VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Indonesian Communication and Informatics Ministry stated that the regulation on International Mobile Equipment Identity or IMEI number validation is official since April 18 2020. It was marked by the beginning of IMEI registration into the system prepared by cellular operators. IMEI regulation was ratified by three ministries namely Communication and Informatics Ministry, Trade Ministry, and Industry Ministry.

This regulation only applies to devices purchased after April 18, while users who have actively been using their devices before it does not need to do anything. IMEI validation only applies to cellular devices such as cellphone and tablet, but not for laptops.

Indonesian government since February had decided to use whitelist to ensure that consumer buys legal devices that can connect to cellular operator service when they buy a new gadget. IMEI number on the phone will be recorded in the Equipment Identity Register (EIR) in the operators.

Data from EIR will be read by Centralized Equipment Identity Register (CEIR) that will be managed by government, to decide if the device is into the whitelist, blacklist, or even greylist.

Government is also preparing consumer service in the CEIR system for complaint on IMEI, while the management will be appointed to institution that manages CEIR. IMEI regulation can initiate a new service, namely blocking lost device so that it cannot connect to any cellular number.

Trade Minister Agus Suparmanto in Jakarta on Sunday (19/4) remined the importance for business people in trade sector to comply to the IMEI regulation. According to Minister Agus, this regulation aims to protect consumer from harmful and bad devices.

Agus Suparmanto affirmed that they will take firm action if the businesspeople in trade sector including producer, importer, distributor, agent, retailer, and electronic business people do not comply to the IMEI regulation.

For every violation, Trade Ministry will give from heavy warning to business permit revocation, while the violator must pay compensation for the consumer. Although in the middle of Covid-19 pandemic, this firm act will still be imposed to protect consumer from illegal communication product trade or products from black market.