+383 running code

Currently in Kosovo, three mobile and fixed phone operators who use international foreign codes are present. Mobile phone “Vala” uses Monaco's code (+377), IPKO's Slovenia Code (+386), while fixed phone uses Serbia's code (+381).

All these codes, according to the chairman of the Board of Electronic and Post Communications Regulatory Authority (ARKEP), Kreshnik Gashi will eventually be removed in June next year.

“So far implementing the +383 telephone code is moving according to the dynamics previously set by ARKEP, which has set the obligations for mobile and fixed operators who are applying the 383” code.

Until now, by the absolute majority of the countries of the world, Kosovo can be called between the +383 code if used instead of existing codes, until early in 2018 a new phase starting with the removal of the current codes and the final stage when these codes will be removed and only +383 will be used, as of June 30th, 201818x1> explains Gashi.

The main burden for implementing Kosovo's telephone code, Gashi adds, is on phone operators, as they have to make technical changes within their framework to implement the code.

In Kosovo there are over two million mobile and fixed phone users.

Kosovo Telecom Technical Director Mehdi Latifaj told Radio Free Europe that progress has been noted in implementing the +383 code, and most world operators have opened the numeration.

Many international operators have implemented the+383 code. These international operators are among the top operators operating in many countries of the world. We like Kosovo Telekom accept calls with +383 even on the mobile network, and these calls are managed directly by the Kosovo Telecom”, he says.

For Serbia's code +381, which is exploited by Kosovo, Latifaj says, preconditions have been created to now close, and only a decision by the Electronic and Post Communications Regulatory Authority is expected.

As far as +377 and +386, according to him, there are many technical issues that will not have to end in 2018.

Until Monaco's mobile code +377 has work yet to be done, technical preparations must be made to replace what we have with our consumers. We're in the phase of signing the contract with economic operators, so we can create preconditions for converting the folder. This should happen according to a draft plan during June 2018, but I am not optimistic that that date can be reached, taking into account our preparations and the phase where we are at”, he points out.

Lack of the code and use of other state codes caused Kosovo major losses. Kosovo Government data showed that the total cost caused by the lack of the telephone code had reached over 200m euros.

Gashi emphasises that with the functionality of the +383 code, Kosovo will have great economic benefits and costs caused by the lack of the telephone code will be eliminated.

When the code +383 functions, Kosovo will not need to use the codes of other states it has used, phone operators will not need to pay for the use of codes of other states, and they will return within Kosovo's market, and Kosovo will eventually round up its state identity in the field of telephones and in all the addresses around the world there will be only the code +383x1>, says Gashi.

Kosovo had received the +383 phone code in December of last year, after reaching a telecommunication agreement in Brussels between Pristina and Belgrade.

Until, in May of this year, the two illegal operators of Serbia who had worked on Kosovo territory, mainly in Serb-run populated municipalities in northern Kosovo, have disappeared.

While the third operator, who had also been illegally operated, is currently registered and functioning under the provisional and limited license in Kosovo.