Users from Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod, Penza, Saratov, Samara, Ryazan, Ufa and other Russian cities stated that they were unable to make a call - the network was unavailable.
First, the company’s official Twitter posted advice to set the network type to “3G only” and reboot the phone, and now a standard response is sent to all affected customers: “Currently, there are massive communication difficulties. We are already fixing it. We apologize for the inconvenience caused." The company added that it does not have data on a specific time frame for fixing the problem.
Unsuccessful dialing
Megafon said that the success of dialing in Moscow and several other cities decreased by 30%, noting that calls are still possible using instant messengers. Unfortunately, this did not satisfy many of the company's clients, who cannot use instant messengers without access to Wi-Fi.
As the press service of Megafon reports on its Telegram channel, the cause of the failure was an accident on one of the elements of network equipment.
In addition, one of the company’s offices also said that they had an accident, but the time frame for eliminating the consequences is still unknown. Employees who wish to receive compensation are asked to write a statement at the company office. When asked about the reasons for the failure, it is reported that a hacker attack cannot be ruled out.
Some time after reports of Megafon failures, information appeared in the media that other mobile operators, for example Beeline, also encountered communication problems. In a conversation with Gazeta.Ru, the company's press secretary said that the network is operating normally without massive failures, and the spread of a false message about problems with the operator's network is associated with the response of a technical support employee about the operation of one base station companies.
The press secretary also informed Gazeta.Ru about the stable operation: “The MTS network is operating as normal.”
IN telephone conversation with a correspondent Lidov said that on the day of the attack many office computers MegaFon began to reboot and display a message demanding a ransom for decrypting data, and not only Moscow, but also other Russian cities suffered.
Fortunately, the spread of the attack was slowed down, and literally a couple of hours later, the entire Megafon call center was restored so that subscribers could communicate with the support service. A company representative emphasized that the WannaCry virus did not affect communication services in any way, and the personal data of the operator’s clients remained safe.
In January 2017, Megafon users also complained about the unavailability of some services - Multifon, MegafonTV, as well as problems with the site. The company explained the failure as an accident in the data center (DPC), caused by abnormal frosts in the region.
After some time, the services started working normally. Then the representative mobile operator told Gazeta.Ru that order in the system is measured not by the presence of failures, but by the ability to quickly eliminate them. “This was done by the company’s specialists in the shortest possible time. And at night on a holiday,” added Dorokhina.
All residents of Russia know firsthand that Russian mobile operators like to write off money from subscriber accounts under strange pretexts and sell unnecessary paid services, mislead and profit from their subscribers in every possible way. Today it became known that mobile operator MegaFon, which is in good standing with many, cruelly scams all its subscribers out of money, and it does this, of course, secretly.
This story was told by a user with the nickname InGrib on the Yaplakal forum, but it is absolutely reliable and confirmed by screenshots. It all started with the fact that one of the residents of Russia did not use his number for several months, after which it was automatically blocked - this is a common normal procedure. Since this number was important for a subscriber of the MegaFon operator, he went to the operator’s salon to restore it.
When restoring your number, you need to top it up with 200 rubles, and also choose any of the new tariff plans available for connection. In order not to pay a single ruble, the Russian opted for the “Go to Zero” tariff plan, which has no subscription fee at all. As a result, restoring the number cost only 200 rubles, but after logging into personal account On the official website it turned out something completely different.
As it turned out, to the free tariff plan, for which you do not need to pay a fixed penny, the mobile operator MegaFon quietly connected four paid unnecessary services, including “Replace the dial tone” (93 rubles per month) and “Who called+” (37 ,2 rubles per month). At the same time, the remaining services seem to be free, but if you read their description carefully, you will notice that they will become paid after some time, when the “trial period” ends.
For example, the “SMS XXS” service is free for the first 10 days, but then it costs 3.5 rubles per day, that is, 105 rubles per month. The Internet XS service looks no less interesting, since initially it costs 190 rubles, but from the second month this amount increases to 210 rubles per month. Moreover, in your MegaFon personal account it is displayed in the “Without” section subscription fee", as if on purpose.
As a result, if the buyer of a tariff plan from the MegaFon operator does not log into his personal account immediately after connecting, that is, in the first days, then he may lose a large amount of money, which he will find out about after some time. Thus, the free “Go to Zero” tariff plan without a subscription fee right out of the box costs 450 rubles per month.
