Brazil Blocks Foreign Mobile Phones 97
First time accepted submitter fabrica64 writes "The Brazilian government has today started blocking mobile phones not sold in Brazil (Portuguese-language original), i.e. not having paid sales taxes here. The blocking is based on IMEI, and if you come to Brazil for the World Cup in June and think of buying a Brazilian SIM card to call locally at lower rates, then it won't work because your mobile's IMEI will be blacklisted as not sold in Brazil. This is not a joke, it's true!"
Might help the US.... (Score:3)
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Who told you that (lie)?, it's a common practice on the phone black market
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Re: Might help the US.... (Score:2)
Yes, we live in a world where everyone has access to google. That's not the point, you have to prove your claims with evidence, not ask the other person to do it for you and then disprove it. You need to show proof that it can be done, because you can't disprove a negative.
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What you say is true only for social awkward geeks with their qidditch broom up their ass. Seriously, get a life.
So after I put on my wizard hat and robe, I'm supposed to do what?!
LARPing seems less fun all the time.
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Not in june, only after september (Score:5, Informative)
This is a new low, blatant lies in the summary only for cheap country based hate and some pageviews. Good job!
Re:Not in june, only after september (Score:5, Informative)
Brazilian here. AFAIK, the only IMEIs blocked are going to be those of phones that didn't go through Anatel's (Brazil's FCC counterpart) approval process. Meaning mostly chinese knockoffs. It's highly unlikely that your S3 won't work here, since S3s are sold locally (in both US and international versions, BTW).
Knockoffs like the HTC One (Score:1)
And HTC, Acer, Archos... There are a lot of brands not selling in Brazil oficially.
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Re:Not in june, only after september (Score:4, Informative)
Apparently this will be done on an approved device's universal IMEI range. Vetting individual IMEIs is neither practical nor legal, as you can't stop someone from using a government approved, legally imported phone from using it on all networks.
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Re:Not in june, only after september (Score:4, Interesting)
Turkey already blocks individual IMEIs (Score:5, Informative)
Vetting individual IMEIs is neither practical nor legal, as you can't stop someone from using a government approved, legally imported phone from using it on all networks.
You're wrong. It's both feasible and, in many countries, legal.
Turkey already does this. If you use a foreign phone of any kind with a Turkish SIM, your individual IMEI will be blocked in 24-48 hours. The only way around that is to pay a significant fee to the government, register your phone/IMEI, and then wait a week or so for the registration to take effect. Note that you can't register AFTER the phone is blocked. If you let it get blocked, you're basically screwed.
Turkey does this to prevent the importation of phones that didn't pay local taxes, and also to ensure that all users of phones/data are registered and tracked within the country.
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You're wrong. It's both feasible and, in many countries, legal.
AT&T in the US does it... If you have a foreign phone you need to get the IMEI registered with AT&T before you can use data on the device. I had a Galaxy Nexus (purchased legally and outright in Australia) and had to go into an AT&T store in Las Vegas to get it registered before it would work.
It's very feasible to block individual IMEI's, you just have a white list of allowed IMEI's and block everything else.
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- there is a blacklist of TAC (initial part of IMEI that identify manufacturer, model and sub model: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T [wikipedia.org]... [wikipedia.org])
- actually info for this blacklist is furnished by manufacturers, that will probably include all their models regardless of being or not sold in Brazil, but this can be later changed by Anatel, restricting the list
- there will be a whitelist of "blacklisted IMEIs" activated in the network before March 17th, 2014
- there will be a blac
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Comments like this are why Slashdot needs to allow a score higher than +5.
Should we... (Score:5, Insightful)
Should we understand that some of the articles posted on Slashdot are jokes then?
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Should we understand that some of the articles posted on Slashdot are jokes then?
Around this time of year, there's always some doubt.
Well, yeah, if you define "this time of year" as 1 January through 31 December.
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Scaremongering... (Score:2, Informative)
http://www.telecompaper.com/news/brazil-to-introduce-mobile-blocking-system--1002303
Brazilian mobile operators will start testing from 17 March a new system that will block mobile calls made by pirate devices, reports Folha de Sao Paulo. The total blockade of the devices will be effective from September. Until then, during the so-called "pre-operational" stage of the system, equipment must continue to function normally. When an operator identifies a device without approval in Brazil, the system should activ
Bad translation is bad (Score:5, Informative)
It says that MODELS not sold in Brazil won't work there, not devices. So, for example, iPhones will work because they're sold there. It's been known for a while and the law was designed to avoid low quality, low security Chinese android phones to be sold.
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It's a page from Anatel, the government agency responsible for cellphone communications in Brazil (something like FCC in the USA, I guess) which shows certified wireless communication devices for use in Brazil.
Wikipedia [wikipedia.org] tells me there are at least 7 models of the iPhone 5S out there, so only one of these will work in Br
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Also, the most important information that the story doesn't say. The system will work together with international partners (FCC etc), so it doesn't matter where it was certified, it will work here. Source: http://idgnow.com.br/blog/circ... [idgnow.com.br]
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Noname Iphone look-a-like that runs android
Knockoff Motorola Ferrari that runs some java based OS
Same with a SonyEricsson Walkman
An Galaxy S3 copy with a Nokia battery
There is also the Hiphones, Sqmy, Sonia, PolyStation and so many others...
