MOBILE TO BECOME JUNK IF STOLEN
If your mobile is stolen in future, it will become junk and can be used only as a toy for children.
The Government is activating the Central Mobile Equipment Identity Register (CMEIR) from December to blacklist such mobiles, mandatorily requiring all mobile operators to refuse connection to such devices.
The new facility will be operated by the State-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) from Pune that is ready with the technology and software after five months of pilot project in Maharashtra.
Sources in the Sanchar Bhawan said the CMEIR is a database that will automatically register the 15digit International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) of all mobiles activated on any mobile service anywhere in the country, with details of the manufacturer, make and model.
The database will put on its black list the IMEI numbers of the devices that are reported stolen or lost as soon as the person report theft of his or her mobile with the service operator and an alert will go to all operators in the country not to provide service on those numbers.
The original owner of the mobile, however, can get it reactivated on the basis of the record maintained in the service provider’s network.
Officials in the Department of Telecommunication (DoT) said the new system will be a big discouragement to those stealing the mobiles as they would just not work without any connection by any telecom operator. The system was, in fact, proposed in the National Telecom Policy (NTP) back in 2012 to establish “a National Mobile Property Registry for addressing security, theft and other concerns, including reprogramming of mobile sets.”
The crooks have been using a software to change the IMEI number, but even that fraud will be frustrated with the help of the IMEI numbers already in the register as active in the system and copying the number of any other mobile will be immediately detected from the details stored in the CMIER. The government has already made a strict law of hefty fine and three years of jail to anyone fiddling with the IMEI numbers.