Of course, it depends on everyone, but in our humble opinion, the MegaFon operator cruelly swindles all its subscribers out of money by connecting them to absolutely unnecessary and useless services, and the client is not even warned about this. It’s good if you come across an advanced subscriber who will immediately go into his personal account and turn them off, but what about older people and those who are not at all friendly with electronics? Pay 450 rubles per month for a tariff without a subscription fee?
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Millions of people are facing the consequences of a technological accident today. There was a serious failure in the work of one of the Big Three operators.
Megafon subscribers in Moscow and the region, Kazan, Nizhny Novgorod, Samara, Ryazan, and other cities in central Russia were affected. People were not just left without communication - banking services, taxi and delivery services were interrupted. Megafon has millions of subscribers in the capital region alone, which allows us to judge the scale of the problem.
That's what's in modern world This may result in a disconnection of cellular communications: no calls, no SMS, no pictures on social networks.
Rolling blackouts began at approximately 11 Moscow time. And at first, judging by messages on forums on the Internet, it seemed that the network disappeared at once for all major telecom operators. It soon became clear that the blow fell only on Megafon and Yota clients. Doesn't catch in the center of Moscow. The whole of Central Russia and the Volga region are without communications. The shutdown almost immediately affected five million SIM cards.
Those who have the Internet are lucky - instant messengers work, but only emergency calls. However, even the call center of the Ministry of Emergency Situations cannot be reached on the first try. Those who have “no network” on their screen today had to rely on a landline telephone and luck.
Taxi drivers were left without work - now all orders are made using mobile internet. Clients were unable to reach beauty salons, for example. Daily revenue was at risk.
Left without communication, owners of Megafon SIM cards began to call the call center, but it turned out that the lines were overloaded. The most impatient ones, whose entire business is based on calls, changed their telecom operator this afternoon. Who could wait - they stormed the Megafon offices. All, of course, with the same questions - when will the connection be returned, how to call until then.
“It so happened that I was the only one who had Megafon working all day, and both the Internet and calls worked without problems. I simply gave my phone to those subscribers who urgently needed to make calls, because many found themselves in a critical situation,” says Polina Solovyova.
At first, the operator’s headquarters remained silent; they posted on their social network page about a 30% drop in communications. But after a cloud of comments with righteous anger from customers, Megafon had to announce a massive collapse. Already in the evening, the operator’s office in the capital officially commented on the disappearance of communication. It turns out that the underlying software was broken.
“This is the most serious accident in the company’s history in terms of impact on the network. The failure occurred in software. It erroneously produces a peak load that is itself constant, which, strictly speaking, the network cannot withstand,” said Peter Lidov, director of public relations at Megafon.
They say that American equipment suppliers have woken up and are already involved in the repairs. Megafon promises to restore the network in the next few hours. Well, as for the version that there is no connection due to the consequences of a hacker attack on the operator - Megafon suffered from WannaCry virus, at headquarters they say that the ransomware Trojan has nothing to do with it.
You can often hear that some people prefer to use two or several instead of one SIM card. This is explained by the loyal policy of Megafon, which provides a wide selection of tariff plans for its subscribers. Different tariff plans offer different favorable conditions for communication.
Some tariffs are designed for making calls abroad, some for the Internet and SMS correspondence. It is not surprising that many users of Megafon services prefer to connect several SIM cards at once, which they use alternately.
But it also happens when a subscriber does not use one of the SIM cards for some time. Then the question arises: what to do if you haven’t used your Megafon SIM card for a long time? Is it possible to simply insert it into the phone and continue using it, or do you need to perform certain actions to do this - go to a mobile phone store or call the operator from another number?
There can be a lot of reasons why people temporarily do not show subscriber activity
For example, you were away (went on vacation, worked in another country, or simply left for a couple of months hometown. And so you come home, “turn on” your original SIM card, and they tell you that it is not active? what to do in this case? You need to contact the support center (Salom mobile communication Megafon), where they will advise you and explain what your next steps are.
Representatives of the Megafon company reported that in most cases the SIM card can be restored without problems. If your card is blocked, you can contact a Megafon representative at any time and your number will be restored.
In addition, you will be able to immediately select a more profitable tariff plan and activate it once you start using it. mobile communications and the Internet on more favorable terms. Pick up new tariff It makes sense if you are not satisfied with the old one, or if its validity period has expired (the company “closed” the old tariff, releasing its new modification with more favorable conditions for subscribers).
In what cases can a subscriber restore his number:
- If the SIM card was registered to you and not to someone else. Otherwise, you will have to go to the communication salon with the person in whose name the SIM card is registered.
