Pune, Dec 01: With just a day left for the government ban on illegal cell phones to come into effect, cell phone stores in the city found themselves handling large crowds of people trying desperately to reinstall the 15 digit International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) number in their cell phones on Monday.
The IMEI number is a unique number, which is allotted to every cell phone. When a user activates the SIM card, this number that represents the manufacturer’s name and type of the phone is automatically registered with the mobile service provider as soon as the phone is activated.
The number prevents the use of stolen handsets for making calls and allows security agencies to track down a specific user.
The Department of Telecommunications had asked operators not to allow calls to be completed on handsets without the IMEI number after November 30. The prime concern of this move was the low-end Chinese phones which have flooded the market.
They disappear in the parallel gray market without record of movement or billing since there is no after-sale services offered or demanded. “Given the growth pace of the telecom sector, where there are over 10 million connections every month, it is equally important to promote responsible growth and address key issues emanating from the proliferation of unbranded, fake or non IMEI handsets,” said Pankaj Mohindroo, National President, Indian Cellular Association.
Apart from these handsets, the city also saw some “genuine” purchasers queuing up to get their cells registered. Deepak Sharma, whose Nokia handset got an SMS notification, saying that he has an invalid IMEI, said, “The message said my cell phone will stop working from November 30. It also gave me details as to where my registration centre was, so I came here. I have never heard of this number before.”
While subscribers gave details as to where their registration centres were, the sheer crowd led to long queues. At a registration centre on M G Road, one could hardly walk along the pavement. Explaining the situation Gulshan Gusai of Mobile Store, Camp, said, “This number is there on every handset, you can press *#06# on your phone to access this number.
We have been registering numbers since two weeks now, today being the last day there are lot of people crowding in. All we need to do is connect the handset to the portal and it’s done.” Sandeep Agarwal, a cellphone retail shop owner, said, “It’s a good move by the government to increase safety for monitoring the cell pones.”
According to estimates there are around 25 million phones in the country with invalid IMEI. DCP Rajendra Dahale, Cyber Cell, said, “Tracing the cell phone users is very easy once we have the IMEI number.”
–Agencies