By Irfan Ahmed ISLAMABAD, Feb 02 (INP-WealthPK): Pakistan has the distinction of implementing the world’s first open-source, full-fledged Device Identification, Registration and Blocking System (DIRBS). This system has the ability to identify all the IMEIs [international mobile equipment identification system] latched onto Pakistan’s mobile network and categorize them on the basis of their compliant status. Implementation of DIRBS has helped remove illegal devices from the local market. From January to September 2021, the production of mobile phones by the local manufacturing plants came in at 13.05 million whereas mobile phone imports were recorded at 8.52 million, according to a report of the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA). From January to September 2021, the legal import of mobile devices increased to 48 million. This is an exponential jump and perhaps the most visible change due to DIRBS, as businesses and individual consumers both showed confidence in the system and avoided the use of illegal mobile devices. The taxes/duties collected from individual consumers, which prior to DIRBS was an untapped area for revenue collection, stand at Rs13.93 billion from January 2019 to September 2021. On the commercial import side, the Rs22 billion revenue during 2018-19 increased to Rs83 billion between January 2019 and November 2020. This was a significant increase despite economic slowdown caused by the pandemic. “Indeed, the credit goes first to the PTA for bringing in the Device Identification, Registration and Blocking System (DIRBS), which effectively stopped the smuggling of phones from abroad. But it was the ministries of IT and industries, together with the Engineering Development Board (EDB), that brought the right policy,” said ICT expert Parvez Iftikhar. The PTA has blocked 175,000 devices reported as stolen through the DIRB, while the system has identified and blocked 26.03 million replica mobile devices since 2019 identified as programmed with non-GSMA formation. The system has the ability to successfully identify cloned/duplicated IMEIs whereby 880,780 IMEI were cloned against 5.28 million MSISDN [Mobile Station Integrated Services Digital Network]. The PTA has issued 10-year mobile device manufacturing authorization to 26 companies to date. These companies have set up plants and will manufacture mobile devices, including 4G smart phones. The manufacturing plants have invested over $126 million and over 10,000 jobs have been created in a short span of seven months. The availability of locally assembled affordable smart phones to consumers will contribute towards accomplishing the mission of ‘Digital Pakistan.’ Source: FBR Customs duties of Rs18.62 billion were collected under the individual category from 15th January, 2019 to 29th July, 2021. Prior to the system implementation, this was an untapped area and no revenue in this category was being collected. Source: FBR The launch of DIRBS has also impacted on the development of mobile device eco system, as companies now have a level playing field. As per figures extracted from DIRBS, a substantial growth has been observed in 4G devices that are connected to local mobile networks and the pattern also shows a decline in use of 2G, 3G devices with consumer appetite shifting towards 4G functionality devices. From Jan 2018 to March 2021, 4G devices saw a growth from 16% to 41%; 3G devices saw a drop from 19% to 8%, whereas 2G devices witnessed a drop from 64% to 51%. In June 2021, smuggled goods worth Rs3.7 billion were seized, while from July 2020 to June 2021, smuggled goods worth Rs57.7 billion were seized compared to Rs36 billion from July 2019 to June 2020 thus showing an increase of 58%. Owing to DIRBS, legal imports have increased significantly and local manufacturing has also picked up. The government has decided to introduce a comprehensive mobile manufacturing policy to encourage and attract mobile manufacturing players to come to Pakistan and establish their plants. DIRBS’s significant impact has started to emerge, but there are other important milestones in the months and years to come. The government requirements keep changing as new policies emerge, which require changes in the business rules and technical requirements. The flexibility to adopt these changes has been the hallmark of the DIRBS implementation. However, once implemented, it could open doors to a more futuristic and proactive outlook of the regulatory regime. Adoption of IT services like DIRBS will have a significant impact on the country’s growth prospects.