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...the law was designed to avoid low quality, low security Chinese android phones...
That may be part of the truth.
Another part is that it encourages/forces phone manufacturers to have factories in Brazil - providing jobs and investing in national infrastructure - as import tax is so high that imported phones can't compete.
I worked several years with a major brand phone manufacturer. All their factories were in low cost / high tech Asian countries - plus one Brazil.
Wait for the IOC (Score:2)
They may be able to boss around the world cup officials but wait til the IOC wields its economic might to force Brazil's hand.
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boss around world cup officials ? boy, you got your intel upside down
Why only phones? (Score:1)
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Brazil has a problem of being overly controlling of its economy. The kind of stuff the conservatives will hop on and try to discredit any government controls on the economy.
I think the main thing they are trying to stop is reselling on the black market.
Chances are you are not going to resell your clothing if you are on a trip. But you may sell your phone if you need a quick buck... Or you may come in with say 20 of them to sell. Brazil has a heavy sales tax on stuff, so I expect black market sales of go
Does anybody know (Score:2)
IMEI Number includes the model number (Score:5, Informative)
This submission appears to be nonsense posted by someone who hasn't read the article they linked to.
This isn't about blocking phones sold outside of Brazil, but models of phones that are not certified for use in Brazil. So you can take your Nexus 5 or iPhone, but it's probable that some no-name cheapo phones may not work.
The IMEI number contains codes for the manufacturer and model, so you can white-list those models that have certification from the Brazilian FCC.
Re:IMEI Number includes the model number (Score:4, Informative)
It's a page from Anatel, the government agency responsible for cellphone communications in Brazil (something like FCC in the USA, I guess) which shows certified wireless communication devices for use in Brazil.
Wikipedia [wikipedia.org] tells me there are at least 7 models of the iPhone 5S out there, so only one of these will work in Brazil, eventually. Unless Apple certifies all models with Anatel, which I doubt will happen.
Also, If you bring your shiny new cellphone shortly after launch, it probably won't work either, because the iPhone is released here with a few months delay, usually.
So, basically, fuck this shit.
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And of course you cant ever change an IMEI number..
Tourists (Score:2)
So you go on vacation in Brazil and you either pay international roaming fees or you buy a cheap dumb phone to make local calls. Lame but not too expensive. Furthermore a dump phone needs to be charged once per week or even less frequently.
Btw, are they going to confiscate tourists clothes on entry? They've not been not bought in Brazil, so no sales tax paid there!
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Not really... (Score:2, Informative)
The original article actually says that the government will block devices that were not approved by Anatel (Telecommunications Agency) due to many of the smuggled cheap phones and tablets (most of them manufactured in China) have not passed their certification.
Although the idea is good, I think it will cause lots of issues with users with valid and certified devices. Let's wait and see....
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Although the idea is good, I think it will cause lots of issues with users with valid and certified devices. Let's wait and see....
The chinese phone manufacturers are going to start faking codes in the ranges assigned to other vendors' models, such as Apple's. Resulting in multiple phones from different manufacturers claiming to have the same IMEI
from Brazil (Score:1)
Actually, the news talks that the government action is to block phones that are not homologated (technicaly certified) by the Brazilian's telecommunications agency (ANATEL, the coutrie's equivalent of the FCC). It doesn't have to do with sales tax and seems to be intented to prevent the use of "pirates" phones, that might cause problems to the telecommunications network or even to the users. For example: if you buy an iPhone in the USA you could use it at Brazil, because this model is homologated by ANATEL.
Call me jaded, but... (Score:3)
...this line:
"This is not a joke, it's true!"
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Well, just don't go... (Score:1)
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Please don't. I'll be going for a university engagement and a bunch of rowdy football travelers are going to gum up the flights and push prices up.
First time eh (Score:1)
I'm curious what fabrica64's failed submissions were. This should of been one of them.
Oh no, what will the Chinese do??! (Score:1)
So, this is to prevent cheap Chinese knock-off phones from being usable? Well guess-a-what, most of them already include a helpful utility to set the IMEI to whatever you want. All the fix will be is a couple of lines of whatever the Portuguese equivalent of "Engrish" is called, instructing the buyer:
Much enjoy new DroidPhone Galaxy 5!
For luck of happiness, user set IMEI copy basicphone
Please IMEI set application WRITE IMEI
Excellent signal received all times!
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That's the kind of feature I want to see in a phone. I want one of those cheap but functional Chinese (where they make all the phones) phones.
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They just want to make sure the phones used in the Brazilian networks did pass certifications (E.U, FCC or whatever else)
Others claim it means the carrier will say "This model has passed FCC certification but, unfortunately for you, not Anatel. No service for you." What in the article rules out that interpretation?
and get rid of pirated crap.
Apple has maintained, and a U.S. court has agreed, that Android phones made by Samsung are pirated.
Insanity (Score:2)
It may be true, but it is nonetheless a joke.
Lots of FUD here. (Score:2)
The official policy is that if a device is FCC-certified or ETSI-certified, it WILL NOT be blocked.
http://macmagazine.com.br/2014... [macmagazine.com.br]
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Brazil following Turkey (Score:1)
this will probably only start AFTER the World Cup (Score:1)
One less reason to visit Brazil... (Score:2)