Telkomsel and Excelcomindo Get on Board the TitS Bandwagon...

In a victory for ignorance and stupidity, Telkomsel and Excelcomindo have decided to jump on board the TitS Express to "Insanityville". TitS has been waging a "War Against Porn". The main thrust of his current strategy is to shut down access to any site or material that he determines is offensive and undermines the morals of the Republic of Indonesia. So, Research In Motion (RIM), the makers of BlackBerry Smartphones, is now in his sites.

The Minister for [Mis]Information and [Mis]Communication (photo caption: "nah, I am right-handed and I start like this!") has decided that RIM has two weeks to shut down access to all pornographic sites. Here is my confusion as I sit down typing away while looking at my new mobile phone. I am wondering who is responsible for blocking porn content on my phone if Australia ever gets to the point that Indonesia is at now with TitS? My phone is a HTC and my service is provided by Telstra's Next G network. So, is HTC responsible for blocking porn content that may be accessed through my mobile phone or is that the responsibility of my service provider Telstra?

I would have figured that Telstra would have had to have been the responsible party in this instance. So, if that is the science of the matter then why is TitS so adamant in his pursuit of RIM and their BlackBerry Smartphones? I am no techno wizard, so feel free to jump in and comment.

I wonder if the real issue is not one of nationalisation through creative and novel interpretation of the prevailing laws and regulations, specifically the Pornography and ITE Laws.

I am sure I will get back to TitS and his RIM obsession in the future. Although, the mind boggles, where to from here Mr TitS, porn for the sight-challenged (blind in less politically correct terminology)?

Indonesia 1 -- BlackBerry 0 (But Raking It In)

It would seem that Indonesia has won its little spat with Research In Motion (RIM), the maker of BlackBerry smartphones. The Indonesian government threatened to freeze (suspend) the issuance of licenses for new BlackBerry smartphone models until RIM set up an after sales service store in Indonesia. RIM chose to push the government on the issue and did not immediately comply with the directive to do so. The initial spat if you are interested was described here.

Good to its word, the Indonesian government instituted the freeze as threatened, and that suspension on the provision of licenses has now been lifted. It took two months or so, but RIM has established an after sales service center in Indonesia, specifically in Jakarta.

It was always likely that RIM would open an after sales service center somewhere in Indonesia. The numbers warranted it. At the end of 2008 there were about 100,000 BlackBerry owners in Indonesia. This number has climbed to some 500,000 presently and is expected to jump to more than 1,000,000 by the end of the year.

A bigger problem for RIM, and the alleged reason for stalling in opening an after sales service center is the large number of fake or copy BlackBerry devices available in the market. RIM was lobbying for tighter controls on fake goods as a pre-cursor to any service center. To all intents and purposes they did not win on that front.

However, even if 10% of the market is fake BlackBerry devices, then 900,000 real BlackBerry devices in the market would suggest that RIM is doing pretty well.

(Photo courtesy of The Jakarta Globe and Afriadi Hikmal)