Indian authorities on Tuesday blocked 25 million Chinese-made mobile phones that lack an identification number needed to trace calls after a government crackdown on the handsets, officials said.
Officials at the telecom ministry said they had banned services to low-end Chinese phones without a 15-digit International Mobile Equipment Identification (IMEI) number.
The IMEI number helps identify all calls received and made on a phone and provides information on the manufacturer and the type of handset. Most phones automatically register their IMEI with service providers when they are first activated.
"All mobile service providers have been instructed to block services to 25 million cell phones on the security grounds," an official at the telecom ministry who asked not to be named told AFP.
"Phones without the IMEI numbers are untraceable and pose a security threat," he said, adding customers owning such devices were given a two-week deadline to switch to a valid handset.
Alternatively, they can manually register their phone with their service provider and buy an IMEI for 199 rupees (four dollars).
The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) said they were adhering to the telecom ministry order and providers were blocking services to the invalid phones.
"We had sought an extension of the deadline and since that has not been done, we have adhered to the given deadline," T. Dua, director general of COAI said.
India is the world's second-biggest cellular market with more than 500 million users, lagging only China, which has over 600 million users.
In October, the India imposed a ban on pre-paid connections in insurgency-hit Kashmir, citing concerns that militants were using them to trigger bombs in the region.
The ban affected 3.8 million users in Kashmir.
Source - AFP
