Initially, 25 million handset were supposed to go off air as they did not have a IMEI or had a fake IMEI number. Most of these phone were made in China. After that, DoT even extended the deadline to April 15 but now Supreme Court has said that these phones wont be going off air. There are 1600 COAI (Cellular Operators Association of India) centers that are set-up across the country and users with such faulty/Chinese phones can load a software, pay a specific amount and get their phones validated. Did you think that government and the mobile service providers will let go the 25 million mobile phone users?..Naah!!!
The recent terrorist attacks on India has forced Department of Telecommunications a.k.a DoT in India to come down hard on mobile phones that have a fake or no IMEI number. Most of these phones are available from China and they have penetrated well inside the India mobile user base. Surprisingly, in India there are some 25 to 30 million handsets that DoT was going to bar as they do not have IMEI number or they have a fake IMEI number. Initially the deadline for the service providers ro stop giving services to such mobile phone users was till Jan 6 2009 but DoT got it extended till April 15 2009. Now as the month of April has started, DoT and the telecom service providers have pulled up their socks and come up with an aggressive 10 day deadline for mobile phones that have fake IMEI numbers or are Chinese made with no IMEI numbers. It seems that this time DoT is sticking to its recently extended deadline of April 15th 2009. But its good to see the aggressiveness of government agencies in India to curb terrorism. Though the telecom service providers were lax in their attitude toward these kind of mobile phones, they are now actively pursuing their subscribers to part with such mobile handsets and save themselves from getting disconnected.
Check out this new phone from the land of "Mobile Clones", China. Ok, this is not a clone of any mobile phone but it looks more like a PSP Phone with a flip out gaming pads and the best part is that this phone can play NES (Nintendo Entertainment System) games and costs just 140$ thats so cheap man. How come these Chinese get all this ceap technology up and running. The phone model is Cool8800C and sports features that will drive you crazy, ok not crazy but yeah the features are pretty good. The phone has dual SIM card functionality, E-Book reader, Dual screen, NES Games compatibility, TV Receiver, MP3/MP4, card support goes upto 8GB...didnt I say you that when you compare the price with the features you will go Wow!! If you are planning to buy one to us within India then keep dreaming as the government is coming down pretty hard on such mobile phones.
If you like this phone then check out the Nokia 5800 look-alike D5800i WebXpress and Supermen Branded N66 Phone.
DoT (Department of Telecommunication) of India is now all set to tighten their hands around the neck of 25 million mobile phones in India that have fake or no IMEI number. The deadline of Jan 6 has now been extended to April 15. The previous deadline was ignored by the mobile service provider but now DoT has made it clear that, if any mobile service provider does not adhere to the new deadline, they would not be allowed take any new subscribers after the deadline. The recent terrorist attacks on India have seen massive changes in the country's security infrastructure and barring Chinese mobile phones with fake or no IMEI numbers is one of the measure that the government is taking. Such phones are one of the favorite gadgets of terrorists and anti-social elements and DoT has now pulled up its socks to fight against them along with other security forces. Loosing 25 million subscribers would certainly hit hard the mobile service providers but they also need to keep the country's security in mind.
[Via: PCWorld India]
Indian Telecom Ministry is now pretty sure that it wants to cut off almost 25 million mobile phones from the network they are operating on, as these phones do not have a IMEI number or they have fake IMEI numbers. DoT or the Department of Telecommunications had already said that, it was going to come down hard on Chinese made mobile phones and also bar calls on these mobile phones. Now the service providers have been asked to not process calls made from such phones with fake or with no IMEI number. Currently there are 315 million mobile phones in the Indian market and out of them, 25 million phones have fake IMEI number or no IMEI number. Chinese mobile phones have proliferated in the Indian market as they do not have a traceable IMEI number and they have most of the high-end functions with cheap price tag. These phones are preferred by common man as well as anti social elements. The recent terrorist attacks on India have given evidence that most of the terrorists used Chinese mobile phones to communicate with each other. The fresh-in-mind gruesome terrorist attack on Mumbai also witnessed the use of Chinese mobile phones. It seems that, Indian government does not want to leave any stone unturned in cracking the proliferation of terrorism as well as Chinese mobile phones in India.
