Unclear IMEI Rules With Unclear Execution

Ilustrasi smartphone (Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay)

JAKARTA - The Indonesian government has issued an International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) regulation to stop the circulation of illegal cell phones. It's just that, the rules that have been implemented since April 18, 2020, are still not going well.

The reason is, many Black Market (BM) cellphone sellers still illegally distribute their devices to Indonesia. This condition is exacerbated by the inoperability of the Central Equipment Identity Register (CEIR) device which functions to block illegal cell phones.

Gadget observer Lucky Sebastian said that the IMEI rules that have been approved by several ministries, namely the Ministry of Industry (Kemenperin), the Ministry of Trade (Kemendag), the Ministry of Finance (Kemenkeu) and the Ministry of Communication and Informatics (Kominfo) are still unclear about controlling illegal cell phones. . The application of this rule is also too confusing.

"Actually, there are still a lot of incomplete and confusing details. It seems that the unpreparedness of the operational regulations in detail, the unclear division of tasks between the three ministries and operators and the readiness of CEIR's hardware to check this database, which is an obstacle to IMEI blocking rules, has not yet been implemented," Lucky said to VOI, Thursday, August 13.

Lucky also said that the IMEI blocking rules should take effect on April 18, 2020, but it didn't work properly. Even now, the implementation of the CEIR system has not yet been completed, even though the implementation will be carried out on 24 August.

In fact, the CEIR system will be a reference for cellular operators to block cell phones whose IMEI numbers are not registered, aka BM phones. So, a cellphone with an IMEI number that is not registered on the machine, automatically cannot connect to the cellular network of operators in Indonesia.

"IMEI rules should be implemented, with a transitional period. So during this transitional period it will be seen where there are gaps, obstacles, mismatches of what was planned, then corrected. After that, the standard applies," said Lucky.

According to him, if the IMEI rules have been effective. Later, the rogue distributors will no longer be able to sell BM phones, both on social media and on e-commerce platforms.

"Actually, if the IMEI blocking rules have been effective, BM sellers will also disappear by themselves, because the cellphones they sell will not get a signal, because the data is not there either in the operator or the Ministry of Industry. So it remains only the readiness of the government to implement it," explained Lucky.

In addition, Lucky also emphasized the government to tighten supervision on BM cellphone sellers because they could be missed, as recently happened in the case of the PS Store owned by Putera Siregar. This indicates that illegal cell phones are still widely circulating in the country.

"In terms of system and concept it is good, if implemented properly it will be effective. But back again to the factor of implementation and supervision of carrying out these rules. If not committed, of course there will be many gaps,"

Lucky

"The method chosen should be correct, because it has been tested in Pakistan and can work," added Lucky.

Previously it was reported, the Director General of Resources and Equipment of Post and Information Technology (Dirjen SDPPI) Kominfo, Ismail said that Kominfo has completed all other needs to implement this IMEI rule, as well as telecommunications operators. The rest, Ismail added, was left by the Ministry of Industry to carry out the execution.

"If everything from Kominfo has been completed, even the operators have finished. In fact, it is in the Ministry of Industry's friends," said Ismail some time ago.