- If at the time of your contact with specialists, your previous number has not been transferred to other users of Megafon services.
There are cases when a subscriber, having a SIM card registered in his name, cannot restore it, because during the period of absence of his subscriber activity the number was transferred to someone. To find out what happened to your number while you were not using it, dial the short digital combination 0500. Even on a blocked card, you can send free sms message to this number, after which you will receive a notification with necessary information. Also, any subscriber can go to their personal account, select the “Support” section there and contact the company’s operator with a letter in which they must indicate the number they want to restore.
How to find out the “expiration date” of the number?
All Megafon subscribers need to know the expiration date of the SIM card, at least in order to periodically turn on the old SIM card, which they expect to use in the future. Some people only turn on one of their SIM cards when they need to use services provided by a certain tariff plan. Let's say you need to call another country. If your SIM card has a positive balance and you do not use it for a long time, then after 45 days you will begin to be charged an inactivity fee.
The amount will be charged daily in the amount of 15 rubles. Write-offs will occur as long as there is money in your account. Exactly until this moment, the number will be saved for you (or for the subscriber who bought the SIM card). When the balance reaches zero, the countdown begins until the number is deactivated. You can top up your account and continue to use the number for 89 days after the balance reaches 0. On the 90th day after not using the SIM card, the subscriber's number will be blocked.
If the blocked number was previously transferred by the user from a “foreign” operator, then restoration is possible within 9 days from the moment of disconnection.
A subscriber who has not used a Megafon SIM card for a long time can restore his number at his own request. Number restoration is charged accordingly, established by Megafon. Restoring a number will require certain financial costs, and the higher the “rating” of the number, the greater the amount that the subscriber will have to pay for the service. Some people don't want to buy a new number because they are used to the old one.
Often the number cannot be changed due to the person’s area of employment. Let's say he knows the previous number huge amount clients, employees, friends, relatives, colleagues. Then changing the number becomes a problem.
The need to restore the previous number may be caused by a significant amount of money that remained in the subscriber’s account before he stopped being active as a subscriber:
- Regular number – 0 rubles (federal), 500 rubles (city).
- Bronze number – 375 (federal), 3000 (city).
- Silver number – 2500 (federal), 12500 (city).
- Gold number – 7500 (federal), 17500 (city).
- Platinum number – 12500 (federal), 25000 (city).
As you can see, if you do not use a Megafon SIM card for a long time, then the number will be blocked. But not irrevocably. The operator always reserves the right for its clients to resume subscriber activity on the same number and continue using the selected tariff. Having become familiar with all the nuances of number restoration and “armed” with the necessary information, subscribers will no longer waste a lot of nerves and time figuring out the details.
Today, all specialized sites and my feeds are full of links to this material. I think that since it has been widely distributed on the Internet, it will no longer be lost, but nevertheless I will save it here for memory. It is written emotionally, chaotically (I kept the original text without any edits, fortunately there is nothing completely unprintable there), but, of course, this text has its own truth of life. Yes, a person looks at everything from his own bell tower, from the bell tower of his “former”, but apparently there is resentment. I will not give my vision of the situation in Megafon, because we must start from the very legendary times of North-West GSM, but I will make only one remark. There is a culture of “company management” (with which we are far from doing well), but there is also a “culture of ownership”. It is clear that cellular communication entered before saturation, this is a normal phenomenon that all industries go through, no one grows extensively forever. But then, confused by the lack of clear and, most importantly, quick results-producing goals, cellular companies went into chaos (I won’t go deeper into the topic). Here the shareholders would sensibly assess both the potential and opportunities, but... but instead they want “eternal growth.” I occasionally communicate with shareholders of telecom companies, they, of course, are recruited by analysts and consultants, and they really like to give examples from the IT field, for example, 70 people work at WhatsApp, and the company is worth 12 billion. But these are examples taken out of context, another thing is that the examples are very tempting, besides, people who have taken the initiative once (and often more than once) simply cannot calm down and “rest on their laurels.” It is at such moments that the “culture of ownership” manifests itself; you need to understand what can be demanded from companies, that is, from their management. At the same time, without achieving any significant successes on new fronts, a powerful “optimization” begins to show how efficiency is increasing on the other side. There are risky initiatives, and there are bad ones, but how can you tell the difference? This is where skill lies, this is where culture lies. Unfortunately, this is not only our misfortune and problem. I have the opportunity to communicate with foreign colleagues, the same problems, some on a larger scale, some on a smaller scale. What this leads to in the text, another thing is that the text gives a very narrow view of the problem.
