Importing Smart Phones to sell

[Death]

Hi Guys

To start - i'm like John Snow - I know nothing.

Now that that's out the way - my questions.

I'm looking into buying smart phones in bulk for purposes of selling locally from overseas suppliers.
Most these devices I believe are already being sold in South Africa - but I want to make sure that these
devices are indeed ICASA compliant or else I end up with them on my case.

ICASA's site has a list called "RF APPROVED EQUIPMENT NOVEMBER 2014" - two years out of date naturally.
I'm actually guessing that it needs to be on this list in order to be compliant but then again - i know nothing.
I have emailed them but I'm not holding my breath

My google skills haven't brought up too much and what i have found was if it's not compliant - i have to get licensing etc
with tests and yada yada yada to ICASA and well - I choose to not go that route but rather look at ones that have
already been approved.

Anyone with any knowledge about the industry and is willing to help a newbie would be greatly appreciated.
Ridicule for my lack of knowledge is expected

 

[Jet-Fighter7700]

usually if they have an ICASA sticker in the manual, or anywhere else should be sold in SA,

are you just selling the cheapest phones? or planning to sell accessories like cases and batteries as well,

as I can give you a nice idea to startup, start selling odd brands or cases and flip covers, and batteries,
reason I give you this idea, some of us here on mybb buy odd phones sometimes, and battle getting batteries and cases,

I use myself as an example, I have a wileyfox swift, but before I had a innjoo fire
IMPOSSIBLE to get covers or batteries, for either one of those phones,

was lucky with the innjoo until they closed up shop in SA,
Wileyfox, DO not ship to SA under any circumstances, so I managed to convince a friend to bring it back with him.

but its a opportunity for somebody with the foresight to make it work.

 

[Death]

usually if they have an ICASA sticker in the manual, or anywhere else should be sold in SA,

are you just selling the cheapest phones? or planning to sell accessories like cases and batteries as well,

as I can give you a nice idea to startup, start selling odd brands or cases and flip covers, and batteries,
reason I give you this idea, some of us here on mybb buy odd phones sometimes, and battle getting batteries and cases,

I use myself as an example, I have a wileyfox swift, but before I had a innjoo fire
IMPOSSIBLE to get covers or batteries, for either one of those phones,

was lucky with the innjoo until they closed up shop in SA,
Wileyfox, DO not ship to SA under any circumstances, so I managed to convince a friend to bring it back with him.

but its a opportunity for somebody with the foresight to make it work.

Sounds really good but no, we are looking at a specific brand and wanting to sell basically their entire range. We haven't bought from them as yet so I cannot tell if it's in their manual. But the manual idea does sound like a great plan so thanks for that - going to see if i can get some of their user manuals online - maybe by the flying spaghetti monster's good graces i might find what I am seeking ;-)

Your startup idea though - is rather interesting. Maybe someone here will take up the idea and run with it =)

 

[flamevector]

Icasa and getting LOA on units will be the downfall. a LOA can take months to get before you can even dream of bringing in the units.

 

[Death]

Thanks for the info guys. Turns out their is a sole distributor in Africa so we wouldn't be able to get this brand directly from overseas but rather only from their local suppliers or else will end up in hot water.

Thanks all for your time.

@Mod - please close this thread.

 

[mister]

only from their local suppliers or else will end up in hot water.

why?

 

[Death]

why?

The way i've understood it is that they have the sole rights to distribute the Brand in Africa.
So getting them directly from overseas instead of the African supplier - I'd rate would probably ruffle too many feathers
since we could potentially undercut their prices of the African distributors?
If i've got it wrong - please enlighten me :erm:

 

[mister]

The way i've understood it is that they have the sole rights to distribute the Brand in Africa.
So getting them directly from overseas instead of the African supplier - I'd rate would probably ruffle too many feathers
since we could potentially undercut their prices of the African distributors?
If i've got it wrong - please enlighten me :erm:

Well I thought all you would be doing is ruffling feathers... Icasa issues aside...