Azernews.Az

By Nigar Orujova

Azerbaijani citizens will now be able to register imported phones not only on paper, but also in electronic form.

The changes to "Rules on mobile devices registration", ratified by Azerbaijan's Cabinet of Minister, was officially announced on April 14.

Under these changes registration of imported mobile devices with GSM standard will be available through the "E-government" portal now.

After authorization on the portal, the device owner enters the necessary data, including the International Mobile Equipment Identification (IMEI) code, brand name, and device model, after which the system examines the provided information and documents and decides to enter the IMEI code of the device into "white" or "black" lists.

The time of the verification was also reduced from three to two business days.

Another change envisages the loss or theft of the device. In such cases, the system will send a short text saying "This mobile device has been lost. Please, show it to the nearest police department" to the mobile number provided during the registration process, prior to the transfer of the IMEI-code to the "black" list.

The code registration system is an important component in preventing illegal import of mobile phones into the country that are problematic for both mobile operators and users, as they do not correspond to standards.

There are currently over 13 million registered mobile phones in the IMEI-code database in Azerbaijan. All the devices with GSM standards are also included in the system.

Mobile devices import increases

Recently, Azerbaijan, a country with the mobile phone penetration rate of 110 percent, saw an increase in the volume of mobile phone and other wireless telephone imports.

The Azerbaijani State Statistics Committee said on April 14 that imports increased by 2.5 times in February, compared to January.

The import of devices in February reached 6,181 devises in the amount of $499,000, showing an increase by more than 2.2 times in terms of value, the committee said.

The total number of mobile phones imported to Azerbaijan in the first two months of 2014 amounted to 8,680 units worth $723,500. The volume of imports dropped 49.74 percent, declining by 16.24 percent in terms of value compared to the same period in last year.