As many already know, last Friday, May 19, MegaFon had 3 branches without communications. Volga region, Central branch and Moscow region. The accident is unprecedented for the company, and the MF will have a long time to clear up the consequences. Below is my opinion as a former employee (engineer/IT specialist) on why this could happen. Or, more simply put, how my favorite company got screwed.
Everything written below is purely my IMHO, it may be completely subjective, I may omit something, but since I have been stewing in this whole mess for a very long time, the memories and sensations are still fresh. This is my first and last post, you have the right to copy the text, distribute, quote and do whatever you want with it. I won’t log into this account again because I don’t believe in decency and freedom of speech. There is only one goal, to raise at least a little hype.
I worked at MegaFon for many years. With enthusiasm, a lot of rework, let's say with faith that I was doing something significant, that the future was ours... And the company really grew, its coverage grew, becoming the best. The professionalism of the team grew, the team became stronger, and the salary grew.
My colleagues and I began to have the first suspicions in 2012-13. When we suddenly found out that we were working on an outdated model. In those years, Mr. Tavrin was just forming a team, but he was already promising big changes. Federalization, optimization, cost reduction and other words that are pleasant to the ear of an MBA graduate. Now this could be the end of the story, but back then it wasn’t so scary. It would seem, who in their right mind would shake an infrastructure that is working and has been fine-tuned over the years? After all, they usually don’t skimp on engineers/IT specialists... But this is exactly what our top team did in the first place.
Plans to optimize costs were announced, and it was our technical staff that turned out to be the most unoptimized. The plans were grandiose, federalization of all monitoring systems, consolidation of operation into highly qualified centers in St. Petersburg and Samara, introduction of AI, and unified systems accounting/processing of accidents and tasks for the entire country. But, as always, there was a small but, it was necessary to cut half of the technical staff from the old teams. And for the second, allocate a quota with a demotion in positions. Guess who left?
Almost everyone who stood at the origins of the infrastructure in the branches left, operations in the regions had a particularly hard time, and few agreed to be demoted. What remained were young people without work experience and those who managed to retain their positions. This was planned to be compensated United Centers Network Management (NETC), in which they wanted to gather professionals. And turn their work into a stream with a narrower specialization. The idea was that a group of professionals would serve several branches of the company at once. That is, if previously the entire Volga region was operated for 200 hours (conditionally), now it was necessary to operate 20 hours (conditionally) in St. Petersburg. And those 20 (conditionally) unfortunate people who remained in the branch were supposed to help them. New monitoring was supposed to help with this, but it was turned from powerful departments that previously supported the network (I believe the most stable in the Russian Federation) into a department of dummies who are not responsible for anything at all. A the most important function old monitoring - coordination of the work of other departments... was simply removed. If before it was a group of young guys who bothered everyone around until even the most minor problems were eliminated. That new feature monitoring has become sick! transfer of the emergency situation to those 20 unfortunate people from the branch and 20 from the Unified Control Center, who are now responsible for the entire technical part. And then only the most critical ones; the rest of the staff had to look for them themselves, using the web platform created for this. Need I say that all this turned into an endless series of mistakes, accidents and mutual hatred? And to this day it works through one place. And to improve statistics and beautiful performance reports, the accident criteria have been revised. What used to be a fucking star suddenly became an insignificant incident. In some categories, permissible degradations were generally increased by more than four times. What can I say, many types of errors on equipment have ceased to be processed at all, since they have allegedly become insignificant.
That's when I really started to feel the pressure of everyone knowing where you work. Complaints, comments from friends, and jokes about “the megaphone can’t pick up” started pouring in. And the company happily reported on the portal about how wonderful and smoothly everything worked. It would seem that you can live? But that was just the beginning.
Since 2014, so many different bureaucratic systems have been introduced... Endless forms, applications, web services, accounting systems. I was still bearable, but guess who suffered the most? Engineers, Technicians, IT people. Those who were, in principle, responsible for the most important things, our leadership systematically turned into typical officials. Nothing should happen without filling out the appropriate forms and reports, that became the slogan. Which one best way do turn him into a bureaucrat? Put him in the swamp of bureaucracy and pay him less money. The UCSCs could not cope with their work and demanded new staff quotas; our management, in turn, added more systems for monitoring infrastructure personnel to analyze the possibility of further reductions in branches. From close-knit teams, the infrastructure in the regions turned into heroes of the series Lost, who were simply trying to survive. From well-coordinated teamwork, everything turned into some kind of dragging the blanket over oneself. In response, the ECSCs began to focus their work on themselves, and eventually stopped informing others about what they were doing. Salaries literally stopped growing altogether, remaining at the 2013 level. Career growth has basically disappeared as a species. Continuing education and training is dead.
