One Week Again, IMEI Rules For Illegal Cell Phones Apply

Smartphone illustration (unsplash)

JAKARTA - In less than one week, the Ministry of Communication and Information (Kominfo) will enforce the IMEI validation rules on April 18. In accordance with the policy, all Black Market (BM) or ilegar phones will be blocked.

Komifo together with the Ministry of Trade and the Ministry of Industry decided that the whitelist scheme would be used to block illegal cell phones through the detection of device IMEIs. The whitelis scheme is a preventive method, where consumers can check illegal cellphones or not before buying them.

On the other hand, the COVID-19 pandemic is hitting this country. However, the epidemic of this disease is not considered to prevent the blocking of illegal cellphones on the market.

This was conveyed by the Chairman of the Indonesian Cellphone Association (APSI), Hasan Aula, according to him the IMEI validation policy would not be delayed by the problem of the COVID-19 disease. The reason is automatically illegal cell phones that are not activated before the 18th will be blocked.

"When the rule is implemented, the community does not need to do anything, because old cellphones, both official and BM which have been activated before April 18, 2020, will not have any impact," Hasan said in his brief statement.

At least according to the APSI report until the end of 2019, the government often suffered losses from the domestic industry because it was unable to compete with BM cellphones, which were sold cheaper than official prices. It is estimated that Indonesia loses potential taxes of up to IDR 2.8 trillion per year due to the circulation of illegal cell phones.

Meanwhile, the Director General of Resources and Equipment of Post and Information Technology (SDPPI) of the Ministry of Communication and Information, Ismail said that the implementation of IMEI validation is still according to the set schedule. "So far there has been no decision by the Minister (Menkomifo Johnny G Plate) to change the time (IMEI implementation)," he said.

Regarding the socialization progress of the mobile phone IMEI number validation rules, it has been carried out in stages through a series of trials on February 17 yesterday. As a result, the government chose a whitelist scheme to block illegal cell phones, in collaboration with cellular operator services in Indonesia.

If the operator's customer uses a cellphone with an IMEI number that is not in the government database, the customer will be sent a notification that the IMEI of his cellphone is not registered. Later, BM aka illegal cell phones will potentially be blocked from the operator's network.

In fact, Kominfo already has a draft regulation for the IMEI-based black market (BM) blocking mechanism which is planned to be implemented in Indonesia. Have a peek here: https://t.co/mXStR0fVu6 pic.twitter.com/kic1flnlXW

- myXLCare (@myXLCare) August 19, 2019

Even so, the government will not block cellphones that have been active long before the date of the IMEI validation. Even if the IMEI number on the device used is not registered with the Ministry of Industry.

"This regulation applies in the future, so that devices that are active before the April 18 validity period can be used until the device does not want to be used again or is damaged. So there is no need for individual registration," said Ismail.

Meanwhile, people who bring devices from abroad (tourists) or order mobile devices from abroad after April 18, 2020, are required to register IMEI online so that they can be used in Indonesia.

Ismail said, the IMEI control that is implemented by the government is to ensure consumer protection of telecommunications equipment in buying and using legal devices and to provide legal certainty to operators in connecting legitimate equipment to telecommunications networks.