Janeman Latul & Dian Ariffahmi

A quartet of BlackBerry handsets with a BlackBerry Edge in the foreground. The dispute over a government ban on new models of the smartphone being sold in the country has led to a Canadian trade representative visiting this week. (Photo: Norm Betts, Bloomberg)

BlackBerry Ban Turns Into a Bilateral Issue

The heat is now on the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology over its ban on all new BlackBerry models, with the ministry being visited by a Canadian trade representative about the issue this week.

Meanwhile, an organization representing the nation’s information technology community questioned the ministry’s decision to target the popular smartphone for a ban.

In early June, the ministry announced that it had stopped issuing licences for all BlackBerry handsets because its manufacturer, Canada-based Research in Motion, had not yet opened after- sales offices in Indonesia as stipulated in a 2008 ministerial decree on the IT community. The regulation states that all phone producers must open an after-sales office when they begin selling products in the country.

Speaking about the ban, ministry spokesman Gatot S. Dewabroto said that he had met with the Canadian trade attache, Ross Miller, about the issue on Wednesday and hoped to resolve the issue by the end of the week.

“The meeting had a positive tone and I’m sure by the end of the week we will find a win-win solution for the matter,” Gatot said.

He said the embassy was serious about settling the issue as soon as possible so that it would not disturb trade relations between the two countries.

“RIM’s representative and the Canadian Embassy will come again to meet us by the end of the week to try to settle the issue,” Gatot said, adding that Wednesday’s meeting was the third regarding the issue.

Ministry officials discussed their demands for a BlackBerry branch office with RIM’s vice presiden, Robert E. Crow, on June 15, but the company only promised to conduct a feasibility study for such an office. Without licenses, new BlackBerry products cannot be imported and circulated in Indonesia.

On Sunday, the ministry said that it might extend the ban to all versions of the smartphone if RIM was still reluctant to establish an after-sales office in the country.

Commenting on the issue, the Trade Ministry’s director general for foreign trade affairs, Diah Maulida, said that based on a ministerial decree BlackBerry should have an Indonesian-language operating manual and six service centers based here for RIM to be allowed to sell the smartphone in Indonesia. None of these requirements had been met, she said.

Meanwhile, the Indonesian Telecommunication and Information Community (Mastel), a nonprofit organization representing the IT sector, questioned the timing of the regulation’s enforcement. “If we look at it from a regulatory perspective, then what the ministry has done is the right thing, but why now?” said Maswidyantoro, Mastel’s chairman.

Gatot said that the ministry had wanted to set a precedent because BlackBerry had a big presence in Indonesia. He said many Indonesians were unhappy because they had to send their phones to Singapore for service if there was a major problem.

“The government has done this so this kind of thing won’t happen in the future with other brands,” Gatot said.

He acknowledged that RIM had also requested the government to help them address the illegal trading of fake BlackBerry devices.

To address the issue, Trade Minister Mari Elka Pangestu confirmed on Tuesday that the ministry had formed a special team to raid shops selling fake BlackBerry smartphones.

Hasnul Suhaimi, president director of PT Excelcomindo Pratama, the third biggest BlackBerry operator, suggested that if RIM really wanted to settle the issue it could form a joint venture with a local company to provide after-sales services before it established its own office in Indonesia.

Katie Lee, RIM’s Asia Pacific representative, did not reply to the Jakarta Globe’s request for comments. Representatives from the Canadian Embassy were also unavailable for comment.

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