, turn off SMS confirmation in order to be able to add money to your account, and turn it back on after the transition.
2. Asking someone to top up your account from the operator’s website.
3. Go to the operator's office to pay. But this is too much. :)

Conclusions: MegaFon specifically has not fully thought out this transition procedure, and it could be made more convenient for new subscribers. For example, accept money in advance at the office when submitting an application. Or at least do it for them affordable service"Promised payment" Yes, yes! I also remembered about it when searching for payment options, and after patiently going through all the instructions of the answering machine in the help desk, I eventually ran into a message: “the service is not available for given number" I must say, at that moment it really pissed me off.

The next danger of such transitions is that may stop comingSMS from some online services: banking, payment systems, etc. Judging by reviews on the Internet, this happens quite often with Sberbank Online. Personally, I am a client of Alfa-Bank and decided to start testing with it. I started doing this in the very first hours - too early, apparently: SMS arrived when entering banking, but did not arrive when trying to pay for something with a card. When paying, some services generally gave an error like “3-D Secure check failed.” First, I called the bank, they checked and said that SMS messages were being sent from them, which means this issue needs to be resolved with the mobile operator. I called MegaFon technical support - here we must pay tribute - the operator with understanding, calmly and politely assured that everything should return to normal within 24 hours, and also dictated a couple of service numbers that needed to be dialed in order to remove the blocking of receiving messages from short numbers. I present them here for future MegaFon subscribers: #35*1111*12# And #330*1111#

The next day, the situation really returned to normal regarding almost all services, including MegaFon’s personal account, which we also couldn’t get into in the first hours. From what continued to work properly: Alfa-Bank (online banking, card payment confirmation), Google, QIWI, Yandex.Money. Problems arose with two services: VKontakte and E-num - they stubbornly refused to receive SMS. VKontakte usually sends such SMS when access to the page is restored and when re-entering from devices for which the session was forcibly reset. E-num is a service for authentication in Webmoney via SMS. In both cases, the problem was resolved within one day after contacting technical support of these services. The reasons are known only to technical support itself, and they are not particularly eager to explain them. Most likely, this is due to the fact that they purchase SMS packages separately from each operator, and their database contains user numbers linked to specific operators.

No others at the moment similar problems no longer observed. There are no interruptions in communication either. If anything appears in the future, I'll add it here. As for the original purpose of the transition, it must be said that mobile internet I am very pleased with MegaFon. The speed is comparable to the speed of a home fiber connection.

Conclusion

I'll give it here short list Do's and don'ts and what to pay attention to:

1. Go to the office of your old operator, make sure there are no debts and that your passport data is up to date in the database. Just in case, try not to advertise your goals to office employees. ;)
2. Deposit a small amount of money in advance into some payment system like QIWI or Yandex.Money and disable confirmation of payments via SMS there, so that you can easily deposit money into your account at the time of transition without leaving your home.
3. Contact the office of the new operator, do not forget your passport.
4. On the day of the transition, do not use payment terminals. Deposit money using the payment system (see point 2) directly from the new operator’s website, if possible. As a last resort, go to their office.
5. In the first day or two, don’t fuss about minor problems with the new number; wait a while for everything to start working normally.
6. Dial on your phone service numbers(if any) to remove the block on receiving messages from short numbers.
7. After that, start checking everything. Take turns testing all the services that usually send you SMS, and in case of problems, contact their technical support directly. If it turns out that the problem is not on the service side, then you will have to call the technical support of the cellular operator.

Happy transition to those planning to do so!

Recently implemented migration procedure mobile number from one operator to another (MNP) is still at a very raw level. Many, having used it, stumbled upon a number of pitfalls. Therefore, we will try to answer some questions related to the transition from one operator cellular communication to another while maintaining your usual phone number:

Your tariff and range of services

Services that remain unused at the time of number porting are not transferred with it. That is, if during the transition you have a certain amount of mobile Internet left from a previously purchased package, you will lose it. In principle, this is logical. However, a number of subscribers are confident that when switching to another telecom operator, they will remain the same tariff. No, you can only transfer your phone number, that’s all.

Funds on balance

Money from your balance will not be transferred to another operator! Therefore, if you have funds in your account, especially decent ones, you should withdraw them in advance (before transfer) yourself, for example, transfer them to the balance of another number of the current operator.

Virtual tools and services

Sometimes the money in a phone number's account isn't exactly the money you think it is. Sometimes, they (or part of them) are “virtual” and cannot be returned or withdrawn. If you really try, you can find the relevant clauses in the contract with your operator. Simpler - such funds can only be spent on conversations, sending messages, the Internet and other communication services. These include the starting balance, bonus rubles, amount of mandatory monthly payment, etc. Moreover, money transferred to another number also turns from real to “virtual”.

City numbers. Or the former “direct Moscow”

In the event of a change of operator while maintaining the number, if your number is a landline number (495, 499), it is not transferred along with the federal duplicate, but, simply put, “falls off”. Only the federal one is transferred. You will lose the direct once and for all. They will no longer call you on your landline number, forwarding to it will not work, and neither will the auto-informer. In principle, for many this is rather a plus - a long-awaited opportunity to get rid of the money-guzzling city while preserving the federal one. After the transfer, the tariff will be new - federal.

Basically, that's all. You just have to keep in mind that not all payment systems yet accept money to a number ported via MNP. Of course, you can always top up your balance at the cash desk of the new operator’s office. But don’t be afraid of this - the situation is changing literally from day to day and payment systems are learning to adapt to the new technology.

Also, the procedure for changing a mobile operator while maintaining the number takes some time. Sometimes “something goes wrong” and the subscriber may be left without communication for several days or even more.

I repeat: the MNP system is still new and very crude. If desired and necessary, you can and should use it, but be careful!