Two Crore mobiles without IMEI to get disconnected

By siliconindia   |   Tuesday, 01 December 2009, 21:51 IST   |    4 Comments
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Two Crore mobiles without IMEI to get disconnected
New Delhi: Indian government's deadline to operator for blocking calls to fake handsets expires today. Nearly two crore mobile phones without unique identification numbers are likely to go out of service from Tuesday midnight. "We are not extending the deadline (of November 30). We have asked the operators not to process the calls passing through those phones without the IMEI number from today," said a senior government official, according to MSN news. T R Dua, acting Director General of COAI, said: "According to our estimate there are about 1.8-2 crore handsets which are without the IMEI numbers. We had asked for extension of the deadline and since, that has not been done, we will adhere to the the given deadline." The 15-digit International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) number helps security agencies trace calls made from and received on handsets. T V Ramachandran, Director of second largest mobile operator Vodafone Essar, said, "The move will cause several crores of losses to the operators but for the national interest the directive has to be followed." According to an analyst, the overall loss to the industry will be Rs 100 crore.