home > A computer > win mobile. MTS in Crimea

win mobile. MTS in Crimea

Mysterious mobile operator WIN mobile (K-telecom) has successfully launched in the Crimea and already serves more than a million subscribers. Approximately 1,500 claimed base stations on the territory of the peninsula and the new operator has even got its own website, phones contact center and the first public fare.

Simultaneously with the start of work of WIN mobile in the Crimea, MTS-Ukraine stopped working. More precisely, a little earlier: first, on August 5, communication was disconnected in MTS Ukraine in Simferopol, a day later (August 7) in MTS-Ukraine they officially announced the termination of work in Crimea "connections with technical problems hindering the provision of mobile communication services. In fact, there was an unexpected (more precisely, previously announced) shutdown of MTS Ukraine and an almost simultaneous inclusion of the WIN mobile network.

Passion-face

On August 5, a marvelous report about the events in the Kiev office of MTS-Ukraine appeared on the RBC website, I simply have to quote it:

“Today, Ukrainian security forces with machine guns came to the Kyiv office of MTS-Ukraine, who accused the operator of separatism and supporting the enemy, a source close to MTS-Ukraine told RBC. According to him, the security forces wanted to turn off the entire Crimea, but at first they turned off only Simferopol. The source claims that the Ukrainian security forces reacted nervously to the transfer to Russia of a group of 400 Ukrainian soldiers at the Gukovo border checkpoint in the Rostov region.

I can well imagine the central office of the operator, and inside there is a large “Disconnection” stand with red buttons and the names of settlements. The siloviki scratched their heads with machine gun barrels and decided to press the "Simferopol" button first, then departed with a promise to return and continue pressing other red buttons.

The next day, the news about the boarding of the red button was posted on the MTS-Ukraine website, quote:

“Dear subscribers!

What happened yesterday and continues to happen in the Crimea with communication was a complete surprise both for the MTS Ukraine company and for its Crimean subscribers. The company has actually lost the ability to manage an important key facility, which is responsible for providing communication services in Simferopol. It was disconnected from our network from the outside. The shutdown of equipment and the lack of communication among the inhabitants of the city of many thousands led to mass discontent and indignation of people, which, obviously, explains the unconvincing attempts to blame the Ukrainian operator for what is happening.”

But it was not necessary to place red buttons in the central Kiev office that any nervous security official with a machine gun could press. Then there will be no "complete surprises" with "shutdown from the outside." Make already an analogue of the "nuclear suitcase", or something. There is little funny in all this, but there are even fewer surprises.

It turns out that the upcoming blackout is on August 5 cellular communication in Crimea, said on Saturday, August 2, Deputy Prime Minister of Crimea Dmitry Polonsky, this message was quoted by several news agencies. For example, the Ukrainian "Case", quote:

“The Crimean authorities expect the shutdown of Ukrainian mobile operators in the region on Tuesday, August 5, and recommend that the population buy and activate cards of Russian mobile operators.

“I have information from representatives of Ukrainian mobile networks that next week, approximately on Tuesday, service of subscribers in the Crimea will be terminated. I can’t say yet whether these will be disconnections for subscribers of all mobile networks or individual operators, but we have such information,” Deputy Prime Minister of Crimea Dmitry Polonsky, who combines his post with the post of Minister of Information and Communications, told Interfax.

According to him, the residents of the Republic of Crimea have acquired about 700,000 SIM cards from Russian mobile operators. "We recommend activating Russian SIM cards before Tuesday so as not to be left without mobile communications," Polonsky said.

I am far from thinking that Crimean Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Polonsky is in command of the Ukrainian security forces in Kyiv, and was there even a boy with a gun? In any case, there was definitely no “complete surprise”.

Background

The mysterious Russian company K-Telecom was registered in Krasnodar on May 23rd. According to Vedomosti, www.vedomosti.ru

“... a week after registration, K-Telecom received from the State Commission for Radio Frequencies (SCRF) the GSM frequencies of MTS in Crimea - interlocutors close to the SCRF told Vedomosti about this. The company was registered by a private travel consultant Anna Berezkina, after which K-telecom changed its owner twice - first it was Nikolai Balashov, and at the end of June - the Armenian CJSC Cell Group Worldwide Holding (according to the register of legal entities in Armenia, it belongs to Cell Group Worldwide ltd with unknown jurisdiction). The company CJSC "K-Telecom" also operates in Armenia - this is the local "daughter" of MTS. MTS also has a Russian subsidiary with that name. Representatives of MTS say that the operator has nothing to do with K-telecom operating in the Crimea.

K-Telecom began operating in Crimea on the frequencies of MTS-Ukraine, its Russian switchboard was solemnly launched during a meeting on the development of communications in Crimea chaired by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. The operator already has 1,500 base stations built and ready for operation in Crimea, which will provide coverage for the entire peninsula. The operator is called WIN mobile, you can familiarize yourself with it in a little more detail on the website.

