LOC18:16
15:16 GMT
NEW DELHI, April 4 (KUNA) -- India's Department of Telecom (DoT) has
directed all mobile service providers to immediately disconnect services to
those mobile phone instruments which do not have IMEI (International Mobile
Equipment Identity) "because they pose a serious security risk."
As a result of this direction, around 30 million (nearly 8 percent of all
mobile phones in India) would become useless by April-end.
Most of these mobile phones are made in China and are openly sold in
markets in New Delhi, especially the Ghaffar Market.
As per laws, all GSM (Global System for Mobile communication) mobile phones
must have a unique IMEI number that gets reflected at cell phone towers which
helps in tracing a mobile phone (with the help of the tower in which range it
is functioning at any given time).
It is difficult to trace China-made mobile phones, because they show up a
series of zeroes at cell towers or the cloned IMEI number. They can't be
traced by either way, said a report in the Times of India.
The risk first pointed out by India's investigating agency - Central Bureau
of Investigation (CBI) - to the country's Home Ministry, which, subsequently
took up the matter with the DoT, added the paper.
According to rough estimates, around one million unbranded China-made
mobile phones enter India every month.
This figure was much higher before the buzz to ban started in September
2008, before which around 1.5 million such phones came into India every month.
The security risk from such phones can be gauged from the fact that a
number of bomb blasts have been triggered by terrorists using such phones.
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KUNA 041816 Apr 09NNNN