Mobile Devises Registration System to be introduced in Azerbaijan aims at protecting consumers’ rights

The Mobile Devises Registration System (MDRS), which will be soon introduced by the Ministry of Communications and Information Technologies of the Republic of Azerbaijan (MCIT), is aimed at protecting consumers’ rights.

Regulation of the mobile phone market in Azerbaijan through the application of the “Rules for registering mobile devices,” which were approved by the Cabinet of Ministers, will both strengthen security of and provided convenience to users of mobile devices. Application of these rules will substantially minimize the number of mobile phone thefts.

At the same time, the chances of returning stolen mobile phones to their owners will increase multiply. International IMEI codes of all mobile phones will be registered at MDRS. In some way, MDRS resembles the system of blocking debit/credit cards in that it blocks stolen and lost mobile phones and makes it impossible to use them in Azerbaijan.

To do this, the owner of the stolen or lost mobile phone will need to apply to the customer service centre of the mobile communication operator or the Mobile Devices Registration Centre. In addition to that, IMEI code of the stolen mobile phone will be included to the international black list that will make it impossible to use this phone in many countries across the world.

It is worth mentioning that the mobile device registration system has already been introduced in many countries of the world, including the US, Turkey and India. The special data sharing system is now being employed by all member states of The European Union to prevent the use of stolen mobile phones through their communication networks. Thus, 710,000 stolen mobile phones have been registered by this system in the Great Britain so far since 2001.

After the introduction of the data sharing system in this country, the number of mobile phone thefts decreased by several times. 7 murder and 31.2 thousand theft cases associated with mobile phones were registered in Turkey over the 3-year period that preceded the introduction of the mobile devise registration system in Turkey.

After the introduction of this system, the number of mobile phone-related crimes has fallen sharply. Russia also plans to introduce the mobile device registration system because the majority of crimes perpetrated in its streets are associated with mobile phones.