I'm not trying to say anything, but if a bird looks like a duck, swims like a duck, quacks like a duck and bakes well with apples, then it is most likely a duck, and not some pink flamingo from distant lands. In the current situation in Ukraine, the position of the "daughter" Russian operator quite complicated: on the one hand, it is impossible to quarrel with the authorities, and it is difficult to predict their behavior. On the other hand, the corporation itself may run into US and European sanctions. On the third hand, switching all voice communications and data transmission through Ukrainian switches is undesirable for security reasons, the security forces have a 95% probability full access to all information. One way or another, the job is done and MTS-Ukraine subscribers will most likely be served in full or technical roaming mode.

Tariffs

To date, WIN Mobile offers its subscribers only one tariff "Freedom of Communication". In its ideology and structure, it resembles a tariff " Super MTS": for a monthly fee of 2 rubles. per day they give 30 daily free minutes within the network, calls to all other operators in the Krasnodar Territory and to MTS-Ukraine at 2.50 rubles per minute.

There are options "My Russia" and "My Ukraine" for a separate monthly fee, when connecting "My Russia" calls to the Russian MTS network are also 2.5 rubles / min. In general, those who wish can download a pdf description of the tariff.

We do not yet know how the fate of the other operators will develop. But things should clear up soon enough. In any case, the peninsula will not remain without 3G, and everything will be fine with voice communications. The transitional period is always fraught with temporary inconvenience.

UPDATE

That's all, the puzzle finally took shape, and today (August 7) in the evening, MTS-Ukraine SIM cards started working in Crimea. An implementation option is technical roaming in the WIN Mobile network, who would doubt it.

Kind people have already laid out the prices at which MTS-Ukraine subscribers will be served in the Crimean WIN mobile network, see the screenshot above. By the way, in my opinion, the name VNC mobile would look more logical than WIN mobile. Guess why (emoji).

WIN mobile is the first mobile communication operator from Russia in the Crimea. WIN mobile provides its subscribers with communication services in accordance with the standards 2G/3G/4G.
According to the situation at the beginning of 2016 networks 3G/4G work in Sevastopol, Simferopol, Yalta and throughout the rest of Crimea.
The development of new generation networks in the Crimea is one of the priority tasks of WIN mobile in the near future.

3G coverage

To date, the WIN Mobile operator offers 3 tariff plans for connection:
Tariff plan " Freedom of communication» with internet services (« Online Freedom», « online day», « Online month»).

10 MB per day.

10 Mb/day 32 Kbps.
Service activation cost - 0 rub.
Service renewal cost - 15 rubles/day.

Speed without limits 50 MB per day.
Internet - unlimited unlimited.
The region of action is the home region.
When the total amount of uplink/downlink data is exceeded 50 Mb/day the speed of receiving and transmitting is reduced to 32 Kbps.
Service activation cost - 30 rub.
Daily subscription - 3 rub.

Monthly volume of Internet traffic

Calls to Win mobile numbers Without Borders

Calls to numbers of other mobile operators of the Republic of Crimea, Sevastopol and the Krasnodar Territory Without Borders

Without Borders

Messenger traffic: Viber, WhatsApp, Skype Unlimited

250 rub.

Tariff "Your"

Monthly volume of Internet traffic at unlimited speed 5/5 GB

Calls to Win mobile numbers Without Borders

A package of minutes for calls to numbers of other mobile operators of the Republic of Crimea, Sevastopol and the Krasnodar Territory 150 min.

SMS messages to Win mobile numbers Without Borders

Package of SMS-messages to numbers of other mobile operators in Russia 150 SMS

Monthly subscription fee 250 rub

Tariff without subscription fee.
Every 100 MB per 10 rub subject to the fact of use mobile internet

3 rub/min for all operators in the home region, 3 rub/min to all operators in Russia.

Daily volume of Internet traffic at maximum speed 15 GB
A package of minutes for calls to Win mobile numbers and other mobile operators of the Republic of Crimea, Sevastopol and the Krasnodar Territory 500 min.
SMS messages to Win mobile numbers Without Borders
The monthly fee is 400 rub.
The coverage area is the home region.
Monthly volume of Internet traffic without speed limit — 15 GB

"Online maxi" service

Unlimited speed within 3 GB per month.
Unlimited Internet.
Connection cost - 200 rub.
The coverage area is the home region. If the total amount of received / transmitted data exceeds 1.5 GB per month, the speed of uplink and downlink is reduced online to 32 Kbps.

: they talked about top operators, popular tariffs and prices, and also gave useful practical advice.

