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Mobile Phones Minus IMEI To Go Offline Today
If you are one amongst the 25 million subscribers using an IMEI-less handset (Chinese or not), this might just be the last day you use your mobile phone as one. Chances are that your phone might just be relegated to an overpriced media player as it can be taken "offline" by your trusted mobile operator.
The reason is a directive from the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to disconnect all phones which do not have valid IMEIs from their networks. This move comes after a yearlong saga of many flip-flops and ideas some of which included things like "legalizing" an illegal handset by assigning it an IMEI number. However, after a year, nothing seems to have borne fruit and an exasperated DoT has come up with this directive.
What remains to be seen now is if the mobile companies really go ahead and "deliver" this time round. This is not the first time that such a directive has been issued by the DoT. Earlier this year, there was a huge outcry when a similar directive was issued. However, nothing much happened that time. Let us wait and watch if anything happens this time as well. Meanwhile, keep a tab on the network signal indicator on your Chinese phone!
If you are one amongst the 25 million subscribers using an IMEI-less handset (Chinese or not), this might just be the last day you use your mobile phone as one. Chances are that your phone might just be relegated to an overpriced media player as it can be taken "offline" by your trusted mobile operator.
The reason is a directive from the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to disconnect all phones which do not have valid IMEIs from their networks. This move comes after a yearlong saga of many flip-flops and ideas some of which included things like "legalizing" an illegal handset by assigning it an IMEI number. However, after a year, nothing seems to have borne fruit and an exasperated DoT has come up with this directive.
What remains to be seen now is if the mobile companies really go ahead and "deliver" this time round. This is not the first time that such a directive has been issued by the DoT. Earlier this year, there was a huge outcry when a similar directive was issued. However, nothing much happened that time. Let us wait and watch if anything happens this time as well. Meanwhile, keep a tab on the network signal indicator on your Chinese phone!