Bringing your Mobile Phone to Indonesia and using local SIMcard

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  • What information do you need to supply when register the IMEI ??
    IMEI, definitely. What about other things such as full address, country of residence, nationalities, Tax ID, religion, etc
  • I understand US$500 is based on their valuation. What about if you get the phone on a discounted price, could you argue with them showing the copy of receipt when you bought it online, or showing the website
  • What about you carry 2-3 "used" mobile devices with just below US$500 of each ?
When you register the IMEI of your phone online, the website will ask details of your phone like brand, series (e.g. Samsung S10e), memory size (e.g. 256 Gb), when you bought the phone and at what price. In the tax office (airport Halim) they will tell you the remaining value of the phone today (or how you say that in English). In my case they said it is much lower than I registered online before. In total I registered 2 phones, no problem.
 
In my case, I don't register online as I expect or want to test whether my phone will work in Indonesia since I used it for 2.5 months in Nov.
Quite easy, I handed over my phone. He checked and asked my passport. That's all. No question about the price. Obviously my phone is much less than USD 500. I believe they know very well the estimated cost of various phones.
All took approx. 5 minutes or even less.
However, not for the guy next to me. I heard they asked him the price of his phone, he said USD 200, and they asked for the receipt which seem he was not able to provide them. Don't know what's the end of story as I left soon.
 
Has anyone tried this ? Three (3) Network.
£35 for 20GB valid for 24 months. Free roaming in 70 countries, Including Indonesia
Capture.JPG
 
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Has anyone tried this ? Three (3) Network.
£35 for 20GB valid for 24 months. Free roaming in 70 countries, Including Indonesia
View attachment 2498
Be careful about doing things like this if you actually live in Indonesia. It is likely that the SIM will need to be activated in the home market and all contracts have outs in the TOS for excessive roaming. They are not going to eat roaming charges for long. Data is not that expensive on local SIMs anyway.
 
Be careful about doing things like this if you actually live in Indonesia. It is likely that the SIM will need to be activated in the home market and all contracts have outs in the TOS for excessive roaming. They are not going to eat roaming charges for long. Data is not that expensive on local SIMs anyway.
Correct. It does not really make sense if you want to use international Traveller SImcard in Indonesia permanently. For that, That is what the local SIMcard, Wifi is used for.

However, it is useful as a temporary / emergency simcard on the other way around for people to travel to Indonesia, Asia, or travel to different countries a few times a year. Keep in Mind the free International roaming features is for 70 Countries where Indonesia and many countries in Asia, Europe are included. This free roaming feature will valid for two years. If you use your own country SIMcard it will cost you a fortune in term of roaming for each country you are visiting or in transit.

It is useful if you travel to Indonesia and around Asia, or you stopover in a few countries before arriving in Indonesia. It saves you a lot of roaming charges.

Also it is useful for emergency, keep in mind when you arrive in the airport for the first time, you do not want to waste time to look for local SImcard with all of your luggages. Yes there is wifi hotspot in the airport but you can not rely on this, especially if you on;y have a very limited time.
 
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Mobile Internet Package.jpeg


I just got this flyer. There is Prime 150 with 1,200GB 3 month package for example with Rp.445,000. Compared to other countries, it is very cheap if it is only for data actually. Are these 3 months expiry date will start at the time of activation ??

The call allowance is only 150 min, very little. Can we top up at any time just for the call allowance, no data needed? If so, how much does it cost for 500 min call top up? thnx
 
View attachment 2504

I just got this flyer. There is Prime 150 with 1,200GB 3 month package for example with Rp.445,000. Compared to other countries, it is very cheap if it is only for data actually. Are these 3 months expiry date will start at the time of activation ??

The call allowance is only 150 min, very little. Can we top up at any time just for the call allowance, no data needed? If so, how much does it cost for 500 min call top up? thnx

That is a very deceiving flyer. Here is the official info: https://indosatooredoo.com/portal/id/newprime

The Prime 150 paket is not 1200gb to use over 3 months, it is 50gb per month. They are conjuring that 1200gb number because you can sign up for 50gb per month for 24 months, for a total of 1200gb over those 24 months.
 
I remember reading somewhere that you could buy an Indonesian Tourist simcard in Indonesia that will work up to one month (or 3 months ?) without the need to register IMEI for your mobile device. after one month it will stop working. If you are in Indonesia as a tourist for just one month, it might be a good option rather than registering giving up your personal information. It this is true

In term of price (e.g. data, sms, minute) Is this tourist simcard more expensive than local simcard?
 