Before the reunification of Crimea with Russia, 3 Ukrainian operators operated on the peninsula, serving about 3 million subscribers (up to 4.5 million during the tourist season).

In August 2014 Ukrainian mobile connection began to leave the Crimea. In September of the same year, MTS-Ukraine connected technical roaming through the WinMobile network (the owner of the brand is K-Telecom), which worked until the end of 2014 only in large cities.

Operators and coverage

The first Crimean operator "Win mobile"(code +7-978-9) appeared on the peninsula on August 5, 2014 and began to provide services in the GSM standard. A little earlier they became in large numbers to import SIM-cards "MTS Krasnodar" (code +7-978). According to the main office, the company does not work directly on the peninsula (it uses the Win mobile network to provide technical roaming).

Attention! SIM cards of the Win mobile operator work only in the Russian Federation, in other countries these SIM cards are useless.

In 2016, 2 more operators appeared on the peninsula: in February - the state-owned Krymtelecom (owned by the Crimean Ministry of Information Communications; code + 7-978-40), and in June - Volna Mobile (owned by KTK-Telecom; code + 7-978-5).

Important! Krymtelecom does not serve the territory of Sevastopol, where there is its own operator Sevmobile (code +7-978-254 / +7-978-300).

"Tele2", "Beeline" and "MegaFon" in the Crimea work through the towers of local operators, using technical roaming as well as "MTS". Some stores sell "gray" SIM-cards, but there are much fewer subscribers of these companies on the peninsula.

Starter package price and communication quality

The Sevmobile starter package costs 100 rubles. The company offers 6 tariff plans. However, Sevmobile is suitable mainly for residents of Sevastopol, who rarely travel outside the city. National roaming operates on the territory of the Republic, besides, you have to turn it on manually.

Tariffs of Crimean telecom operators

Operator	Tariff plan / Subscription fee, rub./month	Tariff Description
win mobile	Freedom of communication / 0	Cheap mobile communication within the network and on the territory of the Republic
	At sea / 0	Favorable tariff for calls to all numbers in Russia (3 rubles/min.)
	Fast and Furious / 400	Tariff plan for using the Internet (15 GB)
Krymtelecom	My Crimea / 0	Economy option for calls within the network
	Contact / 150	The same, + 5 GB of Internet and full unlimited within the network
	Super Contact / 300	12 GB of Internet, 100 minutes for calls within Crimea (all operators) and more SMS
wave mobile	Sun / 0	Economical tariff for calls to Crimean and Krasnodar numbers
	Sea / 150	Tariff for calls to numbers of Crimean and Krasnodar operators with a package of SMS and mobile Internet (3 GB)
	Wind / 300	Internet tariff (10 GB)

Roaming: Price national roaming for all operators is an average of 10 rubles per minute. and 10 rubles/Mb. International roaming: from 30 rubles/min. (CIS) up to 70 rubles/min. (foreign countries).

Also, "Crimeans" provide a wide range of services for corporate clients.

Important! The most convenient tariff for MTS Krasnodar subscribers on the peninsula is Super MTS.

The cost of the company's services is slightly more expensive, the service “Favorite country. Russia".

"Megaphone" offers its subscribers the option "Crimea": for 15 rubles / day, incoming will become free, outgoing in Russia and 1 Mb of Internet will cost 5 rubles / min. ATTENTION, in order to use the "Crimea" option, you need to connect to the "K-Telecom" network, on the screen the network will be displayed as "WIN", "RUS 32" or "25032" (in Sevastopol "RUS33").

Beeline (through the WIN network) and Tele2 (through the Volna mobile network) work according to a similar scheme. The best option for Beeline subscribers - use the options "Most profitable internet in roaming" or "Week of Internet roaming". "Tele2" offers a service "In the Crimea as at home".

Interesting! Prices for the "big four" are almost the same.

All operators in Crimea provide services of commensurate quality and price. Somehow outsmarting mobile communications on the peninsula will not work, in order to reduce the cost of its use, follow simple tips:

buying a Crimean SIM card with internet is the most convenient and cheapest option to stay in touch;
It is easier to buy a SIM card in big cities than in small and coastal ones;
using the services of the "big four" on the peninsula is expensive. Better conditions offers MTS (especially Krasnodar numbers);
keep an eye on the connection network (see above who is collaborating with whom). If the phone “selects” the wrong network, you will have to fork out seriously;
if you are going to Crimea with a “big four” number that they will call, use special preferential services and top up your account in Russia (on the peninsula this may cause problems or you will have to overpay);
when you leave the peninsula, do not forget to turn off all preferential options (“MTS” often sins with this, eating money).

Development and prospects

Mobile communication in the Crimea is actively developing and becoming more accessible. There is hope that soon the "big four" will be able to get out of the "shadow" of technical roaming. In the meantime, we will use the mobile Internet of local operators.