DoT has given deadline on IMEI Issue

Mobile phones with invalid and unauthenticated IMEI (international mobile equipment identity) numbers have become a major security threat to India. This isn’t a new concern for the Indian government which had set June 30th as the deadline for industry to comply with security directives regarding the use of mobile handsets. But, in a recent letter dated September 3, Department of Telecom (DoT) has given all the telecom service providers and subscribers till November 30th to comply with the national security norms.

According to the letter issued by DoT, all cellular mobile service providers in CMTS and UAS licences are directed not to process and reject calls made by mobile handsets with invalid IMEI numbers and handsets with IMEI numbers which are not available in the database of GSMA. GSMA supplies the IMEI numbers to mobile handset manufacturers worldwide and also maintains a database of genuine IMEI numbers.



DoT also says that since there are thousands of innocent subscribers using mobile handsets with non-authentic IMEI numbers, it has been decided to implement the Genuine IMEI Implant (GII) program with the cut off date of November 30th 2009. The department also wants the telecom industry to submit their compliance reports by December 15th.

According to a recent stats, there are about 25 million users in India who use non-branded handsets, aka Chinese and often Shanzai phones, and such handsets are easily available in the grey market of many Indian cities.

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