As per the reports from The Central Equipment Identity Register (CEIR), the request for blocking of 169667, 8315 and 11848 International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) have been received till 20.03.2022 from Delhi, Mumbai and Maharashtra licensed service areas (LSAs), respectively. The traceability data for 110239, 4586 and 8317 IMEIs have been made available to the police of Delhi, Mumbai and Maharashtra respectively to facilitate the recovery of handsets.
The IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity) is a unique number to identify GSM, WCDMA, and iDEN mobile phones, as well as some satellite phones. Mostly phone have one IMEI number, but in dual SIM phones are two. The IMEI is only used for identifying the device and has no permanent or semi-permanent relation to the subscriber. The number is used by the GSM network to identify valid devices and therefore can be used for stopping a stolen phone from accessing the network in that country.
CEIR project has been launched in Delhi, Mumbai and Maharashtra LSAs in a phased manner to facilitate blocking and tracing of lost and stolen mobile phones, as informed by the Minister of State for Communications, Devusinh Chauhan.
CEIR is a multi-stakeholder system where respective stakeholders including the Department of Telecommunications, Telecom Service Providers, Police, Mobile phone manufacturers and mobile phone subscribers have limited access as per their defined roles and responsibilities. Currently, this includes the information to the subscriber about the make & model corresponding to IMEI of his/her mobile handset, information to mobile phone manufacturers about the genuineness of IMEI during import of consignment of mobile phones etc.
