The government has asked mobile operators to comply with national security norms by not carrying calls from handsets embedded with fake International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) numbers by November 30.
As cases of handsets embedded with false and no IMEI number pile up, a worried Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has asked all mobile operators, in a directive, to reject calls coming from handsets with IMEI numbers not on the database of the Global Systems for Mobile Communications Association.
The GSM Association maintains a worldwide database of genuine IMEI numbers. This is activated and updated every 15 days in the Equipment Identity Register of mobile operators’ networks.
A DoT official said the onus was entirely on the operators to stop such calls from handsets without IMEI or fake IMEI numbers. For, he said, subscribers might not be aware that they are using handsets without authentic IMEI or fake numbers.
DoT has asked the industry to submit their compliance report by December 15.
Earlier, the government had set June 30, 2009, as the deadline for the industry to comply with its security directives regarding use of mobile handsets.