“Mobile slavery” was abolished in Russia five years ago, so now anyone who is dissatisfied with the quality of service or existing tariffs, for example, Megafon, can switch to more acceptable conditions for another operator (in our case, MTS), and without losing your old number.

In addition, it makes sense to switch to Megafon while maintaining the MTS number if your entire family or work colleagues chose this particular company because of some special privileges like bonuses and other things. In any case, the transition from one cellular provider to another is accompanied by a certain series of nuances that must be overcome step by step.

So, let's try to figure out whether it is possible to switch from Megafon to MTS, how long it will take, as well as what strength and nerves this procedure will require. Let's consider all the pitfalls and outline a certain set of instructions for successfully completing the task.

In order to switch from Megafon to MTS, keeping the number, you will need:

1. Wish.
2. Passport of a citizen of the Russian Federation.
3. About 100 rubles in cash.

Let's begin...

Preliminary verification of passport data

The procedure differs from the standard scenario in that in most cases you will not have to see or hear your actual operator. The advantages of this arrangement are quite obvious: you will be freed from persuasion to stay on some additional conditions with new bonuses, a loyalty program that came from somewhere and other brainwashing. If the mobile service provider did not have enough of all those months/years that you were with him to make his client satisfied with the quality and level of services, then it means that this is a bad (at least for you) operator.

But it may very well turn out that a trip to Megafon cannot be avoided. This happens in cases where the details of your passport specified in the contract differ from those actually presented in the salon of the operator to whom you want to switch. Keep this in mind before switching from Megafon to MTS.

In general, there can be only two reasons here:

1. Error of the current operator when entering your passport data during the execution of the contract.
2. Changing your passport details.

The first problem is easily solved without a visit to the salon: we find our old contract with Megafon, check the data and continue the re-registration procedure. If your passport has changed, then a personal visit to MTS cannot be avoided. Also keep these nuances in mind before switching from Megafon to MTS.

Let's go to the salon

We take a Russian citizen’s passport and go to any nearby MTS salon. In general, the competition between the “big three” (MTS, Megafon and Beeline) is very high, so your desire to switch to “us” will be received, if not with delight, then with due cordiality for sure.

The first thing you will be asked to do is show your passport and fill out a relatively short form to transfer your subscriber number. Here you must indicate the correct phone number of the previous operator. Pay special attention to this point before switching from your Megafon number to MTS. Here you can decide on the tariff you like from MTS.

Agreement

Next, you need to sign the proposed agreement on the provision of communication services with the new company and pay about 100 rubles for this service. Along with a copy of the signed agreement, you will be given a brand new SIM card, which, by the way, will not start making you happy with your connection right away. Also keep this in mind before switching from Megafon to MTS, and do not sound the alarm ahead of time.

Generally speaking, the entire procedure from starting a conversation with an operator about changing a cellular company to leaving the phone shop with a contract and a SIM card in hand takes no more than 20 minutes, unless, of course, it’s rush hour and there are no long queues. In fact, there is no talk of any critical time expenditure. As for nerves, it’s unlikely that pretty and competent cashier girls will ruin your mood.

Expectation

According to the current law on the provision of communication services to the population, the former provider is obliged to reconnect your subscriber number to the new cellular provider within eight days. Keep this in mind before switching from Megafon to MTS.

After you sign an agreement with the new operator, you should receive an SMS from the old one with words of gratitude for the time spent with them and the use of services, and most importantly - the approximate date of transfer of your subscriber number.

If everything went as it should, then after the first SMS you will receive the next one, which should inform you about the successful verification (preliminary) of your data for subsequent transfer.

Important points

Before switching from Megafon to MTS, the consultant will strongly recommend that you “not go into the red” for the entire transition period. If your balance becomes negative, the system may record a debt to the previous operator and refuse to port your subscriber number.

About a day before the end of the procedure, you will receive another SMS about the need to change the SIM card of the old mobile operator to a new card from MTS.

Successful transfer

On the day of transfer indicated in the message, the SIM card from Megafon will no longer be valid. That is, telephone communication and the transmission of any messages will not work on the old card, and the only thing that will remain is the Internet.

Sometimes unpleasant moments happen when the old SIM card stops working and the new one has not yet connected, but, as a rule, this transition period does not last more than five hours.

There are a lot of rumors on the Internet about problems with communication immediately after the number is transferred, but such issues either do not affect everyone, or there are good reasons for this (MTS tower is further than Megafon, etc.). But in most cases everything goes fine and without any incidents. It would also be useful to keep this in mind before switching from Megafon to MTS.

Restrictions

You can immediately upset the owners of city numbers. The only thing that MTS can do in this case is to transfer only the federal version of your subscriber number, that is, ten characters. The short number will remain at the discretion of Megafon and, whatever one may say, cannot be transferred.

In addition, the transfer cannot be carried out if your number is blocked for any reason (minus balance, inactivity, etc.). The procedure is also not possible if the subscriber is registered in another region.

