Indonesia to apply mobile phone IMEI registration

Ilustrasi (dok)

JAKARTA (IndoTelko)  - It is such a bad news for Indonesian mobile phones owners as the Government reportedly to continue to apply the regulation which user must register their product identification number or IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity) code to cellular operators to communicate.

"The IMEI Registration for phone owners still being studied. Later we will unify it with the prepaid registration regulation for more orderly data collection," said Indonesian Minister of Communication and Informatics Rudiantara, yesterday.

According to Rudiantara that IMEI registration is required to suppress the circulation of illegal mobile in the country, also users' personal data that is based on their identity. "So later policies must be synchronized with the cellular data's prepaid registration," Rudiantara said.

The IMEI registration discourse has existed since 2013 and stirred a controversy. The first discourse came from the Ministry of Commerce which at that time receive rejection from many parties as there were no strict rules for the use of personal data in Indonesia.

Not to mention, the operator will have to spend an additional investment for the IMEI registration and verification.

Ready
Meanwhile, PT Smartfren Telecom Tbk (FREN) claimed not to flinch if the government sets the policy to register IMEI code to the operator.

"IMEI registration plan had been going on since a few years ago. If it will be applied we are ready, "said Deputy CEO Smartfren Djoko Tata Ibrahim.

Djoko said that Smartfren is already have the registration mechanisms, especially for Andromax smartphones bundling sales that can detect each customer's number and phone's IMEI number."If the bundling product is activated, we will recognize which distributor the device came from, and who are the retailers. As we have incentives policy for sellers for the activation," Djoko said.

Djoko said that the homework for Smartfren is for the IMEI registration program on unbundling cellphones. "If users just buy SIM cards, that's what we should think about, a costumer friendly system," Djoko explained.

Andromax is a bundling packages of various brands of smartphones with Smartfren SIM Card. Currently there are approximately five million users in the Andromax network issuers with stock code FREN. Smartfren itself is now estimated to have about 12 million subscribers. (es)