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Indian operators should start blocking several million mobile phones starting from today, December 1st, as part of the government decision to ban handsets without a valid IMEI. According to earlier estimates, there were as many as 25 million handsets being used without an IMEI number, though that number shrank as the deadline announced by the government approached.
While operators have been offering a reprogramming service to insert a valid IMEI into the handsets, it is thought that there are still millions of potentially illegal handsets in use.
Most affected are users with low-end handsets made by Chinese companies which wanted to save money by skipping the IMEI programming stage.
And in case you wonder what’s the idea behind the move, the Indian government quotes security reasons, as handsets without IMEI numbers are harder to track and could be used by terrorists…
[Via: CellularNews]
About The Author
Dusan Belic
Dusan has been using smartphones since their introduction and is now following the latest trends in the industry. The "convergence" is what he's most excited about, and writing about it is the next logical thing to do. He thinks that using a smartphone is what everyone who cares about their time should do. In addition to his interests in mobile phones, Dusan also loves to experiment with the latest web and mobile 2.0 services. The idea of accessing and managing your information from any device no matter where you are simply amazes him. Whether it's an online to-do list, note taking service or a video sharing social network, he's there to try it out. He admits though, he's still searching for the ultimate web-based organizational tool, which "sings" perfectly with the mobile PIM application. Dusan used to run SymbianWatch.com which later became part of IntoMobile. He lives in Serbia, South-East Europe, from where he edits the site on a daily basis.
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