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Handsets without IMEI number may be disconnected
By siliconindia
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Thursday, 29 October 2009, 22:25 IST |
3 Comments
Bangalore: The mobile handsets which do not have International Mobile Equipment Identification (IMEI) will face disconnections from December 1, says the Indian Cellular Association (ICA). The IMEI is a 15 digit code that identifies a handset and enables security agencies to track down users.
The Department of Telecom (DoT) had recently asked the mobile operators not to allow calls to be completed on handsets without IMEI number. Though there are no official statistics on the number of handsets without IMEI number, an industry estimate was around 25 million, said Pankaj Mohindroo, President, ICA.
The ICA had started a nationwide campaign to create awareness and prevent sale and purchase of such devices.
Mohindroo said that proliferation of unbranded phone devices, without IMEI number or with invalid or cloned numbers places a serious threat to national security as they could not be tracked.
Such devices are mainly sourced from China and are adversely impacting the organized mobile devices market apart from causing huge loss in revenue to the government, said Mohindroo.