Chinese mobiles to be useless by month-end
NEW DELHI: Around 30 million mobile phones – or about 8% of all mobiles in the country – will become useless by the end of this month. These are
unbranded Chinese mobiles that do not have IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity) numbers and pose a serious security risk.
All mobile phone service users have been directed by the Department of Telecom (DoT) to disconnect these phones. In fact, two deadlines – January 6 and March 31 – have already been missed by the companies. Now they have undertaken to acquire the necessary equipment to track these phones by April 15 and discontinue their services thereafter – a process that is expected to take another 15 days, that is, by April 30.
Under law, all GSM phones are required to have a unique IMEI number that gets reflected at cell phone towers with which, if required, the location of a mobile phone user
can be tracked. These Chinese phones, however, show up as a series of zeroes at cell towers or by their cloned IMEI number. Either way, they can’t be tracked.
The CBI first pointed out the risk to the Union home ministry which took up the issue with DoT. In turn, DoT has instructed service providers to disconnect all phones without IMEI numbers. The service providers, according to DoT sources, have dragged their feet “despite the obvious security risk to the country.”