In addition to these conditions, it is worth mentioning separately the methods of payment for a new subscriber number after the transition. In some cases, it is impossible to pay for communications using bank cards or all kinds of “Dixies”, “Kukuruz” and other things. At first (about two weeks), you can top up your balance only in the MTS salon and nothing else. For some online personalities this is quite a critical problem, but for others it is a bit of an inconvenience.

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 technologies have penetrated into all areas, and constant access to the global network is already an integral attribute of civilized life. And it’s not only, and not so much about the ability to post bows on social networks every minute (although, depending on who), but about the practical benefits, 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 reviews of other people, 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 caution 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 the Tele2 help desk. 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, the subscription fee for the first month is immediately debited from the already zero balance. And although this means that the package of services for the month in advance has already been paid for, if the balance is negative, your phone turns into useless firewood, so you need to immediately deposit money into your account (they warn about this in the office). At that moment the fun begins. Nowadays, going out into the street to pay for mobile communications is a sin. But personally, I have all payment systems linked to my 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 totaling 150 rubles, which I made 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, contact my 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, a new MegaFon subscriber almost inevitably finds himself in a situation in which he 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, it is prudent to unlink your number from some payment system, that is, switch to the 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 make the “Promised Payment” service available to them. 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 this 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.

At the moment, no other similar problems are 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, I must say that I am very pleased with the mobile Internet from MegaFon. The speed is comparable to the speed of a home fiber connection.

Conclusion

Here is a short list of dos and don'ts, and what you should 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 without leaving home at the time of the transition.
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 service numbers on your phone (if any) to unblock 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.

Good luck with the transition to those planning to do so!

In European countries, it has long been the practice to change operators while maintaining the number. In the near future this will be implemented in Russia. Thus, each subscriber will have the opportunity to use the tariffs and quality of communication that suit him, and there is no need to change the number.

Instructions for changing operator

mobile communications without changing your number

This procedure will not take much time and effort, as it is very simple.

1. You need to contact a representative of the cellular communication company. A subscriber who decides to change his mobile operator without changing his number must write an application in which he will request a change of operator.

2. In order for the service to be carried out, need to pay off all debts. If there is a debt, no operator has the right to change the number, that is, the service will be impossible.

3. After checking the debt, the operator to which the client wants to connect enters into an agreement with the subscriber, and provides a temporary SIM card for the duration of the transition.

4. Then the new operator makes a request to port the number from the company, the services of which the subscriber previously used.

5. Former operator checks debts, and if they are not there, provides its information about the subscriber number.

6. As soon as you change your mobile operator, SIM card with a changed operator is returned to the client.

As you can see, changing a cellular operator is quite simple, the main thing is not to have debt. Moreover, some operators, such as MTS and Megafon, offer to make the transition as convenient, easy and fast as possible.

This seems easy on the part of the subscriber, but in fact, it is quite a complex process for the mobile phone companies themselves.

In order for them to provide this service, you need:

Compile a database of numbers that move from one company to another while maintaining the same telephone number;

Provide information about the subscriber number of the company to which it is transferred;

For each change in the created database, the cellular company will be charged a fee;

In order for subscribers to stay with the operator, they must constantly improve their services and offer better tariffs that will retain subscribers and prevent them from switching to a competitor.

According to the adopted Law “On Communications”, if a company interferes with people who decide to change their mobile operator without changing their number, they will be deprived of their license, and the subscriber will receive the right to free cellular communications. It should be noted that the companies are not delighted with the innovations, but so far none of them have officially declared their displeasure. In turn, people expect a significant increase in the quality of mobile communication services in the near future.

Is it possible to save a landline number?

when changing operator?

As soon as they started talking about the new Law “On Communications”, which provides for changing the operator while maintaining the previous number, everyone began to be interested in the question: “Is it possible to transfer a landline number tied to a cellular operator?” If changing a mobile number is considered in detail and carefully, then urban will not be considered at all. This is explained by the fact that only federal numbers that start with +79 can be transferred and changed.

How long before you can change operator?

cellular connection if you want to save your number?

After the subscriber receives an answer to the question: “How to change the operator while keeping the number?”, he will be interested in another point. Namely, the period that will be required for the transfer.

Many cellular communication companies are already working on this issue and offering the most convenient and shortest terms for changing service providers. Regarding this, the Law “On Communications” states that:

- the transition from one cellular operator to another for an individual can take from 3 to 9 days;

- to change a mobile communications company, legal entities will need from 21 to 29 days.

It should be noted that the transfer is carried out only if there is no debt with the previous operator. If it was formed after the contract was concluded with the new operator, then the client is obliged to repay it within 10 days. If this is not done, then the cellular communication company has every right to suspend the change service while maintaining the number.

Who should pay and how much to keep the number when changing operator?

More than four hundred thousand people expressed their desire to switch to another operator, while leaving their phone number. Rossvyaz recorded 446,256 applications. However, only half of them (259,939 people) successfully got rid of the shackles of mobile slavery.

In theory, the process is simple: you come to the office of the operator whose subscriber you plan to become, write an application, and sign an agreement. According to the law, no later than 8 days later the number will be transferred to another operator. The document usually even indicates the exact time of transition.

