The entire Russian-speaking Internet has been harping on the hype news for two days now. Apple allegedly started charging Russians 10 rubles from their local phone account for each iPhone reboot. It sounds powerful and fast, so audience comments are replete with over 300 jokes from owners of cheap Chinese smartphones. Everywhere you go, there is a KVN qualifying stage.
This news has one already typical problem, which has become the norm in the context of the popularization of trash Telegram channels that do not bother to check the information. It is almost 100% fake.
The reality is simpler. In this article I will analyze what is really happening, and also give anonymous comments from representatives of Russian operators.
What they write on the Internet about charges for rebooting the iPhone
Hype rose due to a post on the Pikabu website that went viral, where a user was outraged by dead spellings. I quote below a repost from a map of a popular telegram channel:
❗️iPhone charges Russians 10₽ for each phone reboot
Previously, it was free, but after Apple left Russia, some telecom operators began to charge money for it.
To avoid being written on, you need to disable FaceTime and iMessage or set a ban on SMS abroad in the interface.
To complete the picture, here are a few comments below:
– Serves you right… There’s no point in using a mafon… More show-offs than normality..
– I’m not friends with iPhones… I 10 on the first day of the Machine Made. Therefore, Android for me is about reliability. Recently I gave my 15-year-old son an iPhone and presented gifts… But I’m glad that he will suffer for the reboot… Maybe he’ll switch to Android.
– What else needed to be done to get people to give up iPhones? Paid charging? More suffering with dead phones. Applications are not installed, third-party payment services do not work(
The mood is understandable. But sometimes there are those who understand what is really happening. So all is not lost.
What’s Really Happening
iMessage and FaceTime are linked to the iPhone owner’s phone number.
Why do iMessage and FaceTime require a phone number? These Apple online services can be linked to the device user’s phone number. Thanks to this, you can send messages and check video and audio calls between users of the Apple ecosystem using a regular mobile phone number as a contact. That’s how it’s set up.
Both services can work correctly without being tied to a phone number. In this case, instead of a number, the contact field will contain the email assigned to the iPhone user’s Apple ID.
Why are they writing off money? Writing a permanent message for sending an active SMS to a foreign number. She quit her iPhone after a device user advised her to enable iMessage and/or FaceTime on iOS.
Front SMS activation The iPhone operating system (iOS) asks the user for permission to activate iMessage and FaceTime. If the user refuses, no SMS will be sent.
When is iMessage and/or FaceTime prompted to activate? Only in cases where the owner:
▪ a new SIM card is being shipped to iPhone for the first time
▪ changes the main SIM card for communication in the iPhone
▪ switches SIM cards between physical and eSIM as part of the iPhone
▪ you are in a roaming zone and are talking with a telecom operator.
Activation or reactivation itself is not required. Activation request window NOT It happens if the device simply turns off or reboots without removing the SIM card.
Why is Apple even recording my money without permission?
If someone asks this question, it means he doesn’t know how to read.
Because iOS carefully reads the text before sending an SMS and warns that a national SMS connection may incur a fee.
What does it have to do with it reboot iPhone?
Nothing to do with it it’s fake. Rebooting the device and activation SMS have no effect.
Why send SMS to activate iMessage at all?
To make sure that it is your phone and what it is using in this device right now.
To link iMessage and FaceTime to a phone number, you must obtain confirmation from the owner of the Apple device that the phone number really belongs to you and is used in this gadget. To do this and send an activation SMS: it contains all the necessary information to automate this process.
In addition to transmitting phone numbers, the activation SMS message contains an encrypted device identifier that is depersonalized for third parties. All this allows Apple servers to correctly link the phone to the Apple ID account.
SMS messages are sent to a foreign number (currently a number in the UK).
Why does the operator record money on the meter for SMS?
Reasons why the activation SMS is delivered to another country.
Apple enters into an agreement with certified telecom operators, and the latter automatically reimburse the cost of SMS to these subscribers. If such SMS are sent from an operator with which Apple does not have a relationship, the cost of the SMS is debited according to the subscriber’s tariff.
At some point over the past two years, Russian operators stopped automatically refunding the cost of SMS, and some did not do this at all before.
I officially communicated with some major operators of the Russian Federation on this issue. The fact that such an agreement existed between them and Apple, I confirmed by one of them. However, none of the operators wanted to officially sign up for this issue, for fear of coming under criticism for the delusion of the majority of subscribers.
At the same time, at least one of the operators reported that until now You can return the written money for these SMS. To do this, just contact technical support.
Why did Apple start charging money for this “right now”?
Many people write that recently only problems have been described, and expect Apple to do this on purpose. As you may already understand, the latter is clearly not true. At first, everything should be clear now too.
In fact, there were writings before. iMessage as a service launched in October 2011 with iOS 5, more than 12 years ago. The principle of using the service has never changed since then.
Since then, complaints about the writing of these SMS have been periodically sent here and there, but for some reason they do not cause the same pattern of actions on the Internet as happened yesterday.
Source: Iphones RU
I am a professional journalist and content creator with extensive experience writing for news websites. I currently work as an author at Gadget Onus, where I specialize in covering hot news topics. My written pieces have been published on some of the biggest media outlets around the world, including The Guardian and BBC News.
