The Law on the National Commission in the spheres of electronic communications, radio frequency spectrum, and provision of postal services adopted last Friday does not pose any risk of introducing conflicting rules that BRDO experts have previously warned about.
Before the adoption of the law, there were risks that the National Commission might have powers to introduce mandatory verification of the legality of purchased mobile phones.
If that had happened, each owner of a new mobile phone would be forced to change the status (IMEI) of purchased devices from “temporarily authorized” into “authorized for use in the electronic communications network” in case of purchasing devices abroad and importing them into Ukraine as personal items. For this purpose, they would need to contact the competent authorities and confirm the purchase of a mobile phone or the border crossing. This would in no way protect users from frauds, but would only create inconveniences and bureaucratic delays. We analyzed this issue in detail in September.
Additionally, there was a risk of introducing subscriber identification, in other words, the “certification” of SIM cards. They tried to introduce such an innovation as protection of subscribers from stealing their phone numbers and other cyberfraud types.
“All tools to protect subscribers from spam or illegal charging of fees do not work properly. No one really protects subscribers. Therefore, neither the state, committees nor deputies won’t do that. As for the subscribers’ protection, operator procedures (including the SIM card replacement) should be improved. Also, we should deal with another problem — fraudsters committing criminal acts,” the IT & Telecom Sector Head Ihor Samokhodsky commented the situation to the Suspilne Movlennya: https://suspilne.media/189556-pasportizacia-sim-kart-ci-potribno-vprovadzuvati-v-ukraini-ta-aki-riziki/