The country's telecom sector regulator Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has released a consultation paper relating to blocking of IMEI for lost or stolen mobile handsets. It has sought views from service providers and other stakeholders on ways to block lost or stolen mobile phones, to curtail the illegal handset market, discourage handset theft and protect consumer interest. IMEI is a unique serial number which identifies the handset. This number is stored in the equipment identity register (EIR) database of a service provider.
Currently, there is no method to block a mobile phone in case it is lost or stolen. Service providers can only block the SIM card, in case a lost or theft complaint is registered with them. The only other way is that the mobile phone owner has to write the unique identity number or the International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) number of the phone and in the eventuality of it getting lost or stolen can report it to the police for it to track the hand set.
In case of theft of a handset, the service provider can flag its IMEI number and can block the handset in its own network. There are no figures available for the lost or stolen mobile hand sets, but industry experts say the number is alarming. In 2004, Trai had made a similar attempt, which failed as a number of service providers did not have the capability to track mobile handsets.
The consultation papers has sought views on the cost and funding aspects of centralised EIR, the process that should be adopted for blocking the hand set and the unblocking procedure if a lost phone is found. If the EIRs of service providers are shared through a centralised database, the lost or stolen mobile can be prevented from use in all networks.
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