New Delhi: People will be able to block and track their lost or stolen mobile phones across India with the rollout of a tracking system by the government this week, a senior government official said.
The Technology Development Body Center for the Department of Telematics (CDOT) is piloting the CEIR system in a few telecom circles, including Delhi, Maharashtra, Karnataka and the North East region, and the system is now ready for pan-India deployment. , a DoT official, who did not wish to be identified, told PTI.
“The CEIR system is scheduled for a pan-India launch on May 17,” the official said.
When contacted, Rajkumar Upadhyay, chief executive officer and chairman project board at CDOT, did not confirm the date, but confirmed that the technology is ready for pan-India deployment.
“The system is ready and will now be deployed across India in this quarter. It will enable people to block and track their lost mobile phones,” Upadhyay said. CDOT has been able to add facilities to check the use of cloned mobile phones on all telecommunication networks.
The government has made it mandatory to disclose IMEI – a 15-digit unique numerical identifier – before mobile devices are sold in India. Mobile networks will have access to a list of approved IMEI numbers to check the entry of any unauthorized mobile phones onto their networks.
Telecom operators and the CEIR system will have visibility into the IMEI number of the device and the mobile number associated with it, and the information is being used in some states to track your lost or stolen mobile through the CEIR.
“One of the common practices is that miscreants change the IMEI number of stolen mobile phones which prevents tracking and blocking of such handsets. This was a national security issue. Any cloned mobile phone on the CEIR network Will be able to block various databases,” Upadhyay said.
The basic objective of CEIR is to ease the reporting of stolen and lost mobiles and prevent the use of mobiles across the country. This will discourage theft of mobile phones, enable police to trace stolen and lost mobiles, enable detection of cloned or fake mobiles, prohibit the use of such cloned mobiles, besides making consumers aware of their Will protect interests. Information related to fake and cloned mobile phones.
Recently, the Karnataka Police recovered over 2,500 lost mobile phones using the CEIR system and handed them over to their owners. Apple already has a system to track lost mobile phones with the help of Apple ID, but the major issues have been around Android mobile phones.
With the implementation of the new system, using stolen mobile phones will become pointless.
“There is an in-built mechanism in the system which will also check smuggling of phones and also help the government in saving revenue loss,” Upadhyay said.