Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has come to the rescue of the people who have their mobile phones lost or stolen. Minister for Communications Ravi Shankar Prasad on Friday unveiled a portal in Mumbai which will help mobile phone users trace their stolen or lost mobile phones. A project called Central Equipment Identity Register (CEIR) has been undertaken by DoT for this purpose. This project is aimed at blocking of reported lost or stolen mobile phones across mobile networks, discouraging their theft, as well as facilitating in tracing of such phones. Alongside, DoT also launched a maritime communications service, and revealed VSAT solutions provider Nelco will undertake broadband services in the maritime sector.
All mobile phones have a unique International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) number which is used to identify them. Because IMEI is reprogrammable, “some miscreants do reprogram the IMEI number, which results in cloning of IMEI causing multiple phone devices with same IMEI number. As on date, there are many cases of cloned/ duplicated IMEI handsets in the network,” according to the department.
If such IMEIs are blocked, several genuine customers might suffer. Therefore, there is a need to get rid of duplicate and fake IMEI phones. It is for this purpose that the CEIR project has been undertaken, apart from from helping address “security, theft, and other concerns”.Read More..