As a result, by the time I left at the end of 2016, the infrastructure in the regions had acquired an extremely deplorable appearance. My work (and my colleagues too) has turned into some kind of endless struggle with the system. ECCs that do not have the goal of doing their job efficiently, but only speed. Colleagues from other departments who are trembling for their jobs and simply hiding behind the wall of bureaucracy erected by the company. Linear and senior management who are afraid to tell the truth and only silently comply. All this under the guise of complete inconsistency, mutual distrust, and simply resentment towards the leadership and what is happening. It got to the point where ignoring everything except direct orders became the most popular way of working in the company. Simply because this is how business processes have become structured. Everything has turned into such a swamp that even corporate system applications, a request has appeared for help in finding the required application form... And all this against the backdrop of a growing number of complaints about communication and a complete lack of understanding (and indeed a desire to know) at the top of what is happening below. And most importantly, every single one of them understood that sooner or later this would lead to collapse.
It is important to note that MegaFon is a very large company, and all the consequences in it do not occur immediately, but by inertia after a fairly long period of time. Therefore, the collapse of the infrastructure did not really have an immediate impact. And so it turned out that the consequences hit the company only now.
Having read all of the above, your hair is probably standing on end, but no, this is only a small part of the problems. The following should be added to the already written wall of text. The accident occurred because:
Firstly, the broken equipment was lobbied by the director of development (technical development of the network, who is now the director of infrastructure sick!), with the education of a marketer... Someone asked the techies why they want a telecom vendor, and not HP? No.
Secondly, how many people have been trained to operate this equipment? A handful. And then they cut it, which is what I wrote about. And until 2017, in general, everyone except Moscow and ECUS went with any kind of beard training.
Thirdly, federalization affected everything. This is how three branches were connected to 2 nodes. This looks especially fresh and innovative compared to past years, when we reserved everything we could, more than once. Distributing equipment geographically to each region of the branch, up to several data centers per city.
Finally, fourthly, this is the complete burnout of those personnel. This puts terrible pressure on those who remain, when people feel that nothing good lies ahead for them. What can I say, my most optimistic colleagues even began to admit that the company was falling apart. What can I say, this year, due to the fact that MegaFon did not fulfill the profit plan, it was decided to give engineers/IT workers an annual bonus equal to half their salary. Those people who conscientiously fulfilled their goals all year, got up at night to eliminate accidents, and worked as laborers on weekends. Simply because the company did not make enough profit. Someone can say that they didn’t receive enough money because the accidents were poorly executed? By the standards of old times, yes, but by current standards it’s excellent. How enthusiastic and responsible does the average engineer now approach their work? But I don’t even raise the issue of some of the lowest salaries in telecoms.
And the other day, Mr. Soldatenkov (director of MegaFon) addressed the employees, hinting at how bad they were for allowing this to happen. Former colleagues sent me, and I was blown away. So, no one gives a damn anymore, they don’t give a damn about the network, they don’t give a damn about communications, they don’t give a shit about corporate values. The predecessor of the current general director destroyed most of what was working perfectly, and did everything to make it as difficult as possible to work with what was left. The current one has also deprived people of financial motivation, so don’t be surprised by what’s happening. WannaCry, both HLR incidents, were largely the result of the collapse of what was happening in the most important part of the company.
There is so much more I could write, but what's the point? I left and now work for a much smaller company. Is it better than the current MF? Much. I no longer have to convince my subordinates to go crazy on weekends just for a thank you from me. Or convincing a colleague that we simply cannot raise wages without changing positions... And for those pennies that he receives, he must also try. What about the others? I think they will leave sooner or later; the young people who were hired in 2014 for lower positions have already gained enough experience and will now go to new companies. What about MegaFon? MegaFon will continue to agonize for a long time, unless suddenly someone at the top gets away from the consulting agencies... and at least sees the light for a little while.
This is probably true not only at MegaFon, but I don’t know about others. And there will be many more accidents, and with even greater consequences. Because a runner who skimps on his legs... a runner doesn't last long.
