Mandatory registration by IMEI is proposed to be paid.

In Russia, the idea of ​​introducing compulsory registration of mobile devices by the IMEI number has been discussed for a long time . They are going to include smartphones, tablets, laptops, utility meters and all other devices that support connection to the cellular network in the database. According to the authorities, the IMEI database has many advantages: from dealing with gray imports and blocking stolen phones to tracking down "telephone terrorists".

The Federation Council of the Russian Federation brought this idea to a new level. In accordance with the new bill, registration in the new database will be not only mandatory, but also paid. The bill is not yet registered on the state portal, but there is a redaction of RBC .

The author of the bill is the first deputy head of the committee of the Federation Council on constitutional legislation Lyudmila Bokova (pictured) with a group of parliamentarians.

Some rules stipulated by the bill:

• Individuals will be able to independently register the gadgets purchased abroad on the website of public services, they are obliged to do this within a few months;
  
• the price of the service will not exceed 100 rubles .;
  
• mobile operators are obliged to block devices that are not allowed to work in networks, that is, that are not available in the common IMEI database;
  
• “Amnesty” is planned for already used phones for a period of three to five years, after which it will be necessary to register the device.

Recall that the idea of ​​introducing IMEI blacklists to automatically block devices that were stolen or imported to bypass legal procedures without paying the appropriate fee (for example, bought on Aliexpress) was originally discussed. According to distributors , illegal imports are especially prevalent in the smartphone sector of Chinese brands, where the proportion of gray smartphones is 10%, and at certain points gray imports account for 50% of the total imports.

In January 2018, the Association of E-commerce Companies (ACIT) developed a concept for regulating mobile devices using IMEI numbers . It includes white, gray and black lists IMEI. Probably, the current bill is based on the provisions of this concept, which provides for the maintenance of three lists:

• Whitelist: codes allowed for import and use
• Gray list: non-unique IMEI, temporarily not prohibited to use (for the transfer to the white list, the user must show proof of legal purchase of the device at the operator’s office)
• Black list: IMEI prohibited to use stolen or illegally imported devices

ACIT has also developed a soft “certification” scheme, which will not afford much for ordinary customers:

• You can take 1 smartphone for a year for free
• For the second device, the fee will be $ 20
• For the third and each subsequent - $ 30
• In the absence of documents confirming the legality of the importation fee will be $ 40

Apparently, the authors of the bill decided to abandon the "free" option.

According to the original plan, all mobile devices that have a SIM card should be entered in the registry. These are mobile phones, tablets, routers and security alarms. The registry will be created on the basis of the Central Research Institute of Communications at Rossvyaz. ACIT offered a transition period of up to three years for the gradual introduction of the system.

A year ago, ACIT sent a document to Lyudmila Bokova, Chairperson of the Temporary Commission of the Federation Council for the Development of the Information Society, and Mikhail Abyzov, Minister of the Open Government. Rossvyaz recognized the basic provisions of the ACIT concept as “correct and reasonable”: such a system is widely used in the world, department officials said.

In June 2018, an expert council under the government of the Russian Federation prepared a Concept for controlling mobile devices , and a provisional commission of the Federation Council for the Development of the Information Society reviewed and supported this concept . An IMEI working group was organized, which functions on the basis of the Svyaz and IT working group of the expert council under the Government of the Russian Federation.

The authors of the concept refer to the experience of foreign countries, where the blocking of stolen phones by IMEI is already in place. It is extremely beneficial for the state and reduces the number of thefts. For example, in Turkey, the IMEI control system from 2006 to 2010 brought in $ 10.5 billion in additional tax revenue, and the number of mobile thefts fell by almost 95%.

The authors of the Russian bill propose to introduce mandatory registration from February 1, 2020. Operators are not sure that they will be on time: “It is necessary to conduct tests, a pilot project with the participation of telecom operators and ZNIIS,” said Dmitry Lukyanchikov, a spokesman for MegaFon. In addition, the bill requires the development of a large number of by-laws.

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