In fact, not everyone succeeds in changing operators the first time. What could be the catch? We found out what pitfalls can await you on the way to a new operator, and found answers to non-standard questions from subscribers.

I wasn't transferred, why?

There may be several reasons. Firstly, if the SIM card was issued not to you, but to friends or relatives. An application to port a number can only be submitted by the person to whom a specific number is registered. If this is done by another person, a notarized power of attorney for the representative is required.

Secondly, an error could have crept into the application - they made a mistake in the passport number or wrote Ezhikov instead of the last name Yozhikov (as written in the document). The problem is the same if you have grown up and changed your passport or, for example, got married, changed your last name, but did not notify the operator.

Alena Yarushina, press secretary of the Motiv company:

When submitting an application, the subscriber’s passport data must completely match the subscriber’s passport data located in the database of the current operator. Therefore, carefully check each letter in the spelling of your last name, first name, patronymic. Pay special attention to the letters “E” and “E”. If you changed your passport, surname or place of residence (registration) and did not inform your operator about this, you will need to come to his office again before the change and make changes to the database.

How long will they carry?

In your application, you have the right to indicate the desired date for porting your number. The only legal restriction: the number cannot be transferred to the network before the eighth day for subscribers - individuals and the 29th day for subscribers - legal entities. If you did not indicate any date in the application, then the number is automatically transferred to the network of the new operator on the ninth or 30th day, respectively.

Will there be any communication interruptions?

According to the law, interruptions in outgoing communications when moving from one operator to another should not last more than 30 minutes, and incoming communications - more than 6 hours. In fact, the “technological break” in the provision of communication services to the subscriber is usually less. Be prepared that you will be “out of reach” for some time. For convenience, you can schedule your number to be transferred at night. But there is a catch - at night it is not so easy to top up your balance with a new operator - you will have 0 on your account (if you had money on the balance of your previous operator, it will not be automatically transferred).

However, some operators give gifts to transferred subscribers as a sign of hospitality. “Immediately after porting the number, new subscribers are activated. This will allow you not to be left without communication and make urgent calls before the first top-up. However, we still recommend that especially sociable subscribers plan to port their number during the daytime,” advises Alena Yarushina.

How to top up your balance after porting a number?

The abolition of mobile slavery has also added work to financial institutions. Previously, whether a phone number belonged to a cellular operator was determined by a directory of operators and DEF codes (the first three digits that made it possible to identify the operator). Now banks and payment systems also need to take into account the database of ported numbers. If mobile operators submit information about the transfer to this database in a timely manner, then it will be impossible to top up the account of the previous operator. In other words, if you changed operator X to operator Y, and then accidentally decided to top up your phone balance by transferring money to the old operator X, then your payment transaction will be refused.

Banks had to update their systems - this primarily affected online banking and mobile banking.

Press service of the Ural Bank of Sberbank of Russia:

Sberbank notes that the “mobile banking” service is currently being finalized. For now, users with a ported number to pay for mobile communications are recommended to indicate the operator directly in the Mobile Bank SMS command (for example, “MTS 200” to pay for their phone number or “MTS 9ХХХХХХХХ 200” to pay for any other number).

Regional banks also updated their banking software. Thus, a new menu item has appeared in all UBRD ATMs - “Payment when changing operator”. Changes have also occurred in the Internet bank: now subscribers who have changed operators, when making payments via the Internet in the “Mobile communications” section, need to select the item “Payment for communications when changing operators (MNP service - switching while maintaining the number)”

“When paying, the client needs to work a little - choose his new operator. But the payment will arrive without delay and exactly to the address,” says Konstantin Kotelnikov, head of the UBRD information technology directorate.

Cellular operators themselves advise that in the first few hours after porting a number, top up your balance directly at the sales and service offices of the new operator or using express payment cards.

I changed my mind. I'm staying!

If you suddenly decide to stay with your previous operator, then you can refuse the application only until 00:00 on the fifth day from the date of submission of the application.

Can I see everyone?

You can try at least all operators, alternately changing one for another: the number of transitions is not limited by law. The operator can be changed once every 70 days. This is due to internal procedure and interaction between operators. The transfer is possible only if the subscriber has no debts to the previous operator. And the previous operator can send information about the subscriber’s debt to the new operator within 30 to 60 days; another 10 days are given to pay off the debt. This is where the 70 days come from.

How are direct landline numbers transferred?

No way. Unfortunately, this is not possible now - only a federal number (9xx-xxx-xx-xx) is allowed to be transferred. It is also important to take into account that the number is transferred only within the region of the Federation in which it was registered with the current operator. That is, if you moved from Chelyabinsk to Yekaterinburg, then you will not be able to keep your Chelyabinsk number.

Who should I contact if any difficulties arise during the transfer?

The transfer is handled by the operator you plan to switch to. The current operator is only checking the possibility of transfer. This means that the subscriber must contact the new operator for all questions. This can be done with the help of subscribers - in real time the subscriber will be helped to resolve any issues, including those related to changing the operator.

The recently implemented procedure for porting a mobile number from one operator to another (MNP) is still at a very crude 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 cellular operator 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, the 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 case of changing the 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 maintaining 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!