+383 code, positive for double application verification

This type of verification requires that, along with the password, users use a code that they receive through their personal telephone number.

While in some of these major platforms, Kosovo authorities have managed to include the new code, +383, problems are presented with smaller apps.

But in Kosovo, since the transition to the state code, +383, such an opportunity is often impossible to realise.

Ayet position, a client of mobile operator “Vala”.

She tells Radio Free Europe that she has failed to download some apps from the internet due to the inability to accept the necessary code in her phone number.

I haven't been able to download various applications in many cases because the code that needs to come on the phone hasn't come. I don't know what the problem is”, she says.

Much of these problems, according to the chairman of the Board of Electronic and Post Communications Authority (ARKEP), Kreshnik Gashi, are due to Kosovo's non-involvement on the official list of the United Nations Organisation's Statistics Agency.

He tells Radio Free Europe that these problems have come after passing international foreign codes on Kosovo state code +383.

There are many apps in the world that use double verification as one of the options to achieve security so that the user is auto-identified directly of the fixed account and this problem has appeared on several apps in the case of switching to the +383 code, because Kosovo is not listed in the International Standardization Organisation (ISO), the 3166 standard, which deals with the states' credentials, takes the list of states from the UN Statistics Agency, where Kosovo is not in this list and we are not listed at the ISO standard, respectively. That's why there are long-term problems on certain applications”, Gashi points out.

Kosovo had been assigned the phone code from the International Communications Union (ITU) in December 2016. Meanwhile, the evacuation of foreign codes, which had been used as the one in Monaco +377 and Slovenia's code +386, are starting to depart from February of this year.

Gashi emphasises that it is the technical and binding task of phone operators in Kosovo that, during the transition to +383 encryption, more operators of different apps report so that citizens will not have problems in dual auto-identification.

“As ARKEP, with the access to the +383 code, you have directly contacted some of the largest applications used in Kosovo, such as Google platforms, Viber, Whatsapp, so that Kosovo is listed, but it is a technical task of operators to report over and over and over and over again even smaller applications in order to list the code +383x1>.

In addition, you need to warn and citizens that you need to change the phone format used for verification. If we get the Google platform, that's where the +383 code is put, but if it's not changed from the user to the new code and it's stuck in the +386 or +377 code, it's possible that you didn't log in or call for verification”, Gashi explains.

He adds that Kosovo needs to build digital identity by lobbiing on different applications, on different platforms because they cannot automatically get it.

Kosovo Telecom spokesman Arsim Bilalli tells Radio Free Europe they are unaware of such reported cases, but if consumers who receive services from Telekom have such problems, he invites them to seek help at the Call Centre and Consumer Service.

Telecommunications Problems Even Within Kosovo

But it is not only international problems that are conveying the implementation of Kosovo's +383 code. Customers of the operator Vala constantly complain they are not able to accept and call.

Kosovo Telecom spokesman Arsim Bilalli through an electronic response sent to Radio Free Europe does not rule out the possibility of having trouble implementing calls, either because of the increased burden of traffic or the planned maintenance of the network, but that these problems, according to him, may be only in specific areas and in limited time.

Kosovo's “Teleclomy has established its technical teams, which are responsible for maintaining and monitoring the network, at any location at all times. Unforeseen technical problems can happen to us, as can any other service operator, but this is not about any financial crisis. Furthermore, Kosovo's respective Telekom teams are constantly working on the ground, in maintaining existing (BTS) antennas, but also installing new (BTS) antennas, in order for our consumers to provide quality service to”, says Bilalli.

Technical problems in the operating system had occurred in July of this year.

At that time, telecommunications experts stressed that this should not happen, since it endangers national security. Drirt Elshani, telecommunications issue expert, told Radio Free Europe it is important that Kosovo have a special network for emergency services so that in cases like these, telecommunications for emergency services is functional.

This has a huge impact on national security since all telecommunications today is done through the mobile network, and it is important that the mobile network is functional and the quality of services is needed. The number one priority for Kosovo Telecom should be the normal functioning of the network. The problems that cause such a decline in the Kosovo Telekom operating system is that it also affects emergency services, as they are linked to the mobile network”, Elshani said.

Kosovo's telecom is in deep financial crisis now and how much time due to numerous accumulated debts.

One of Kosovo's Telekom's debts totals the value of more than 25m euros it has over the company with which the contract is cut, Z-Mobile.

Kosovo's telecom is a public company transformed into a stock society, in which the fixed phone and mobile Vala operate.

The government of the Republic of Kosovo is the owner of 100 per cent of Kosovo Telecom shares.

Operator Vala operating within Telekom has more than 1.2 million consumers at the country level.