This is what DOT has told to the government that any phone which doesn’t have a valid IMEI Number will be banned starting next year think they started with a date of Jan 6th and may be they will move that or extend it to March 2009.This means 13 percent of the Chinese and Korean mobile phones which either doesn’t have a valid IMEI number or has all 0’s will get banned , This is to take care of security threat that those mobile phones are causing , this is a very good move .
Impact
>Very good sales of Legitimate branded phones.
>Down in revenue until they buy the legitimate phones for the Service Providers like airtel and vodafone.
what is IMEI
The International Mobile Equipment Identity or IMEI (pronounced /a??mi?/) is a number unique to every GSM and UMTS and iDEN mobile phone as well as some satellite phones. It is usually found printed on the phone underneath the battery.
The IMEI number is used by the GSM network to identify valid devices and therefore can be used to stop a stolen phone from accessing the network. For example, if a mobile phone is stolen, the owner can call his or her network provider and instruct them to “ban” the phone using its IMEI number. This renders the phone useless, regardless of whether the phone’s SIM is changed.
Unlike the Electronic Serial Number or MEID of CDMA and other wireless networks, the IMEI is only used to identify the device, and has no permanent or semi-permanent relation to the subscriber. Instead, the subscriber is identified by transmission of an IMSI number, which is stored on a SIM card that can (in theory) be transferred to any handset. However, many network and security features are enabled by knowing the current device being used by a subscriber.
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