Brazil to block irregular phones despite carriers' concerns

Brazilian telecom regulator Anatel will go ahead with the planned blocking of pirated or unlicensed cell phones despite criticism from operators, who fear that significant numbers of clients could be cut off, ultimately affecting their recurring revenues.

Many of these customers, carriers argue, are even unaware that they have acquired an irregular device, having bought them in good faith. The number of cell phones that could be blocked is unknown, Anatel admits.

After a request from Brazilian telecom operators association SindiTelebrasil, the launch of the block may be pushed back to September 15 from July 30, according to media reports.

The issue is not new and brings manufacturers and carriers into conflict.

Curbing the traffic of pirate mobile devices in Brazil, as well unlicensed models traded in the local market, has been a priority in terms of regulations for the big established brands, such as Samsung.

Three years ago, pressured by phone manufacturers, Anatel and the carriers co-developed and launched an experimental integrated device management system called SIGA, by the Portuguese acronym.

SIGA enables tracking of unlicensed phones via SIM cards, which can read the handset's serial number, or International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI), and list it on the GSM association database.

At the time, after reports that many phones and tablets would simply stop working, Anatel ruled out an immediate block.

Last week, the watchdog said that the blocking of irregular terminals activated on telecom operators' networks would begin this year and it recommended that carriers prepare for that.

Operators would have to inform users that their cell phones are irregular via direct messages with 75 days' notice, said Anatel. Telcos have also been asked to implement the automation of the blocking process, including integration with their customer service systems.

"The proposal being studied states that only irregular devices activated after the beginning of the message-sending process by the operators will be blocked. The block will not affect users who have purchased such devices in good faith," stated Anatel.

In other words, the measure will apply to new users. Those who already have an unapproved phone, for whatever reason, will be able to continue using it.

The user can verify whether their device is irregular by checking the IMEI number of the device, dialing the code * # 06 # to display it on the phone screen.

According to Anatel, the consumer then needs to check if the IMEI number appearing on the phone screen is the same as that on the box of the equipment and on the invoice. If the numbers do not match, it is likely that the device is not regular.

However, there is the additional problem that there are ways to tamper with the IMEI, masking irregular phones by cloning a valid IMEI number. To operators, if there are two valid IMEI numbers appearing in their database, they will not be able to identify which of them refers to a stolen or pirated phone. The operators have thus also pressed manufacturers to adopt more efficient mechanisms to avoid tampering with the IMEI.

Brazil currently has 8.3mn cell phones blocked on the request of users. This is the number of devices whose IMEIs were recorded in the so-called Registry of Impeded Mobile Terminals (CEMI in Portuguese), a database of blocked mobile terminals created 17 years ago.

Those devices have been blocked either because they were stolen or lost. Every month, a small portion of them are unblocked because the device was found, but, as the numbers show, the database of blocked terminals continues to grow year after year.

Unofficial estimates are that almost 13m of Brazil's 242mn mobile accesses are made using irregular devices.