Govt to roll out lost smartphone blocking, tracking system across India

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Image: Getty

With the launch of a monitoring system by the government this week, individuals will be able to ban and trace their stolen or lost mobile phones across India, according to a senior government official.

The CEIR system's pilot has been managed by technology development organisation Centre for Department of Telematics (CDoT) in a few telecom circles, including Delhi, Maharashtra, Karnataka, and the North East region.

According to a DoT official who did not want to be named, the system is now prepared for pan-India deployment.
"CEIR system is scheduled for pan-India launch on May 17," the official stated.

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Rajkumar Upadhyay, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the CDoT Project Board, acknowledged that the technology is prepared for deployment throughout all of India but did not provide a specific timeframe.

"The system is prepared, and this quarter it will be installed throughout India. People will be able to disable and locate their stolen smartphones thanks to this," according to Upadhyay.

CDoT has been able to add features to check the use of cloned mobile phones across all telecom networks.

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Prior to a mobile device's sale in India, the government has made it essential to provide the IMEI, a 15-digit unique numeric identity. The list of allowed IMEI numbers will be available to the mobile networks, allowing them to verify for the presence of any unlicensed mobile devices on their network.

The IMEI number of the device and the mobile number associated with it will be visible to telecom carriers and the CEIR system, and the data is utilised in some states to trace your lost or stolen mobiles using CEIR.

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One of the typical methods used by criminals to circumvent monitoring and banning of stolen mobile devices is to modify the IMEI number. With the use of numerous databases, the CEIR would be able to prohibit any cloned mobile devices on the network, Upadhyay added.

The main goals of CEIR are to make it easier to report lost and stolen mobile devices and to restrict their use nationwide. This will prevent mobile phone theft, make it possible for the police to track down stolen and lost devices, enable the detection of cloned or counterfeit devices, restrict the use of such cloned devices, and protect consumer interests by informing them about fake and cloned mobile phone information.