Zee Media Bureau
New Delhi: Government on Monday banned import of mobile handsets with duplicate or fake unique identity numbers.
The GSM Association and Telecommunications Industry Association are global bodies that provide unique numbers to mobile handset companies.
The move aims to check proliferation of mobile handsets with duplicate or cloned IMEI numbers, which are dangerous for national security.
An IMEI comprises 15-digit codes assigned to a handset and it appears on the operator’s network whenever a call is made. Concerns had been raised over their usage after terror attacks in India.
Cloning issues in the case of CDMA handsets are negligible but rampant in the case of GSM handsets, the official said.
The government had banned services on mobile handsets with fake IMEI numbers after November 30, 2009.
Mobile phones without the unique security code are making inroads into the grey market by cloning the IMEI numbers of genuine sets.
With agency inputs
