What's going on with the implementation of the +383 phone code?

Kosovo has been delayed with the implementation of its +383 telephone code. Postponing to implement this code by October 31st of this year will not have any consequences, says representatives of the Electronic Communications and Posting Authority (ARKEP).

But any evental delay after October, according to warnings, mobile operators Vala and Ipko will also cost punishment.

Full implementation of the +383 telephone code has been intended to begin on June 30th, but the decision to delay has been taken after mobile and fixed phone operators operate on the Kosovo market: Vala and Ipko.

Kreshnik Gashi, chairman of the ARKEP Board, told Radio Free Europe that the Regulatory Authority has completed all legal regulatory obligations and that they expect only technical implementation of operators.

According to him, a several-month extension does not create major problems, as implementation of the code for Kosovo takes place once and for all.

There is no legal impact on the international obligations Kosovo has, but it is not yet due to the state identity rounding process in the field of telecommunication, and this has happened as a result of the operators' own demand. In a very complex process that needs to be made the changes of both our operators and operators worldwide a several-month extension, as has now happened, is not that it creates big problems”, Gashi says.
Full implementation of the +383 code, Kosovo Telecom, according to ARKEP, had failed to implement it in the set term due to the financial crisis.

Kosovo's telecom once the most profitable company in the country is currently facing a financial crisis. Weeks earlier, members of the Kosovo Board of Telekom had announced that Kosovo's accumulated debt of Telekom has reached 60m euros.

Kosovo Telekom representatives, however, told Radio Free Europe as mobile operators have asked the ARKEP for a postponement of the set deadline with a qualitative approach to the state code of the Republic of Kosovo.

Arsim Bilalli, spokesman at Kosovo Telecom, says they will engage all personal resources to find a solution, even improvised, to meet some of the goals of the ARKEP migration plan.

“later by October 31st 2018 should complete the implementation of the E.164 +383 code on the mobile network and the other codes are aborted. By this date, the +383 code should be the only code for orientation and the terming of international traffic in the Republic of Kosovo. Kosovo's telecom is in the phase of the latest technical preparations for creating conditions for the full functioning of the new code +383”, says Bilalli.

Meanwhile, Kreshnik Gashi, chairman of the ARKEP Board, has indicated that the postponement until October 31st is final and that the further extension of this process would also imply penalties or répenaltião for mobile operators Vala and Ipko if they fail to implement it in the deadline set by the ARKEP.

Currently, in Kosovo three mobile and fixed phone operators operate, which use international foreign codes.

Mobile phone “Vala” uses Monaco's code (+377), Ipko's Slovenia code (+386), while fixed phone uses Serbia's code (+381).
Education Bilall announced that the +383 phone code has now been functional in some respects. According to him, the number of operator Vala is accessible for overseas calls with +383 instead of +381 or +377.
During this time, Bilalli adds, all necessary technical tests will be conducted and Rhoming's contracts will be signed with all international operators who currently have Roeming agreements via Monaco Telekom.

The new telephone code, Bilalli highlights, will enable Kosovo Telecom better quality services and will reflect on the price of consumer services.
The use of foreign phone codes, especially the mobile code borrowed from Monaco Telekom, so far for all years of operation, Kosovo Telecom has cost millions of euros as a tax on numeric resource management, traffic travel costs, different technical assistance to roaming, signaling, management. Also during all these years, Vala has faced forced division of international business revenues, with its partners involved in this traffic, as a result of borrowing phone codes”, Bilal points out.
Kosovo's state phone code is divided in December 2016 by the International Union of Telecommunications (ITU). This code was the result of talks in Brussels, between Kosovo delegations and Serbia, with the European Union's mediation.