Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Moldova suffering from GSM jamming

From: [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 26 Nov 2003 02:42:08 -0500

Moldova suffering from GSM jamming

Moldova's Moldcell has agreed to start compensating its customers who are
affected by illegal jaming in the country, despite not actually being to blame
for the problems. It has now been just over 2 months since Moldcell noticed that
jamming efforts were coming from stations in Transnistria had intensified. The
company says that jamming efforts have been ongoing for the past three years,
but had not been a significant problem until recently.

September 9, 2003 is the first day when GSM services subscribers confronted
difficulties in communication and Moldcell started fighting continuously.

Moldcell has been working quietly to counter the jamming efforts and has only
recently notified the media of the problems. Additionally, Moldcell and its
shareholders sent several letters to all regulatory authorities, Government,
(NARTI, the Ministry of Telecommunications, the Prime Ministry) and
international organisations (International Telecommunication Union - ITU),
informing about heavy consequences on customers and company’s activity.

The jamming effect has been diminished by 40 %, even though the power of jamming
increased 3 times during that period. The company has had to realign antennas
that were affected by the jamming activities and has intalled 36 new antennas on
15 new base stations.

The drop rate of lost calls due to network difficulties was reduced from 6,8 %
to 3,9% - in Chisinau, the most affected city from 6,8 % to 4,9% - across
Moldova territory The foreign technical experts gave a high appraisal of the
technical measures taken by Moldcell.

Jamming in brief:

2001 the jamming of GSM signal of Moldovan mobile operators started
sporadically.

09.09.03 the jamming of GSM signal of Moldovan mobile telephony operators became
intensive.

10.09.03 Moldcell distributed a press communique, stating the fact that the
network is seriously affected by the jamming, the jamming is out of Moldcell
control and responsibility. It brought its customers apologies for all created
inconveniences.

12.09.03 interview with General Manager of Moldcell broadcasted on TV channels.

18.09.03 all TV channels broadcast Moldcell message to its clients, informing
about the confronting difficulties, heavy losses and announcing technical
measures taken to minimize the effect of jamming.

30.09.03 Moldcell announces the implementation of the compensation scheme, in
particular, the transfer to the next month of all unused minutes from all
Advance Paid packages with bundled minutes – measures, which were extended to
November 2003 as well.

04.11.03 Industry and Commerce Chamber issued the certificate that defined the
situation in the GSM industry as one of the Force Majeure.

Posted to the site on 25-Nov-03

www.cellular-news.com

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