MTS and Megaphone will start massively blocking calls from banks starting November 15. The operators decided to sell regular caller ID to businesses as a separate service. The head of Megaphone, Khachatur Pombuchan, issued a direct ultimatum: those who do not pay will simply have their calls cut off from the 15th.
The first to close are banks, which will no longer be able to warn people about fraudsters or account transactions. Next in line are couriers with deliveries, clinics with confirmed appointments, shops, restaurants and even utility companies with accident warnings.
Officially, a new "tax" on dialing has been imposed on businesses, but companies will simply be forced to include these costs in the price tags of their goods and services, so in the end Russians will still have to pay for the appetite of mobile operators.