Currently, SIM card pick-up points are only available in the Bali and Mandalika Lombok areas. Please check the pick-up location first before arriving in Indonesia.


Check out this blog.
 
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Currently, SIM card pick-up points are only available in the Bali and Mandalika Lombok areas. Please check the pick-up location first before arriving in Indonesia.


Check out this blog.

From This site

It seems to me that if you know someone in Indonesia, you could ask them to register for you online, just send them the printscreen of your IMEIs, is that correct ?
What other information do they need. Do they need to physically in person to allow the valuation of the phone (E.g lower than $500?) to be Investigated?

In case you do it yourself before arriving to Indonesia, how do they value the phone if they can not see the actual phone in person, just the picture and receipt ?
 
From This site

It seems to me that if you know someone in Indonesia, you could ask them to register for you online, just send them the printscreen of your IMEIs, is that correct ?
What other information do they need. Do they need to physically in person to allow the valuation of the phone (E.g lower than $500?) to be Investigated?

In case you do it yourself before arriving to Indonesia, how do they value the phone if they can not see the actual phone in person, just the picture and receipt ?
As far as I understand, and that is an interpretation, you register your phone online on the website of an Indonesian provider (in this case Telkomsel) not on the website for import tax (bea cukai). So, Telkomsel as a provider is apparently able to provide you with a local simcard that will work (for 30 days) with your (foreign) IMEI. Telkomsel doesnot need to know the value of your phone.
 
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I only found out about this after already being in Jakarta for a week. Today I went back to the airport (Soekarno-Hatta) and registered my phone’s IMEI. Thought I would share my experience.

Because I waited for a week I could no longer get the discount and had to pay 40% tax. The location is in the international arrivals, in the baggage claim hall, next to conveyor belt 6. (Previously it was at the bea cukai booth in international departures hall, this location makes more sense for people just arriving but makes if more difficult to find for someone like me).

I filled in the online form so already had the qr code. They asked for my passport, qr code and boarding pass (I showed my flight reservation instead). Also for phone receipt and I didn’t have it which was no problem. Phone price was determined by customs via a google search. Tax payment can be made with debit or credit card. If you don’t know your IMEI they’ll look it up for you.

For anyone wondering why I did all this effort and payed all this money instead of buying a phone in Indonesia: I bought this powerful expensive new phone at home especially to use it in Indonesia and I am planning to come more often so having that phone whitelisted seemed worth the effort.
 
I'm sure the tax you paid is probably the price of another new phone here hahahaha
What is it now? 40% ?
 
I only found out about this after already being in Jakarta for a week. Today I went back to the airport (Soekarno-Hatta) and registered my phone’s IMEI. Thought I would share my experience.

Because I waited for a week I could no longer get the discount and had to pay 40% tax. The location is in the international arrivals, in the baggage claim hall, next to conveyor belt 6. (Previously it was at the bea cukai booth in international departures hall, this location makes more sense for people just arriving but makes if more difficult to find for someone like me).

I filled in the online form so already had the qr code. They asked for my passport, qr code and boarding pass (I showed my flight reservation instead). Also for phone receipt and I didn’t have it which was no problem. Phone price was determined by customs via a google search. Tax payment can be made with debit or credit card. If you don’t know your IMEI they’ll look it up for you.

For anyone wondering why I did all this effort and payed all this money instead of buying a phone in Indonesia: I bought this powerful expensive new phone at home especially to use it in Indonesia and I am planning to come more often so having that phone whitelisted seemed worth the effort.
If you register your IMEI of your phone on arrival within 24 hours you are eligible for tax free threshold of 500 dollars. After 24h on arrival you have to pay tax: 10% import tax, 10% VAT, 20% income tax if you don't have an NPWP (tax number).
 
If you register your IMEI of your phone on arrival within 24 hours you are eligible for tax free threshold of 500 dollars.
I thought that period was 5 days after arrival, not 24 hours. But it might have changed.
 
If your phone price was lower than $500 (with receipt), could you have more than one mobile phone IMEI registered ??
 
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Some phones have more than one IMEI, the registration form allows you to register two for one device. There's an interesting possibility for a loophole; perhaps an expensive phone's IMEI could be registered in the 2nd spot of a cheap phone. But I wouldn't recommend anything illegal ;)
 

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