India blocks millions of mobiles for security reasons

Vladimir79

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India blocks millions of mobiles for security reasons

India has the fastest growing mobile phone market in the world

Millions of Indian mobile phones with no valid unique identification code have been blocked for security reasons.

The International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) number is a 15-digit code which appears on the operator's network whenever a call is made.

The absence of this number makes it impossible to trace either the caller or the phone or to access call details.

Indian intelligence agencies say phones without the code have been used in attacks by militant groups.

Mobile phones without the code were blocked at midnight - operators were asked to bar calls to them "in the wake of increased threat perception from militants".

Cheap

It is estimated that India has more than 25 million phones without codes.

Phones with no codes or invalid numbers are mostly cheap, unbranded phones.

Millions are manufactured in India or imported, mostly from China.

Correspondents say these phones are popular because they are usually much cheaper than the branded ones.

Many phone subscribers said they were being wrongly penalised because they were not aware that every handset had to have a code.

The Cellular Operators' Association of India has asked the government to extend the deadline for blocking the numbers so that it can install identity numbers on unbranded devices.

According to estimates by the Indian Cellular Association, unbranded phones account for nearly 30% of all sales in India.

India has the fastest growing mobile phone market in the world, with more than 488 million subscribers.

Every month millions of new subscribers are added to the list.

BBC News - India blocks millions of mobiles for security reasons

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While they say security reasons, I wonder if they have a hidden motive. Cutting mobile imports from China?
 

sob

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While they say security reasons, I wonder if they have a hidden motive. Cutting mobile imports from China?


The reason is not to block Chinese phones. The whole issue is that the Phones without the IMEI number are hard to track and have been used by militants.

This is also written in the news report that you have posted.

The International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) number is a 15-digit code which appears on the operator's network whenever a call is made.

The absence of this number makes it impossible to trace either the caller or the phone or to access call details.

Indian intelligence agencies say phones without the code have been used in attacks by militant groups.
 

Vladimir79

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Of course that is so, but could it be a hidden motive is the question. India has been cracking down on illegal Chinese imports hard. Could this be part of the solution?
 

RPK

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Answer is no, there is seperate program running to Program IMEI in those handsets to make it legal
 

nitesh

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__________________________________

While they say security reasons, I wonder if they have a hidden motive. Cutting mobile imports from China?

No sir the reason behind this ban is because of same security number it is almost impossible to track the exact location of the call or to identify the caller. Also if some one has lost the phone and registered the complaint about lost phone so the security number of that phone gets blocked and this resulted in some phones going dead automatically :D because they shared the same security number hence the ban is justified
 

BloodRed

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While they say security reasons, I wonder if they have a hidden motive. Cutting mobile imports from China?
easy to unblock such mobiles, pay 200 rupees to authorized dealer and get unique IMEI code added to mobile, but people are worried about their safety, chinese mobile tends to explode without warning, a woman died
in cuddapah while using chinese mobile, so people dumping their china set and getting original nokia sets.
 

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