Track Your Stolen Phone Rolling Out IMEI Database

Indian Government is planning to roll out a Central Equipment Identity Register to counter mobile theft. The move has been taken by the Indian government to discourage the cases of mobile theft. Check out everything about the Central Equipment Identity Register (CEIR)

For those who don’t know, India is right now the second most populous market for smartphones in the world. You won’t believe, but India has right now 1.2 billion active connections. With such positive growth, India has already attracted major smartphone manufacturers to manufacture smartphones domestically.

With such great records, the cases of mobile theft are also on the rise. Loss of mobile phone, especially in the cases of mobile theft is not only an economic loss but its a loss of privacy as well. On India, phone theft is a common thing, and conmen know how to change the IMEI address of the stolen device.

For those who don’t know, the International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) number is a set of unique 15-digit number which is used to identify mobile phones. It was the IMEI number that differentiates one phone from another. Since the citizens of India deals with the problem of widespread mobile theft, Indian Government is now planning to roll out a Central Equipment Identity Register.

The Central Equipment Identity Register (CEIR) will consist of IMEI numbers of all smartphones that are operating within India. After the rollout of CEIR, the owner of stolen smartphones can raise a complaint at the Department of Telecom via the helpline number.

After receiving the complaint, the agency will then blacklist the IMEI number, which will make it impossible for the stolen smartphone to use the SIM card of any carrier. The move has been taken by the Indian government to discourage the cases of mobile theft. Apart from countering mobile theft, the move is also expected to bring a considerable fall in the number of IMEI cloning as well.

The Central Equipment Identity Register will sort IMEI numbers in three groups Whitelist, Blacklist, and Graylist. The whitelist will include all IMEI numbers that are operated legitly whereas the blacklist will consist of smartphones and tablets which are stolen or misplaced. The graylist will include smartphones which don’t comply with the standards but authorized to stay in use ‘under supervision’.

In case, if you don’t know, India is not the first country to maintain a database of IMEI numbers. Countries like Australia, Egypt, UK, Turkey, etc already have a central register of IMEI numbers to blacklist stolen devices. So, what do you think about this move? Share your opinion with us in the comment box below.