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Sale of tourist Sim-cards in Azerbaijan is illegal: communication ministry

ICT Materials 21 August 2009 18:30 (UTC +04:00)

Azerbaijan, Baku, August 21 / Trend G. Veliyev /

Sale of tourist Sim-cards in Azerbaijan is illegal, head of the regulation department of the communication and IT ministry, Aliyar Tamirov, told Trend . 

Tamirov said that at present, the ministry applied to corresponding agencies to research sale of Sim-cards.

"So-called virtual operator represents interest of European operator in Azerbaijan selling Sim-card on the domestic market.

It is necessary to have a corresponding license to render services of mobile communication.  National mobile operators have this license.

Activity of virtual operators, selling Sim-cards of European operators can be considered as illegal," Tamirov said.

"Tourist SIM-cards represent re-packed contracts of European operators. Prices for them are comparable and hit in average $10. Re-sellers made another step. They brought these cards in Azerbaijan, renamed them, assigned a price and began selling to cease this affair.

Estonian phone numbers (in the format +372 53 XXX-XXX) are the most popular in Azerbaijan. Similar Sim cards are sold now nder the brand of VenturoSIM. Their cost is 35 manat.

These cards solve the problem of expensive roaming. One can save 90 percent during talks compared to services of ordinary mobile operators.

Sim cards operate in more than 150 countries. However, calls are free in 60 of these countries. These countries include most of European countries (24 countries), CIS countries, and popular resorts like Turkey, Egypt, United Arab Emirates, Israel and others. The minimal fee for outgoing calls is 39 cents per minute.

Outgoing calls lose in the cost because of use of Call-Back. There are no monthly fee and fee for connection. Replenishment of a deposit of conversational time is carried out through the Internet.

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