Deputies of the state Duma from “Fair Russia” has proposed to enshrine in law the ability to transfer mobile phone numbers, in fact, the property of the subscribers, who are thus able to resell them or pass by inheritance. Operators indicate that already provide services to save the number and change it to the user. The very same number capacity belongs to the state. Experts fear that its adoption would lead to a rise in fraud and a further increase in the prices of “nice” numbers that reach 1 million rubles the Deputies Tumusov Fedotov and Dmitry Ionin proposed amendments to article 45 of the law “On communication”, to the bill, which read “y”. It is to be paid on June 25. The law proposed to record that the user of mobile communications “are entitled to keep the selected subscriber number for themselves, and to dispose of it, including transfer to a third party for remuneration or free of charge”, notifying the mobile operator. Such a possibility is considered an “additional service”, which the user can at any time disable. If within six months the subscriber will not pay for the connection, the operator is entitled not to provide the service, and the number is no longer retained by the subscriber.Under current law, subscriber numbers are not privately owned. Thus, according to the authors of the bill, they are becoming more “economically valuable”, as evidenced by market sale “beautiful” numbers, as well as legislated ability to keep their telephone numbers when changing operator. “The issue of preservation and further use of the subscriber number is particularly relevant if the person, for example, maintains a popular social media channel is a member of the cryptocurrency exchanges, has an online business or simply has an account with a large number of subscribers,— stated in the explanatory note to the bill.— Having lost the subscriber number, the user may lose access to your account, and subsequent restoration or re-registration numbers can take time.” The MPs noted that the bill would “ensure the rights of mobile users”, since it will fix them “the opportunity to perform a kind of owners.” As explained “Kommersant” Mr. Tumusov, send the number to the property will be an additional service which is required only at the request of the subscriber. In his opinion, it will allow the owner, for example, to transmit the number of inherited.The Ministry is unlikely to support the initiative, said a member of the Commission on legal empowerment of the digital economy of the Moscow branch of Association of lawyers of Russia Boris Edidin because it “directly contradicts usetion of the phone number as one of the most popular identifiers”. “Simplification of administration and accounting numbers not only reduce the quality of the data operators, but will also allow for greater use of phone numbers in fraudulent schemes,”— said the expert. Besides, adds Mr. Edidin, mobile operators already offer the service of blocking numbers, preserving it for the owner.It’s “Kommersant” confirmed in MTS, “MegaFon” and “VimpelCom”. As explained in MTS, now the subscriber can save the number once in six months by doing some paid action. “The users also has no problems with changing the face of the contract and amendment numbers on new subscriber”,— added in “VimpelCom”.Number capacity belongs to the state, and operators get room for a fixed fee for a certain period with reference to a specific region, says the head of the Agency Content Review Sergey Polovnikov. “Accordingly, by analogy with the passport number or the car number, which are also issued by the state mobile number can not be the property of the subscriber,” he notes.According to analyst Mobile Research Group of Eldar Murtazin, an initiative of the risk that will intensify speculation numbers. Right now the prices for the resale of “beautiful” numbers reach up to 1 million rubles, he said, and if subscribers will be able to compete with operators in this segment, the cost of obtaining rooms for the operators will increase. In addition, warns Mr. Murtazin, resale or renting of the rooms bears the risk of information security, if a room, for example, attached to the mobile Bank.Vladimir Heifetz, Julia Silence, Kira Duryagina
