The import of 27 smartphone models produced by Xiaomi, OnePlus, Realme and Nokia has been banned due to an inbuilt difficulty in contacting the country's emergency numbers.
In a letter to the Ministry of Industries, Mining and Trade, Director General of Communications Regulatory Authority of Iran Garshasb Jamshidnejad had proposed the ban on the registration of import orders for three models of Xiaomi 11T, 11T Pro and OnePlus 9 smartphones.
In another letter to the Mobile Importers Association, the CRA chief had called for a ban on 24 other phone models because of their inability to contact the country's emergency numbers.
Importers believe that due to sanctions, it is not possible for mobile phone manufacturers to solve this problem and therefore, the import of 24 models has been banned, according to ICTna.ir
The ban includes well-known brands such as Xiaomi, OnePlus, Realme, Oppo, Nokia, Caterpillar and Alcatel. Poco X3, Redmi Note 10, Mi 11 Lite, Mi 11T and Mi 11T Pro are some of the best-selling models of these brands on the import ban list.
Sellers believe that as the end of the current Iranian year (March 20) approaches and demand for mobile phones increases, the ban would lead to a shortage of smartphones and an increase in prices.
In the fourth fiscal month (June 22-July 22), the import of 18 models of Xiaomi, Realme and Nokia phones were banned and the ban has not been lifted completely even after seven months.
However, after Iranian importers conferred with Xiaomi executives, the problem of calling emergency numbers on some Xiaomi models was resolved and their imports resumed, but Iranian market players believe this problem is not related to Xiaomi phones and should be solved by domestic operators. This issue has not yet been addressed by any government agencies.
Jamshidnejad’s letter of Dec. 7, 2021, addressed to the President of the Association of Importers of Mobile, Tablet and Accessories, states that 24 smartphone models of Chinese brands have been informed to solve the problem of making contact with emergency numbers and a deadline of Dec. 21 was set for this purpose.
Earlier, Hossein Ram, secretary of the association, had offered solutions to address the problem on Xiaomi phones, but regulators demanded an update. At present, this is not possible due to US sanctions and third-party transactions of this Chinese company in Iran.
However, experts have clarified that the main reason for this problem is the deletion of the ECC file of emergency numbers (Emergency Call Code) on the SIM cards of Iranian operators.
In another letter, written on Jan. 9, to the Export and Import Regulatory Office of the Ministry of Industries, Mining and Trade, a ban was proposed against the registration of two Xiaomi models and a OnePlus model.
To make emergency call numbers, mobile phones first read the information on the SIM card (ECC file) and make calls to the numbers specified on the SIM card. If this information is not on the SIM card, or there is no SIM card in the device at all, phones call the emergency numbers specified in the phone itself. However, because of sanctions and the fact that officially no phones are produced for the Iranian region, the predefined emergency numbers on imported phones are different from the country’s emergency numbers. Therefore, one of the solutions is that domestic phone operators restore the ECC file information on the mobile SIM cards.
Cellphones Top Import List
A total of 13.06 million smartphones and cellphones worth $2.94 billion were imported in the current Iranian year’s first nine months (March 21-Dec. 21), registering a 42% and 117% growth in terms of number and value year-on-year respectably, according to the technical deputy of the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration’s Statistics Office.
These figures do not include the smartphones brought in by passengers and are only based on IRICA’s official data.
“According to non-oil trade statistics for the nine months, imports amounted to 30.1 million tons worth $36.9 billion. This volume of imports includes 4,630 items [under the 8-digit HS code], which were imported from 115 countries,” Arezou Ghaniyoun was also quoted as saying by IRIB News.
The official noted that mobile phones topped the list of imported goods in terms of value and accounted for 8% of the total imports during the period, adding that the number of imported smartphones was 3.89 million more compared with the last year’s corresponding period.
“On the one hand, one of the most important reasons behind the increase in the import of this product compared to the same period of last year is the rising need for smartphones by students studying at home, as most school and university classes are held online due to the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as those of foreign language institutes. On the other hand, the short lifespan of mobile phones [averaging three to five years] is another reason for the market’s need to import this consumer product,” she said.
Ghaniyoun said mobile phone imports reached 9.17 million devices worth $1.35 billion year-on-year.
“The implementation of the mobile phone registry plan has helped prevent the illegal entry and smuggling of the product into the country. This is while low tariff has facilitated the import of this product due to the lack of electronic industries for smartphone production in the country,” she added.
Ghaniyoun noted that due to the high average price of smartphones, the import of mobile phones accounted for 27% of the total value of imported goods during the period under review.
