Hyderabad: The Indian Cellular Association (ICA) on Thursday asked the government to ban cell phones with cloned International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) number -- a 15 digit code that identifies a mobile phone.
Cloning became rampant and the government should consider banning services to those sets, ICA President Pankaj Mohindroo told reporters.
"These sets may pose potential threat to the national security. We find many cell phones with cloned number in the grey market, which mostly sell cheap imported ones," Mohindroo said.
It also requested the government to strictly implement the November 30 deadline for cellular service providers to ban services to cell phones without or fake IMEA number. The service will also be disconnected if the IMEA number shows zeroes.
On September 3, the Department of Telecom (DoT) directed that all handsets without IMEI numbers be banned after November 30. All the cellular service providers were intimated to take necessary modifications in the system.
According to apex body of the mobile industry, the DoT directive to ban all handsets without legitimate IMEA number will result in disconnection of up to 25 million sets.
Earlier, the DoT set June 30, 2009, as the deadline for the industry to comply with its security directives to stop services to mobile handsets without or fake IMEI number.
However, it was postponed to November 30.
The Global Systems for Mobile Communications Association is the only body which allots the IMEI numbers to the mobile phone manufacturers worldwide.
Bureau Report