Iran's Minister of Communications: We Have Been Assigned to Implement the Mobile Phone Registration Plan

Mahmoud Vaezi, the Minister of Communications and Information Technology, stated in an interview with IRIB News Agency that his ministry has been "assigned" to operationalize the mobile phone serial registration plan within two months. This plan had previously been tested in Iran without success. On August 1, the Minister emphasized, "We were reluctant to take responsibility in this area, but due to our relationship with mobile operators, we were assigned to accept this responsibility." At the same time, the Minister referred to the registration plan as a "very good plan" that "increases competition and customer orientation among mobile operators." Previously, the head of the Regulatory Authority for Communications and Radio had stated, "We are looking for a combination of activation codes with phone identifiers or phone identifiers with the subscriber's phone number, and until we reach a conclusion on which combination can prevent more deficiencies and involve the public less, this plan will not be fully operationalized." According to the Minister, this plan was supposed to be operationalized in May, but "the necessary cooperation" from operators "did not occur," and as a result, his ministry is working to resolve the issues "by the time of operationalization, which is likely during Government Week." Government Week in Iran begins on September 24, which is less than a month away. Vaezi mentioned that this plan has been in a trial phase for three weeks. The registration plan, or "registering" mobile phones, is conducted by entering the unique codes of the phones into the service provider's network. The serial numbers of phones that enter Iran through customs and pay the usual duties are registered and remain active in the operators' networks. On the other hand, it seems that the plan that the Regulatory Authority is keen to implement will not only limit the activity of "new phones" that have entered "illegally," but will stop them altogether. Initial attempts to implement this plan were made in 2006, but it was halted in less than a year due to deficiencies, incompleteness, simple methods to circumvent it, issues with traveler phones, and similar reasons. Meanwhile, some critics of this plan argue that it will lead to an increase in mobile phone prices. Proponents of the plan claim that it can prevent the smuggling of phones or the sale of counterfeit phones. In 2014, the head of the Telecommunications and Communications Devices Union of Iran stated that this plan was "unsuccessful." Gholam Hossein Karimi, the head of the Telecommunications Union, told Fars News Agency that if the goal of this plan was to combat phone smuggling, it could have been successful, but when it was implemented, "fraud for registering the serial numbers of smuggled phones was informally carried out in some government centers and the Ministry of Communications." The Deputy Minister of Communications at that time stated that the re-implementation of this plan would be based on past experiences and that "changing the perspective on the registration plan from a method for combating smuggling to a complement in the fight against smuggling is essential." The Iranian Ministry of Communications claims that launching the third generation of mobile phones in Iran requires 40 million new smartphones, which means creating a market worth an estimated $15 to $16 billion. The Research Center of the Islamic Consultative Assembly estimated in May 2014 that "90 percent" of mobile phone imports in Iran are conducted "informally."